Salzburg- surrounded by music and beautiful scenery

Mozart's Birthplace

On October 15th I flew to Vienna from Istanbul.  I have some friends living there - Laurie and Hannes and their daughter Olivia.  Laurie and Olivia met me at the airport and off we went to their cute house on the edge of the city.  It was great to see some familiar faces.

Leopoldskron Palace - the back of the house from the movie

The Gazebo from the Movie

The next morning (Oct. 16), I was off to Salzburg on the train - about 2 1/2 hours away.  The scenery in Austria is amazing - mountains and valleys and picturesque little villages - with chalets.  The hostel where I stayed in Salzburg was called the YOHO Salzburg International Youth Hostel - centrally located near the train station and lots of the attractions.  I got checked in and began to walk about the city by 3pm that afternoon.  I had got a great deal from the train ticket office that saved me 30 euros with a return ticket and the entrance costs to Mozarts Birthplace and Mozarts house - thanks to Laurie.  I was able to see both homes where Mozart had lived that same day - the house where he lived had been destroyed quite a bit during the second world war - but it had been restored in the same location.  They had a large picture/art display of Mozart in the house - from when he was a child until adulthood.  I enjoyed the Birthplace even more - because it hadn't been changed or damaged over time.  They chronicled the family history (including the family tree - which I always enjoy), told Mozarts' story, as well as the story of his parents, sister, wife and children in great detail.  Very enjoyable.  Where he was born was on the third floor of an old building - which had about 6 rooms total - which is now on the main shopping street pedestrian street in Salzburg. They had the original Piano Forte in the apt as well.  Both houses are within walking distance of each other in the center of Salzburg.  It had been raining all day and so after getting back to the hostel decided to order food from the restaurant there.  They play the "Sound of Music" movie nightly at the hostel - so I enjoyed my cheese sausage, hashbrowns and salad while watching the movie that evening.  Met a girl from Toronto named Marietta as well and guy named Stu from Georgia U.S.A.
















 October 17th - I had my Sound of Music Tour from 0930-1330.  For those of you that don't know - The Sound of Music is based on a true story - they did change a few things for the movie, but the basic storyline is true for Maria Von Trapp's life.  There were several areas used in the movie that are not open to the public - but we did drive by them along the way.  These included:
- Nonnberg Abbey - still in use today as an abbey - this was the actual abbey where Maria was a postulant

Scenic Lookout on Sound of Music tour

- The front of the Von Trapp House used in the movie - it is on a private road and is used as a school of music today

Church in Mondsee

Village of Mondsee

  We made several stops on the tour.  For the movie - the back of the house by the lake was actually a different location than the front of the house - the site is called Leopoldskron Palace.  The lake was gorgeous - surrounded by mountains - even saw some swans that morning.  The Palace is closed to the public but we did stand further along the lakeshore.  The Gazebo used in the movie is still there - but ha been moved to Hellbrunn Palace a few minutes away.  We got to stop there as well.  Then the tour took us into the countryside - where we saw some beautiful lakes and mountains on our way to the little village of Mondsee.  In Mondsee was the church where they filmed the wedding of Maria and Captain Von Trapp.  It was a beautiful little spot - I enjoyed some apple strudel and vanilla sauce and  a cappucino.  Very quaint little town.  We passed St.Gilgen on the way - where Mozart's mother was from.  During the time on the tour bus, we got to listen to the soundtrack and sing along whenever we felt like it.  I also found out that the Von Trapp family did escape in 1938 and ended up in New England in the U.S.  The family runs a Lodge there - near Stowe,Vermont - maybe someday I will check that out.    Its called the Trapp Family Lodge - here is the link if you want to check it out:

http://www.trappfamily.com

Mirabell Gardens

I quite enjoyed the tour.  After arriving back in Salzburg, I headed thru the center of town and up the hill to HonenSalzburg Fortress.  It is a large Fortress built on a hill overlooking Salzburg, which served as a great lookout for the city.  I ran into Stu, writing some postcards on the way there, and met Marietta after being inside the Fortress for about 2 min.  Stu had decided to hike around the next hill - Monch - and so Marietta and I spent the afternoon exploring the fortress.  They had audio tours in English - which took us through some of the different rooms and up to the top of the tower.  Initially Salzburg was not part of Austria - they were a city under the Holy Roman Empire - and were ruled by Archbishops over many centuries.  The

Salzburg

Archbishops built the Fortress - and so they had pictures of the different Archbishops - what years they ruled and the additions they made to the fortress over time.   The view from the top of the tower was great - you could see all of Salzburg and the surrounding area.  We also toured the museum - it had a lot of different interesting pieces of history from the area.  The museum included coins dating back to the year 80 A.D., suits of armor, old swords (really neat), a large cannon, the royal suites, bedrooms, theatre and many other things.  We took a different route back to the hostel , making our way through the Mirabell Gardens.  These are beautiful gardens (where a few scenes from the Sound of Music were also filmed) next to the government offices that are located in Mirabell Palace. 

View of the Fortress from the Tower

  That night Marietta, Stu and I went for some great burgers at a place called Bio Burger - I had the Avocado Burger - which in my mind are comparable to the Dairy Whip Burgers in Winnipeg - for those of you that have tried a good one.  We also went to the rooftop terrace lounge of the Hotel Stein - which gave us great night views of the city.

Hiking up to Eisriesenwelt

Looking out the entrance to the Ice Cave

Beautiful Rainbow on our way down

on the hike down from the Ice Cave

October 18th - was an amazing day.  Started the day off early by heading out with Marietta at 06:45 am to the train station to catch the 07:10 train to Werfen - we were on our way to see the largest Ice Caves in Europe - "Eisriesenwelt" - which translates to World of the Ice Giants.  After the train, we took a bus up the mountain, got our tickets for the Cave and Cable car and continued our on our way with a hike up 15 min. to where the cable car was.  By this time the snow had started to appear around us on the mountain and we had beautiful views of the valley below filled in patches with fog.  The cable car took 3 min (which saved us 90 min of hiking - which you can do if you have the time).  Then another 15 min. hike we made it to the Cave entrance.  We got the first bus running that morning, the first cable car at 0900, and the first tour of the day at 0930.  It turned out no one else was there yet, and so it was just Marietta, myself and our tour guide Michael.  Really great.  Normally they can have up to 40 people per group - so what a pleasure to see it to ourselves.  Definitely worth getting up early for.  There was no photography allowed in the caves - but they do have a facebook group with great photos.  We walked about 1km in total through the caves, with 700 steps going up and 700 down in just under an hour.  Again, totally worth it.  The ice formations were beautiful - we had small lamps with us through the dark caves.  We saw one that looked like a profile of a face, and one like a woolly mammoth.  It is a very large limestone cave - 42 km in length - just a km that has the walkways built for visitors though.  The caves were discovered in 1879.  The cable car wasn't built until 1955.  The ice is still forming over time - they are created by moisture/water coming into the caves from other openings in the mountain and then the cold winds moving through the caves from 2 different openings.  Pretty amazing.  On our way back down - we saw an amazing rainbow over the valley.  By the time we got back to Salzburg it was 12:45 and I caught the 1pm train back to Vienna.  Marietta and I parted ways at the train station - she was headed to Fussen, Germany to see some castles - including one I would like to see - Neuschwanstein.