Singing in Salzburg

What a day for crossing things off my bucket list. Vanessa and I took the train to Salzburg, Austria from Munich. It was about a two hour ride and the train was packed with tourists.

Our Train

 On the train there V and I had to sit on the stairs in the hallway because there were no seats. Everyone was going camping or to the lake because today was the first day of vacation from school for all the kids in the Munich area.

Shopping Area in Salzberg

The loose plan for today was to arrive in Salzburg around 11 and walk around the city before we got on the Sound of Music bus tour. Salzburg is a pretty small city by comparison to Munich or LA. It was built in the 1600s with money from the salt trade, so in essence the city's name means salt city. I think I heard very little German in the streets. All the tourists spoke English.

V and I with the Fountain

Both Vanessa and I are huge Sound of Music fans. I think V is one of the only Germans who has seen the movie and knows the songs. I have always wanted to see the sights from the movie so, yay, we did it!

The first sight we saw was the garden where Maria and the kids sang Do-Re-Mi. Above we are in front of the fountain where they skip, sing and dance. It was just as pretty in person as it is in the movie. 

 These two statues are at the entrance to the garden. Maria and the kids emulated the poses during the song. The picture would have been better if they didn't set up the tourist trap in front!

Our Sweet Bus

Vanessa scheduled the bus tour for us way in advance. I am so glad we took the bus because all the cool sights are really spread out and we wouldn't have been able to see all the castles that were used in the movie. If you are a die hard fan it is totally worth doing, but other people might think it is lame.

 This was our guide Antonio. He was from Spain and lead the all English tour full of Americans. He was highly entertaining and sang all the songs. The sound track to the movie played the whole time on the bus and it was seriously awesome when everyone was belting out the words to the most popular songs. Of course, I sang along to all of them with the two gay American guys who were sitting behind us.

On the Bus

 Vanessa and I stoked for the four hour bus ride.

 The first stop on the bus ride was the 16 going on 17 gazebo. It has been moved from its original location and now it is on the grounds of a museum. The gazebo was much smaller that I expected. They made it look huge when Liesel was jumping from bench to bench in the movie. I wanted to do it too, but it was locked!

"I have confidence in Sunshine!"

 This is the street where Maria sang I Have Confidence. My dream was to skip down it while singing and I got to do that.

 Vanessa skipping with confidence.

We learned on the tour that the Von Trapp house in the movie was actually two houses. The back of this castle next to the lake was used for the scenes where they are in the backyard and also where the kids fall out of the boat (and Gretel almost drowned).

 So cool! Seeing this castle was like Wow, they really did film the movie here.

 This is the church that was used as the abby. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Maria is getting married and the nuns lock the abby gates behind her. I was disappointed that the church didn't actually have the gates. Hollywood fooled me!

Inside the church where Maria and the Captain got married.

After seeing the church, Vanessa and I had a little bit of extra time before having to get back on the bus. We went to a little cafe in the small town and I ordered warm apple strudel with ice cream because it is a "favorite thing."

The tour was great, I am really happy we decided to take the bus. It lasted 4 hours, but it was timed just perfectly and we never would have gotten the full experience and learned the history without the guide. 

After the tour we took the train home to Munich. The door in our car had a serious rattling problem and it was ridiculously loud. I couldn't hear myself think so I tried to devise a contraption to keep the car door open to prevent the rattling. I used two plastic bags tied together and a hair tie. Unfortunately it only worked for about 10 minutes before the plastic bag ripped. Oops. Honest attempt.

 And you'll never guess who was waiting at the train station in Munich to hang out with Vanessa and I. Kookie!!!!! It is so great to see her. She is currently teaching English in China and is home in Germany for a few weeks. I can't believe we are actually in the same country and the same city at the same time. Kookie is staying with us for two days before we go to Switzerland on Friday. So great to catch up with her!

Kookie and I

An awesome day Salzburg and it is so nice to have all my favorite Germans in one place for the next few days. Nothing better than being in Europe with my friends.