Greetings from Salzburg, Austria. Just realised I wrote that out of habit - after starting every postcard I wrote tonight with that line...
Where to start, well I think starting at the very beginning would be very apt for this post, as it is a very good place to start (if that went over your head you may want to stop reading now).
From Zurich I headed to Vienna, but as I am headed back there tomorrow I will save that for another post. This is all about Salzburg. The city itself is quite beautiful.
Lots of nice, high vantage points to get a good look at the old city.
Like many cities in Europe, there is a love bridge - where you put the initials of yourself and the one you love on a lock, lock the key to the bridge and throw the key into the water, locking your love forever (might need to learn to scuba dive if you ever break up - that or invest in bolt cutters).
There also seems to be an obsession with unicorns in the sculpture in this town...
Salzburg as you may know is famous for three things. Mozart was born and raised here, this is where they filmed the movie The Sound of Music, and this is where the guy that created Red Bull is from. If anyone is interested, the Red Bull HQ looks like this
I headed off on a Sound of Music tour of Salzburg and surrounds (as you do). There were many important historical sights to see - like the gazebo. The one where Liesel sings "16 going on 17". Now it used to be, as I had hoped to do, that you could skip around on the seats and dance just like Liesel does in the movie. Sadly people kept falling off and breaking a leg, so now they enclose it in glass and keep you out. Bah humbug. Turns out Liesel herself did an ankle filming the scene and it wasn't as easy as it looks.
We visited the church where (spoiler alert!) the wedding is held at the end of the film.
One very creepy fact about the church - on the alter there are five mummified corpses on display. You can currently only see four (the fifth is covered by Jesus at Easter). Two men and two women. They were apparently gifts from Rome and have been there for about four hundred years. See if you can see them in this picture.
We also headed out to the lakes to see where some of the outdoor shots were done. How's this for a spectacular set for the opening shots of the film. Turns out this is the same village where Mozart's mother was born.
e also went to St Peter's church. It was this graveyard that was used for the scene where they hide from the Nazis at the end of the film.
Speaking of the nazis - interesting piece of trivia about the film - remember at the end when they are going up over the mountains to Switzerland? In reality, had they climbed in that exact spot they would have been toast. That was filmed on the Bavarian Alps (the border between Austria and Germany) and was in fact filmed only a short distance from Eagles Nest - aka Hitler's summer home. So they would have been realllly busted.
We learned a lot about the real Von Trapp family as well. Turns out one of the children they had after they got married was a missionary in PNG for many years (and adopted a son whilst she was there). We even went past the home of the real Von Trapp family. When they left Austria (for America in reality) Himmler actually took over the residence and went as far as to carve swastikas into the Von Trapps furniture. Apparently at one point Himmler and Hitler even hosted a little weekend getaway with Mussolini at the house during the war. The allied forces regained control of the house at the end of the war and in a strange twist two of the Von Trapp children (who fought as Americans in WWII) were sent there to help secure it and managed to convince the allies to hand it back to the family. These days it is a B&B and you can stay the night there. So, this is what the real thing looks like.
And this is the version from the movie (well, one of them, they used two villas for the film). The lake in front of this house was where they filmed the scene where the boat capsizes and Maria and the children end up in the water.
Throughout the entire tour the soundtrack was played in the van, and singing was strongly encouraged. I had some difficulty containing my laughter when our driver was very loudly, and badly, singing along to Do Re Mi, and when he got to the part about "once you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything" he totally flubbed the words. Repeatedly. Turns out Maria was wrong and you need to know more than the notes to sing along. Like the words.
There was also a customary trip to Mozart's house.
Creepily they have locks of his hair on display.
I have tried a few of the local dishes whilst here. Everything appears to be of a similar colour pallet - beige/brown. There has been asparagus with hollandaise sauce
Some apple strudel
And of course a schnitzel
Had to have the schnitzel tonight, could not bring myself to eat their fish selection after spying this on the kinder menu (not just any fish is being served, but NEMO!).
But then again they even shape their bread like cute animals here...
Back to Vienna tomorrow and I think that my first job when I get there is to buy some new socks...
Where to start, well I think starting at the very beginning would be very apt for this post, as it is a very good place to start (if that went over your head you may want to stop reading now).
From Zurich I headed to Vienna, but as I am headed back there tomorrow I will save that for another post. This is all about Salzburg. The city itself is quite beautiful.
Lots of nice, high vantage points to get a good look at the old city.
Like many cities in Europe, there is a love bridge - where you put the initials of yourself and the one you love on a lock, lock the key to the bridge and throw the key into the water, locking your love forever (might need to learn to scuba dive if you ever break up - that or invest in bolt cutters).
There also seems to be an obsession with unicorns in the sculpture in this town...
Salzburg as you may know is famous for three things. Mozart was born and raised here, this is where they filmed the movie The Sound of Music, and this is where the guy that created Red Bull is from. If anyone is interested, the Red Bull HQ looks like this
I headed off on a Sound of Music tour of Salzburg and surrounds (as you do). There were many important historical sights to see - like the gazebo. The one where Liesel sings "16 going on 17". Now it used to be, as I had hoped to do, that you could skip around on the seats and dance just like Liesel does in the movie. Sadly people kept falling off and breaking a leg, so now they enclose it in glass and keep you out. Bah humbug. Turns out Liesel herself did an ankle filming the scene and it wasn't as easy as it looks.
We visited the church where (spoiler alert!) the wedding is held at the end of the film.
One very creepy fact about the church - on the alter there are five mummified corpses on display. You can currently only see four (the fifth is covered by Jesus at Easter). Two men and two women. They were apparently gifts from Rome and have been there for about four hundred years. See if you can see them in this picture.
We also headed out to the lakes to see where some of the outdoor shots were done. How's this for a spectacular set for the opening shots of the film. Turns out this is the same village where Mozart's mother was born.
e also went to St Peter's church. It was this graveyard that was used for the scene where they hide from the Nazis at the end of the film.
Speaking of the nazis - interesting piece of trivia about the film - remember at the end when they are going up over the mountains to Switzerland? In reality, had they climbed in that exact spot they would have been toast. That was filmed on the Bavarian Alps (the border between Austria and Germany) and was in fact filmed only a short distance from Eagles Nest - aka Hitler's summer home. So they would have been realllly busted.
We learned a lot about the real Von Trapp family as well. Turns out one of the children they had after they got married was a missionary in PNG for many years (and adopted a son whilst she was there). We even went past the home of the real Von Trapp family. When they left Austria (for America in reality) Himmler actually took over the residence and went as far as to carve swastikas into the Von Trapps furniture. Apparently at one point Himmler and Hitler even hosted a little weekend getaway with Mussolini at the house during the war. The allied forces regained control of the house at the end of the war and in a strange twist two of the Von Trapp children (who fought as Americans in WWII) were sent there to help secure it and managed to convince the allies to hand it back to the family. These days it is a B&B and you can stay the night there. So, this is what the real thing looks like.
And this is the version from the movie (well, one of them, they used two villas for the film). The lake in front of this house was where they filmed the scene where the boat capsizes and Maria and the children end up in the water.
Throughout the entire tour the soundtrack was played in the van, and singing was strongly encouraged. I had some difficulty containing my laughter when our driver was very loudly, and badly, singing along to Do Re Mi, and when he got to the part about "once you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything" he totally flubbed the words. Repeatedly. Turns out Maria was wrong and you need to know more than the notes to sing along. Like the words.
There was also a customary trip to Mozart's house.
Creepily they have locks of his hair on display.
I have tried a few of the local dishes whilst here. Everything appears to be of a similar colour pallet - beige/brown. There has been asparagus with hollandaise sauce
Some apple strudel
And of course a schnitzel
Had to have the schnitzel tonight, could not bring myself to eat their fish selection after spying this on the kinder menu (not just any fish is being served, but NEMO!).
But then again they even shape their bread like cute animals here...
Back to Vienna tomorrow and I think that my first job when I get there is to buy some new socks...
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