Mozart.. Sound of Music... Fun Time in Salzburg

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Ah… Salzburg. The birthplace of Mozart and the setting of the wonderful musical “The Sound of Music.” That’s mainly what this town is known for, but it is beautiful nonetheless. Not even the dismal weather could detract from that fact. We arrive at around 11 and immediately head to the salt mines. This was so cool. We got to slide down these big slides and see how the salt is made and distributed. Several big rock like structures are illuminated showing the translucense of the salt rocks. We even got to see a trippy light show and ride a boat on an underground lagoon. It was a pretty cool experience. Afterwards, we check into our hotel which is much nicer than the one in Munich. We get to walk around town for a bit and find a quick bite to eat then meet Martin to discuss plans for the evening and next day. We are all pretty exhausted from Munich and the weather isn’t very inviting so the best option for the night by far is to watch the Sound of Music in our room. The hotel has this option where if you ask, they will play it for 24 hours straight. Martin takes us on a two hour walking tour and we see some of the major sights of the city, some cathedrals, and even the two homes Mozart lived in as a kid. We plan on doing the tour inside one of the homes at some point in the two days we have here. Watching the Sound of Music that night was excellent, we all needed the rest and the movie was even better than I remembered. Most memorable moment of the night was the very beginning, when the nuns are congregating and talking about Maria and whether she deserves to be in the Abbey, Sammy said it reminded him of Star Wars and did this great Emperor Palpatine impression.. “Lord Vader…” Unbeknownst to everyone in the room, I laughed uncontrollably, but quietly (I didn’t want to ruin the movie for everyone else) for about two minutes. I don’t know, something about comparing a nun to Darth Vader and the Emperor was so random but so spot on. I had a run in with a group of Italian teenagers staying in the hotel when I went to go grab a Coke during the movie. While I was ordering one I saw them congregating and I heard the word “Americana.” I think they may have been guessing where I was from or something. One of them snapped a picture of me which was kind of weird. I tried talking with them and telling them I was living in Verona and studying with some other students from America. When I said Verona they were all like “AAAHH Vey-Rone-Ahhh!!!” I told them “ciao piacere” (bye, pleasure ) then went to finish the movie. The next day, we all met in the breakfast room which happened to also be a great breakfast: scrambled Eggs, ham, cereal, tea, coffee, rolls… so good! Our plans for today were to see Mozart’s home, head to the big Fort up on the hill, then finish the day with the Sound of Music tour. The language barrier is a little tougher in Salzburg than Germany but still not nearly as intense as Italy’s. Little things that I have noticed are different are that the cars actually yield to the pedestrians, whereas in Italy they expect you to fend for yourself. When we get to Mozart’s house we wait below and all get a cup of hot chocolate. It was absolutely delicious. I don’t know how the lady kept track of all our orders. It wasn’t your normal order at the counter and get it right then. It was like a combo of Starbucks and a sit down restaurant. We would order at the front and then the lady would serve us. We all agreed that they weren’t the most pleasant people that worked in that restaurant. It seems to be a common denominator in Germany and Austria. Whereas in the states if you work at a restaurant you are expected to represent the company well, here its like there are no expectations for these people. If you come to a restaurant, then well, great, you get what you get in terms of service. I guess its just different over here. Us American’s, we expect to get served and treated politely… I guess we are spoiled (of course we are!). The Mozart house was very crowded (a big group of loud Italian teenagers). My main takeaways from the house was that it was really warm, that Mozart and his sister had a pretty intense childhood traveling all over Europe playing for these royal families… they even went to China at one point! They were like the Classical music version of the Jackson Five. Also, I felt kind of bad for Mozart’s sister. She was freaking brilliant too, about 8 years older than Mozart, but he was more brilliant, and younger. Those kids had an interesting life, no doubt there. We all left the house not super stoked and kind of bugged with the Italian kids who were extremely loud, not to be a Debbie Downer (wam wuuuummm…!). After Mozart, we headed to the fort up on the hill. We got a great view of the city from up there, the pictures can attest to that. No doubt, Salzburg was well protected with this Fort overlooking it. We had a couple hours to kill before the Sound of Music tour. We didn’t really know what to expect about this tour. I had heard some people tell me it was kind of lame, but how can I go to Salzburg and not see the sights from the sound of music? I think that was everyone’s thought too, plus we got a good discount (20 Euro instead of 40!). it turned out that this tour was the definite highlight of our trip, and we owe it all to Peter our tour guide. If I could try to describe Peter in a sentence, he is this 40 year old, loopy, goofy, spacey, yet extremely witty guy that makes you instantly like him. He had a few of us doubled over at times he was so funny. We meet at the hotel and a big bus picks us up to start the tour. During the tour we saw the Von Trap family house, the lake that was behind the house (which was actually in a different location altogether, made filming tricky!), the church where the wedding took place, the red “onion top” convent, and some great scenery just outside Salzburg. Top Peter moments were on the bus when he was explaining to us the geography error the producers didn’t take into account when the VonTraps are escaping into the Alps after they sing at the show for the Nazi’s. Apparently they were supposed to escape south into Switzerland (I think…) but the mountain range they filmed at was really heading them North into Germany, the very place they are trying to avoid. Peter finished that point by saying… “they were going the wrong waaaaaaayyy.” You have to see and hear this guy speak to think this is funny but I will try to explain the way he says it. Peter has this very monotone, spacey voice. His pitch is constantly fluctuating while the expression is always monotone as he makes these funny comments… (gosh this is hard to describe!) Some other hilarious comments are when he brings up Rolfe (the guy who delivers the mail) as he points out the Von Trop house. Peter says, “you guys remember Rolfe? Remember when he throws the stones at the window? Why was he doing that?” We answer… “because he liked Liesel.” Then he says in his goofy monotone, pitch fluctuating voice, “Good… some people thought he was throwing the rocks because he was a Naziiii……..” I about keel over I am laughing so hard at this point. Then to top it off, he tells a behind the scenes story. If you remember in the movie when Maria makes all the kids those extremely goofy clothes out of the curtains and takes them around town and on a canoe in the lake behind the house. As they wave to the captain the boat tips over and they all fall in the water. Apparently, Gretchen (the youngest child) almost drowned when they filmed that scene. Julie Andrews was supposed to grab her as they fell into the water but she fell on the opposite side of the boat. So Peter explains, “Gretchen fell into the water. She floated for a bit, gasped for air. Then sank to the bottom. They grabbed her out just in time before she drowned. She threw up all over Luisa’s shouldeeeeer…” Again, uncontrollable laughter from many of us ensued. From here we head to the gazebo and take some pictures. We aren’t allowed to go inside the gazebo because some 80 year old lady broke her tailbone a couple years prior. He didn’t say how, but she may have been trying to jump from one bench to the next in the gazebo and fallen… who knows? From here we rode in the bus for awhile just outside of town and took in some great scenery. We passed the RedBull headquarters which none of us had any idea were here. We took some great pics overlooking this amazing lake and then went to the town where the church where the wedding in the film took place. We were given some free time in this town so a bunch of us went into the church and took some more pictures. K-Sturniolo and I walked down the aisle goofily, like we were getting married. After the tour we were all pretty satisfied and told Martin that they must do that tour for the students on the following trips and specifically to request Peter as their guide. That night, we all ate together as a group which was very enjoyable. Martin tells us how excited he is for Rome and Florence which shows me that these towns must be pretty incredible if a guy that goes there every year for the past 16 years is still excited about it. We leave early the next day, exhausted, and take in some great scenery as well of the Alps, including the most legit McDonalds on the planet. It was a great first trip for our group. Amsterdam blog will be up soon. Buonna Notte!

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Photos

View of the Fort on the hill
Festung Hohensalzburg

Model of the Fort
There were several renovations done on this fort. Each Emperor added something new when they came to power in order to customize it.

Comments

[Mom]

I am 22 going on 23
Love the photos and loved the one in the tree. Did you find yourself singing all around the VonTrap grounds???It would have been hard for me NOT to dance in that gazebo....why did that woman have to break her tailbone?