Salzburg, Austria: a Few of My Favorite Things

Ah, Salzburg. Aside from the weather (and a few other minor things), this city doesn't disappoint. It's not too big, it's really pretty, and it's where The Sound of Music takes place and was filmed. How can a city where The Sound of Music takes place not be a happy place?!

Just look at it. Convinced?

I'm starting to sound like a guidebook. But really, even in the cloudy and rainy weather that we had while we were there, Salzburg is still really beautiful. We started our first day there by doing a Sound of Music tour (for anyone who's rolling their eyes: get over it, you and I both know you're just jealous). The tour first brings you a bit outside the center of the city to the house that they used for its back terrace and the lake where Maria and the children go boating and then fall in right when they see the Captain and the Baroness. They also bring you past the house that was actually used as the front of the von Trapp house, as well as the Hellbrunn palace, whose grounds house the gazebo used for "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" and "Something Good." You used to be able to go inside the gazebo but then some old lady broke her hip or something and so they decided to close the gazebo off to visitors. Thanks a lot, old lady.

Well, uh, the gazebo.

House used for the back terrace.

Anyway, after we stopped briefly at these places, we drove off into the mountains/lakes region outside of Salzburg on the way to the town of Mondsee, where the church that they used for Maria and the Captain's wedding is located. We had just enough time in Mondsee to see the church (very pretty), the lake and surrounding mountains (even prettier), and eat apfelstrudel (yum yum!). I think doing the tour was worth it most of all because they bring you to Mondsee, which aside from being a nice little town, allows you to see some great Austrian scenery on the trip there: the mountains, the lakes (which are especially beautiful), and the cute little Austrian mountain villages.

One of the lakes, about half an hour outside of Salzburg.

The tour dropped us off in front of the Mirabell palace, which is famous mostly for its gardens, which Maria and the children ran through singing "Do Re Mi." We explored the gardens for a while and then afterwards headed over to the city center (the historic part). The historic center is pretty small; you could easily walk from one end to the other in maybe twenty to thirty minutes, but there's a lot to see and as I said, it's really pretty. There are several little squares, many churches, markets, levitating Mozarts, a really impressive cemetery (weird combination of words, I know), and several other little monuments made famous for all of time thanks to The Sound of Music. We spent the rest of our first day after our Sound of Music tour just walking around. Mainly we visited the cathedral and then walked to the Nonnberg Abbey, where Maria (both the real one and the Sound of Music character) was a postulant. I think they were only allowed to use the outside of the abbey for filming, though.

Entrance to Mirabell Gardens. Look familiar?

The second day in Salzburg we went up to the Hohensalzburg fortress/castle. It's one of the largest and best preserved medieval castles in Europe, and really, it's more like a mini town atop the hill overlooking Salzburg. There's a big courtyard with a few paths leading off of it to several buildings (the main part of the castle, the chapel, etc.). You also get probably the best views of the city from up by the castle. Anyway, after spending plenty of time exploring said castle and eating lunch there (I guess it's kind of cool to say I ate lunch in a castle?), Nicole and I went to check out the museum at Mozart's birthplace. Yep, if you didn't already know, Mozart was born in Salzburg and lived there for a good portion of his short life. The birthplace is interesting, but really more of a traditional museum; very little to none of the original furniture or possessions of the Mozart family remain there. However, his first violin is on display, which I thought was pretty cool.

View of the castle and cathedral from the Mozart bridge.

Only a fraction of all the Easter eggs...

Now, since of course our trips to Germany and Austria were during Spain's Semana Santa, this means that Easter was approaching. Apparently coloring and decorating Easter eggs in the German-speaking countries is really popular (in Spain, not so much). We came across lots of colored eggs in outdoor markets, but nothing compared to one particular store we came across in Salzburg. It was

I thought thiese were pretty sweet.

really a store for decorations in general, I think, but at this time of year the ENTIRE store was filled with decorated eggs. And not just different colored eggs. Eggs with flowers, eggs with bunnies, eggs with geometric designs, eggs with maps of the world, you name it. Seriously. I have never seen so many egg shells in my life. It was incredible and terrifying at the same time (I mean, you get too close and one misstep and you break like 300 euros worth of egg white- and yolk- free egg shells). But mostly it was really cool.

Coming up, our next and last stop: Vienna.