The hills are alive with the sound of music . . . Salzburg!

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(December 7th) Salzburg was by far our briefest stay. We attempted to come in a day earlier to get our normal two-day fill, but alas Saturday was all booked up. So here we are coming in on a Sunday night expecting to enter into a nice, quiet, peaceful little mountainside town. Getting into the taxi, we couldn’t even drive down the street. People were everywhere! Apparently Salzburg is full of tourist all year except for the month of October. Whether people flock in for the quaint Austrian town’s atmosphere, or perhaps for one of the greatest skiing locations, or possibly to relived Maria’s adventure from “The Sound of Music,” Salzburg is packed year round. Just walking to scavenge for food we were bumped more times than the attempted pickpocketings in Barcelona. Plus I had no idea how to say “Excuse me” in Austrian, so sneaking between walls of people who have stopped to gawk at the Christmas lights was harder than you can imagine.
But we did eventually make it to Café Mozart where I was able to try homemade beef stroganoff. And now, without hesitation, I can say . . . Dad, your stroganoff is truly the best in the world. When I get home I’ll make you a plaque to hang outside the front door. When Brian and I move out of the cottage you can lead with that in your advertising! Anyhoo the entire town is dedicated to Mozart. His birthplace and his family’s home are both in Salzburg so everywhere you look there are t-shirts, postcards, chocolates, and liquor bottles bearing Mozart’s image. The cool thing about Salzburg is that there are hundreds of music shops everywhere. Many of them dedicated to world music so there are some pretty interesting looking instruments that I’m not really sure what kind of sounds would come out of.

The other huge claim to fame for Salzburg is that it is where much of “The Sound of Music” was filmed. Now, I’ve watched the movie a dozen times or so. I used to love musicals growing up (although “Oklahoma” tanked miserably in our household), so we used to watch it over and over again singing all of the songs. Plus, my mom went to school with one of the Bon Trapp kids, which always made watching it extra special. There are tours you can take throughout Salzburg to relive the film, Brian and I opted to walk around on our own, singing through the streets, and creating our own tour. When you can’t understand what people are saying about you as they stare, it’s a lot easier to sing even louder. The funniest part for me was the hats. The stereotypical Bon Trapp family getaway hats with the little feathers in the sides were everywhere! And everyone was wearing them! I figured it might be just as easy to wear a big sign that says, “Hello, I’m a tourist!” If you’re going to go for it, you might as well get the pants and suspenders too with matching cloak and really go for it. Ironically it was the same thing in Prague but with the Russian hats. You can tell the tourists who’ve been to the states because they all have New York Yankees hats. Every single one of them! When I go home I’m investing in a “Around the World Hat Store.” Jen I know you want in!

All in all it was an extremely brief stay in Salzburg with one the most pleasant nights of sleep in our gigantic canopy bed at the Hotel Amadeus, and one of the best train rides ever through the Alps on our way to Munich!

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