If the title didn't give it away - we took a day trip to Salzburg Austria - the inspiration for The Sound of Music. A great movie - definitely a classic - and it happens to be one of Craig's favorites. It was a fun day.
We started with some excitement - again tied to the train station. Our train was departing for Salzburg at 9:11am from the Munich Central Station. The Station is ~1 mile from our hotel - an easy walk. However we have learned GPS navigation on the phone can sometimes be a little tricky - and especially when you don't understand the street names it can be a little confusing. That said, we made our way to an entry to the train station - however, it wasn't 'the' entry. They also have a subway system. We passed multiple entries for subway only - but when we saw one that was close to the end point that was subway + trains we entered. We were still on track but it added to the confusion. We finally navigated through the tunnels and emerged at the Munich Central Station. We then looked at the departure displays and found the 9:11am train to Salzburg - platform 10. It was a little odd because it also referenced an earlier time - but we confidently made our way to platform 10. Unfortunately platforms 5 - 10 were not in the main area - and they had construction - so you weaved through a bunch of areas until you arrived outside at a place that was seriously under construction. It was just after 9:00am - no train on platform 10. We asked a couple of people - one passenger who was also confused and said the construction wasn't there yesterday. One worker who said "no train on 10" and directed as to the Info Center. Sigh. We figured we had somehow missed it. We walked back to the main area to try to locate the Info Center and see our options. As we were walking back (ok, I was a bit in a huff and probably going faster than needed :)), I happened to notice a train on a nearby platform that was the type of train we were taking. When we looked at the platform sign - it was leaving at 9:11am to Budapest (through Salzburg). We then had to run to make it to the train - just got on and were walking through cars to find ours as the train pulled away. We now realize how important it is to look for the train # - not just the city and time - and I need to keep reminding myself to "walk slowly" sometimes as our friend from Tokyo pointed out :). But, all's well that ends well and we got another story. Here's a few pictures of the scenery from the train including some views of the edge of the Alps.
Salzburg is known for four things : (1) Sound of Music; (2) Mozart; (3) Lots of History; (4) Chocolate - specifically the Mozart Special. We were able to enjoy all four during our visit.
First we had lunch at the Cafe Mozart. It is located in a historic shopping center - cool little area of old town.
We then followed a self guided walking tour to visit locations from the Sound of Music. It was sometimes challenging with the aforementioned GPS navigation - but we made it work :). First stop was at the Residenzplatz Square and Fountain. The 45 foot tall horse fountain was completed in 1661 and is the largest baroque fountain located outside of Italy. During the Sound of Music, Maria splashes in the fountain while signing "I Have Confidence in Me".
The next stop was at Saint Peter's Cemetery. In the movie, the Von Trapps hide behind tombs in the cemetery as the Nazis are searching for them with flashlights. This cemetery was used instead of the cemetery at the Abbey because they needed a larger cemetery. The cemetery goes back to prior to 700 AD and their are tombs on the cliffside that go back even more - all the way to 215 AD. Really hard to get your head around the history.
One odd thing we learned here and in Poland - is that you don't buy the plot of land for burial in their cemeteries - you rent it. Your family must pay the rent every 10 years - and keep up the plot - otherwise they will (literally) remove the body to make room for someone that pays.
We then stopped by the spot where the near finale was filmed including the song "Edelweiss". Timing didn't work for an inside tour - but we saw the outside. One cool thing is you can see the Abbey up on the hilltop. This is where Maria spent time with the nuns - and where the family escaped in the movie.
Next up was the Horse Bath. The description of this is "basically a car wash for horses in the Middle Ages" :). During the movie, this is where Maria and the kids splashed around while singing "My Favorite Things".
Our last stop on the Sound of Music tour was at Mirabell Palace. The entire end of the song "Do Re Mi" from the movie was filmed in the gardens at the Palace. The Palace was constructed in 1606 - it's funny how that used to sound so very old and now seems old but not very old :). The Pegasus Statue Fountain and "musical steps" featured in the movie are also located here. The kids skip around the fountain in the movie while singing, and the stairs are used as a hopping musical scale for "Do Re Mi".
One rather odd feature at the Palace is the Dwarf Gnome Park. The story goes that originally there were 28 statues from 1715 intended to be caricatures of Salzburg's common people who weren't even allowed into the park - nice, right?! In 1815, the crown prince who was superstitious had them removed when his wife was pregnant as he thought it would bring bad luck to his child. They were auctioned off to a variety of buyers. In the early 1900's the city tried to begin recovering them - and has been able to locate a number of them although there are still some missing. All of the statues are interesting - but (and we didn't realize this when we were in the park) the one with the glasses is the one all of the Von Trapp kids patted on the head during singing "Do Re Mi".
After the tour we sampled their famous Salzburger Mozartkugel first created in 1890 - chocolate with marzipan, pistachios and general yumminess. We just happened to go into the original shop. We went in and did not know what to buy. It was very cute - a mom and her two sons came in as we were considering options. They bought this candy - and she then went on to tell us that this was "the" candy to get - they were from Salzburg and that's what they were buying. Really yummy.
Here's a few more pictures we took while walking around Salzburg - it was really a pretty town.
Until tomorrow - Edelweiss :) and Enjoy the Ride.
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