The Hills are Alive in Salzburg!

One of the most amazing trips I've taken this semester so far has been to Salzburg, Austria with my friend, Steph. I think it might have been because it was just a day trip to a small town and not a city, and it was more nature-focused than touring other places (we were literally in the valleys between the alps!), and Steph and I did no planning whatsoever because I was busy hanging out with Dad the few days before. However, we planned that I would sleepover at Steph's apartment on Saturday night and then take the early morning train to Salzburg, which was just three hours away or so.

When I got to Steph's apartment at 11pm on Saturday night, she was in the midst of buying our tickets for the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg. The movie was filmed there and that made it a huge draw for people to visit the small town of Salzburg. As she completed the transaction, I quickly looked up clips of the movie on YouTube. Despite being a musical theater person for the better part of five years, I've never seen "The Sound of Music." However, I wasn't about to deprive Steph of going on the famous tour, and I'd definitely seen enough pieces of the movie and knew a bunch of the music, though it's definitely not my favorite. Once she had bought the tickets, we received the notification: THESE TICKETS MUST BE PRINTED AND PRESENTED TO THE TOUR GUIDE. Good thing the IES apartments had no printers. After calmly freaking out for two seconds, Steph and I came up with various ways to print the tickets at 11:45pm at night on a Saturday. Our best bet was my suggestion of heading to Hotel Astoria, where I'd been staying with Dad, and use the computer and printer in the lobby without arousing suspicion. We set off on our mission at ten to midnight, laughing about how insane the idea was.

Twenty minutes later, we were sprinting away from the hotel with our printed tickets! I couldn't believe we did it, and weren't questioned at all! It was a hilarious and great start to our trip together. We woke up at 6am the next morning and made our way to the train station to catch the 7:30am train to Salzburg. It was an uneventful ride, with me sleeping most of the way. I'm sad I missed seeing Steph pour hot coffee all down her pants because the way she described it to me afterwards had me in tears of laughter. She's probably one of the best travel buddies ever.

As we got closer to Salzburg, the scenery became more beautiful. Mountains were starting to pop up on the horizon and the fields turned into valleys. The day was crystal clear and sunny. I couldn't be happier. When we disembarked, it was just past 10:30am and we walked to the Salzburg Old Town Downtown according to the tourist map we had picked up. On the way, Steph and I came across Mirabell Gardens. Steph told me that in "The Sound of Music," the hundreds of kids in that family ran around the fountain in the garden singing some song. So there were lots of tourists running around the fountain taking pictures. And these tourists weren't our age. We were by far the youngest people there! That was quite entertaining. But the gardens were stunning, with colorful flowers, trimmed hedges, stone statues, and a circular fountain in the middle.

Mirabell Gardens looking towards the town of Salzburg

Steph at the central fountain

Mirabell Gardens were beautiful

After walking through, we came across Mozart's birthplace. We didn't go inside the small museum, but visited a pretty church across the street. Apparently, Salzburg has 46 churches! It's incredible that such a small town needs 46 different churches! Steph and I didn't make it into all 46, but we did visit quite a few. 

One quite lovely and empty church we stumbled upon

We crossed over a river to get to the Old Town. It was absolutely stunning. It was such a warm day and so sunny that the river just sparkled in between the mountains and underneath. I can't really describe how beautiful it was, so here are some photos of the Old Town and things we did before our Sound of Music tour!

Central town square

Cafe Thomaselli, the oldest kaffeehaus in Salzburg, where Steph and I ate breakfast like civilized adults and people watched

Steph!

Most probably the most delicious mid-morning snack: dark chocolate and hazelnut covered gigantic soft Bretzel; an Austrian specialty. I'd go back to Salzburg just to eat another one from this awesome stand selling different sweet to savory flavors!

We stumbled across a Bio-Fest food festival!

We also had a fun photoshoot in the fall leaves!

Steph and her friend Mozart

Getriedegasse, Salzburg's most famous shopping street!

Overlooking Salzburg's Old Town

Our tour began at 2pm and we hopped onto the bus after a quick caffeine fix for Steph. We were off with 30 other people we'd never met before to see all the "Sound of Music" sites! We started with Leopoldskron Palace, which was the back of the von Trapp house. It was situated on a lake looking out towards the mountains and was so serene and beautiful. Then Steph saw the swans and fell in love. I had to talk her out of petting them, just in case they gouged her eye out or something equally horrible.

Steph and her swans

Back of the Sound of Music house

When I persuaded Steph not to pet them...

We went to Hellbrunn Palace Gazebo where that "16 Going on 17" song was sung. Everyone stopped for a bathroom break, but Steph and I ran around the gardens and made it to the Palace at the other end. No one else got to see it but we did (and we felt superior and accomplished, despite having to sprint to get back onto the bus in time).

The Gazebo (and our tour guide in her dirndl)

Folk Museum atop a hill overlooking the palace gardens...it reminded me a bit of Kensington Gardens in London!

Hellbrunn Palace

We saw everything famous and worth seeing from the movie, and everything was gorgeous. My favorite was when we left Salzburg and got to the little towns on the lakes, like the lake where Mozart's mom lived. Mondsee, another little town, was also gorgeous and after Steph and I visited the Wedding Church of Maria and her husband (having never seen the movie, I'm not sure who she is or who she marries...sorry) and got some "Holy Water" in a little alcoholic-looking-beverage-bottle, we enjoyed an apple strudel at the cafe where the children in the movie would sometimes eat and then ran down to the waterfront to take pictures of the mountains and lake (and us, of course!). Either being in nature or being with Steph made me feel like a little kid again and we had the absolute best time being weird and crazy and running around like kids. Maybe it was the mountain air!

Mozart's mother's lake...The most stunning view of the day 

Inside "Wedding church"

The town of Mondsee

As the bus tour ended and our dirndl-wearing guide waved us off the bus (I was happy to go because on the way back from Mondsee, she turned on all the "Sound of Music" songs to get everyone to sing along and everyone did, except those who didn't know the words. So basically me and one husband who had obviously been dragged here) and Steph and I made our way back to the train station. It had been a long day and the three hour train ride back wasn't super appealing. By the time I made it home to The Villa, it was past 11pm and I was completely exhausted. However, Salzburg was such a fantastic trip! It's probably one of the best and easiest day trips to do from Vienna, and I'd highly recommend going to Salzburg over Bratislava (obviously) or even Prague or something if you just have one day. Getting away from the city and relaxing in such a calm, country town with lots of history and culture was a perfect way to spend a warm, sunny Sunday in autumn.