Last month we took a trip to Salzburg, Austria. It was a
chilly trip, our sightseeing was interrupted by a large demonstration, but
overall we had a pleasant time. The first thing we saw when we got to Salzburg was
mountains in the background every direction that we looked as well as the large
fortress.
We spent the morning and a small part of the afternoon on a
hop on hop off bus tour. We discovered in recent trips that hop on hop off
buses are pretty fun to do because they stop at all the major attractions in
the city and most buses hand out maps as well as headphones that you can plug
in on the bus and listen to information about the city. This bus had two
channels available to us in English. The first channel had the basic information
about the city and the second channel gave information about the many locations
that The Sound of Music was filmed in throughout the city as well as sounds
from the movie.
There were so many highlights of this trip for us. I’m a
huge Sound of Music fan so I enjoyed seeing where certain parts were filmed. We
got to see the back of the Von Trapp house and the front of the Von Trapp house
(3 different houses were used in the movie), the outside of the abbey, and the
place where Maria and the children first sang Do, re, me. We also got a small
glimpse of the famous gazebo (but it was closed to the public and we went by
too fast to get a picture).
Oh! I almost forgot. We also got to see Mozart’s birthplace.
If you ever go to Salzburg you’ll notice that they are very proud of Mozart.
You will see a lot of tourist items, chocolates, and other things that have
Mozart’s name or picture all over them. He is everywhere.
After we finished our hop on hop off tour we stopped at a
bakery. We both got a very yummy pastry. When we took a bite we discovered that
there was a solid piece of chocolate in the middle.
Our favorite place that we went to in Salzburg was hands
down the Mirabell Gardens. There were beautiful flowers everywhere, statues,
and a fountain in the middle with ducks swimming. We spent a couple hours there
enjoying the area (there was even a small wedding going on). Standing on the
steps to the entrance of the gardens was a man who was painted silver like a
statue (we’ve actually seen these people all over Europe). However, this guy
was particularly interesting because every so often he would reach out and
lightly touch people on the shoulder. We got a kick out of watching those
people jump, scream, and a couple even took off running.
After we left the Gardens it was time to get on the bus and
head back home. As hectic as it was I’m so glad we went to Salzburg, Austria.
It’s a beautiful city with history around every corner.
