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Published: March 28th 2008
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Leopoldskron Palace
Where the children fell into the lake Geesh, I’m slacking! I have been back in Perpignan for four days and I am only now getting my travelblog updated. I guess I have had more important things to do…like putting my pictures on Facebook…haha. Yep, so Monday Libby and I returned from our second vacation. We visited Salzburg in Austria and Fussen and Munich in Germany. The other three girls went to Scotland and Ireland, where there are more Aquinas students. It was a wonderful vacation, completely stress free 😉 minus the constant rain and snow. I will probably have to separate the week into three posts. This first one is Salzburg!
Friday March 14, Libby and I tool a train to the airport in Girona, Spain (near Barcelona), to catch a Ryan Air flight to Linz, Austria. It was a bit of a bumpy ride, especially at the end because it was raining in Austria. Libby gets motion sick. After getting off the plane, we had to take a bus to the train station…not good. Libby needed to throw up (I am only telling you all this because there is a funny story involved). I looked at the train departure schedule and said “our train leaves in
the Gazebo
I think you all know this one 15 minutes, puke fast.” And she did, it was very impressive. We took a much more calming train ride from Linz to Salzburg. Wherever we went we seemed to be caught in the middle of school groups, this train ride was no exception. When we got into Salzburg, it was 8 pm and rainy, not fun. We had to find our way to our rooms. The only directions we had were “start climbing up the hill, the house will be on the left.” We found the hill, but had no idea what it really entailed. Calling it hill is not just. It was a mountain; the first of many mountains we climbed on this trip. Finally, we made it to the street and found the house. In Salzburg there are not many cheap hotels and hostels, the best way to go is to rent “privatzimmers,” rooms that people rent out of their homes. Our Let’s Go travel book directed us to a nice one. It was a really cute little place called Haus Lindner. For the rest of Friday night we watched whatever TV we were able to understand. Basically sports…not as if I had a problem with that. We
Convent of Nonberg
the Abbey where the real Maria was a novice also watched the German version of American Idol because all of the songs were in English. Let me tell you, we are very blessed in America to have talented people on shows like that…it was painful to listen to at times.
Saturday March 15, we woke up for breakfast and had a nice conversation with the Scottish couple staying a few rooms down. We mentioned that we wanted to do the Sound of Music tour and they told us we should really go that day because it looked like it would be nice. Boy were we lucky, it was the only really nice day of the entire week. A van picked us up from the house and took us to the meeting point of the tour. Our bus was a big tour bus with “the Sound of Music” and a picture of Maria and the children painted on the side…a tourist’s paradise. Our tour guide’s name was Gary; he was great. We listened to the soundtrack while driving to all the amazing Sound of Music sights. Our first stop was Leopoldskron Palace. This is the house on the lake where the children fell into the water. In the movie,
Lake
this was where we randomly stopped for a stretch. I don't remember the name, but it was beautiful. this was only the back of the von Trapp mansion, the front was another house. Also at this stop was the lane where the children were hanging from trees in their drapery singing “Do-Re-Mi.” Next we stopped at Hellbrun, which is now home to the Gazebo (it used to be at Leopoldskron Palace, but the city moved it to public property). We couldn’t go inside it because about five years ago a woman played Leisel and jumped around the gazebo on the benches…she fell and broke her hip. Our next stop was near the Abbey (the Convent of Nonberg) where the real Maria was a novice. We did not actually go up to the Abbey because it is halfway up Fortress Hill, and would take a while to get to. After this, we were back in the bus for a long drive. We stopped for a quick stretch at a little place overlooking a lake and city I cannot remember the names of. It was a beautiful lake and town surrounded by mountains of course. We got back on the bus and headed to our last destination: the town of Mondsee. This is the home of Basilika Mondsee, the church
Basilika Mondsee
the church where the wedding between Maria and the Captain was filmed. where Maria and the Captain were married in the movie. In real life, they were married at the Abbey, but the nuns there would not allow filming. We had some free time to explore the church, get lunch/dessert, and do some shopping before heading back to Salzburg. The bus picks up and drops off outside Mirabelllatz. Many scenes from the Sound of Music were filmed here, mainly in the gardens. Mom, this was probably where Gramps took that picture…I do not know of many other places with courtyards. Before ending the tour Gary had given us all some suggestions for the rest of the afternoon. Libby and I took him up on one of his suggestions. Keep in mind we are both TERRIFIED of heights. We took a cable car 1853 meters up der Untersberg, one of the tallest mountains in Austria. The ride actually was not too bad, until the car stopped and the driver got out a ladder and climbed on top of the car. At the top of the line, there is a trail along the mountain. Some people were skiing it, and scared the crap out of me whenever they came whizzing by, others walked. It
Mirabell Gardens
the children sang Do-Re-Mi on these steps was an AMAZING experience. This was the second mountain we climbed. I took around 80 pictures while up there, but I only had room for a few of them on Facebook. We were so proud of ourselves for doing this and not freaking out, it was kind of scary sometimes, but soooo worth it. After this, we just went back to the house and watched some more German TV.
Sunday March 16, it was cold and rainy. I wanted boots, but no stores (except tourist shops) were open. We chose to explore the Fortress and explore the Old Town a bit. The Fortress sits high on a hill overlooking the city; we did not really want to walk up any more hills, so we took the elevator car up our third mountain. The Fortress was built in 1070-something…almost a thousand years old! We could tour some rooms, the furniture was not there anymore, but the wall decorations were enough. It was so intricate. We ate a traditional Austrian meal in a Fortress restaurant from where we could see Leopoldskron Palace. I had beef goulash and spatzle (German pasta). It was delicious! We walked around the shopping district a bit.
On one of these streets is the birthplace of Mozart. He did not live in Salzburg all his life, though, his father moved him to Vienna where there was more court stuff going on and more music. After we were thoroughly soaked and broke, we went back to the house for the night.
That's it for the Salzburg leg of the journey! I'll get the next installment up soon! Promise! In the meantime, if you are able to, check out my Facebook pictures.
Freya
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