The Sound of Music...constantly

Although my bus pass has been very economical and fairly convenient, trains are just so much more fun. I don’t know what it is...old school?  The train to Salzburg was probably one of the best routes to take as we passed snow capped mountains, small villages, fields and grass running all the way to the horizon.  The compartments in the train also added to the nostalgia of travelling gone by and so I sat and wrote and looked out the window, I really didn’t want the trip to end.  The girls slept, changing positions every 20 minutes, and by the looks of things, Tuck was really struggling to get comfortable, amusing. 

We arrived in Salzburg and began walking to the hostel, when a major incident occurred.  One of my thongs had a blow out (flip flops, not underwear, to all the non-Aussies).  I think everyone appreciates the pain when this occurs, the sense of loss when you realise it’s not a superficial blow out where you can just pop it back in.  And the sad realisation that you are a thong snob and will only ever be happy again if you find Havaianas to replace them.

devastated

Anyway, arriving at YoHo the girls were thrilled to find that the hostel has daily showings of ‘The Sound of Music’, so tomorrow morning was sorted then, all 3 hours of it. 

We traipsed the streets for dinner looking for all the restaurants that had been recommended and ended up at yet another Italian restaurant next to some Australians who were staying at our hostel.  Although we hadn’t done a lot we were fairly knackered and had an early one.

We had breakfast and then all seated ourselves for the 10.30am viewing of ‘The Sound of Music’. The girls were truly excited about the film judging by the look of horror on their faces when the DVD froze just as the Von Trapps were getting enthralled in Edelweiss, but we fixed it, crisis diverted. 

 

The girls thought I was lying about the 3 hours, but no. So early afternoon we set off for a walk around town and decided to stick with tradition and have another picnic.

So we got our staple ingredients and a bottle of champagne and began the long walk up to the Salzburg fort.  It is the largest in Central Europe and has never been conquered by an enemy.  It was a long walk uphill, reminiscent of the Camino days, and completely worth it.

Finding a spot overlooking the city we unravelled our picnic and poured the champagne.  On the other side were stunning views of the Alps, we spent the day on top of the world.

We caught the funicular down to the bottom and wandered around finding a few spots from ‘The Sound of Music’ to take photos of ourselves in front of, just so we would look like extra cool tourists. 

  

haha, they must get that a lot

The evening was spent at yet another Italian restaurant next door to the one from the night before.

The next morning it was finally time for The Sound of Music bike tour, as naff as it sounds, it was an  absolute highlight.

We spent 3 hours riding through the city, over the fort and then through the countryside of Salzburg.  Possibly the best part about it was watching Tucky try to ride a bike. She looked as if she was about to go bungee jumping and was holding onto the handles for dear life, so all her photo’s were blurry because her arms were literally shaking from the exertion of securing herself.

The abbey gates

When they filmed parts of The Sound of Music in the city square, they put up a huge Nazi flag without much explanation to the residents and fear spread across the city until they figured out that it was only a movie.  

We finished up at the pavilion where they sing the ‘I am 16...’ song and had a frolic while an elderly tour group sang the song in their respective parts, pretty cute.

On the ride back, we were given iPods with all the songs from the movie, not that we needed it. Since we arrived we had been singing the songs on repeat...all of them...on constant annoying repeat. 

Back in town, the girls did some more shopping (surprise) as I lay reading on the banks of the Salzach River.

Salzburg literally means ‘salt castle’ and the city’s wealth came in the 17^th century from their export of salt which was in high demand for many things including the curing of meat (as there was no refrigeration).  As salt became less essential, the city’s wealth declined, which is why there are a lot of beautiful buildings left from the Baroque period because that is the time when they were one of the richest areas in Europe.

We had a wine at one of the restaurants on the river and then dinner at a traditional restaurant and discussed our future travel plans.  The girls were heading west, and due to money restraints, I decided that I would head east, so this was our final goodbye as there was not much chance of us crossing paths again.  It was a melancholic feeling, I was very sad to see them go, apprehensive of what was to come but also excited to find out. 

So we packed all our things, had a good night’s sleep and early the next morning headed to the train station to catch our respective trains.  I was able to wave them off as their train pulled away and then hopped on mine back to Vienna where I would catch an overnight bus to Budapest.