Salzburg and the Sound of Music

 Jeanne and I headed across the street to BackWERK to get breakfast.  They had a machine that dispensed coffee/tea/hot chocolate and they had an array of sandwiches and pastries.  

Kris and Sharon had placed their orders.  Jeanne and I picked up some things and we took everything back to the hotel.  We ate in our own rooms.  

The Hotel am Mirabellplatz 

We had to be in the lobby by 8:30 am for our pick-up from Bob's Sound of Music Mini Bus Tour.  The van pulled up around 8:40 am. It was an interesting tour.  It was funny because it took people in Salzburg a while to figure out the Sound of Music craze.  They knew the real Von Trapp family and had never seen the Sound of Music.  

Eva was our guide.

There were 4 other people on our tour.  Eva drove us all over town and pointed out places that were in the movie.  It was fun. We had rain off and on all day but nothing heavy.  

These next pictures were in the Mirabella Gardens. I am going to have to go back and rewatch Sound of Music when I get home.  

The Sound of Music kids running through this garden scene.

   

Do you see me?

Huge map of Salzburg on the floor.

Salzburg Dwarf Garden

The kids in the movie were tapping the head of this statue.

Apparently, many of these statues were lost/stolen during the war and gradually they have been found and returned. There are a few empty places for statues which have not found their way back. 

"Do a Deer" steps

We had to go to the Bob's Mini Bus tour office so that we could all finish payment for the tour and to use the rest room. 

The fortress

The convent where Maria was. On the left is St Peter's church where we were last night. 

A lot of the city round-a-bouts have been beautified with flowers.

Some of the old fortress walls are still standing.  Eva gave us a local tour as well as a Sound of Music tour.

The bridge the kids rode bikes over.  

The "Von Trapp" house.  It has been a lot of things but now it is a 5 star hotel. 

Eva had a lot of stories about what they did in the movie to make things look closer together or things that they had to do to make a scene work.  Most of the movie was not produced in Salzburg.

The Gazebo of "I am 16 going on 17".  It has been moved 27 times.

Cool dahlia garden.

Then we went on a long drive out in the country.  It was pretty.  She told us about the real Von Trapps. But also gave us other history  stories.  She played Sound of Music songs. 

This is the initial headquarters of Red Bull. They are converting it into a resort/hotel.  This is a sculpture of bulls running out of the building.  The building is unfinished.  I thought that they looked more like giant fleas or some other bug.

Gorgeous lake.

There was a cable car system going up to the top of the mountain.  I could only see the cable cars when I zoomed with my camera.

Then we headed back towards town.

We got to the church where the wedding was.

We saw a bride out front with a group of people.  We thought that this wedding was over and they were ready to party.  

So we went into the church.  It was gorgeous.

When we came out we saw that the wedding was just getting started.

They were playing music and they were all walking into the church.

The bride and her dad were at the end of the line.  The groom was in a white jacket a few steps ahead, but not in this picture.  I took a movie of it all but I can't load it onto my blog.   It was fun.  It was a very lively procession with music and cheering. 

This ended our tour.  It was supposed to be a 4 hour tour.  It was nearly 5 hours by the time that Eva dropped us off in the "Old Town" area.   We walked along Getreidegasse looking for #33. This was a cool street with great store signs.  

We were looking for a place for lunch. We had heard about the Balkan Grill, #33 Getreidegasse.

Balkan Grill or Bosna Grill was supposed to have the best of the wursts.

There was a long line. It was not a sit-down place.  

I had the one with mustard and Jeanne had the one with ketchup.  They were on the spicy side but tasty.

Then we walked up the street to Sporers for some schnapps tasting.

We thought that it also had a long line, but we saw that all the people in front were all drinking and standing around.  We decided to check to see if they had seating.  Yippee.  There was a small table in a tiny back room where we could sit.

I tried an apricot, pear, and blackberry flight.  You could have a flight of 3 shots for 8 euros.  Sharon and Kris each had different flavors.  My favorite one was the apricot.  We also got a shot of apricot brandy to compare.  It was not so good.

After finishing that we each ordered a mango-orange spritz.  That was yummy.  Jennifer Swinhoe had recommended that.

Casks of Schnapps.

The next course was dessert so we headed down the street to Cafe Tomaselli.

I had the cheesecake.  It wasn't very good.  Kris and Sharon liked their cakes.  Jeanne had ice cream. 

Time to meander back to the hotel.

Most stumbling stones here.  Salzburg was "lucky" during the war.  It got taken over by the Nazis but not destroyed.

The museum of modern art is up by the fortress.

The pedestrian bridge over the Salzach River is also a bridge of locks.

Caldera by Anthony Cragg - one of the 13 pieces of public art placed around the city.  A Walk of Modern Art

I am not sure what was going on with these guys in uniform.  We had seen them marching through Old Town with the cannon, when we were going for dessert.  

After our rest break we decided to walk down the street to L'Osteria, Italian restaurant. It was only a 4 minute walk away.

Jeanne's lasagne

My tagliatelle with pumpkin.  It was quite tasty.  

Sharon and Kris each ordered soup and salad, with the dressing on the side.  Sharon had the pumpkin soup and Kris had the tomato soup. Jeanne and I were nearly finished with our meals before they brought the salads.  Sharon and Kris were almost finished with their salads before they brought the dressing on the side.  Everyone seemed to like their meals.  We had a nice Italian Pinot Grigio.  This is the first time we have not had a Gruner Veltliner since we arrived in Berlin.

After dinner we headed back to our rooms.  Tomorrow will be a leisurely morning.