Last weekend we took the train to Salzburg, Austria and it was so worth it! It actually made my list of top trips! The city was beautiful, clean, and so fun! We signed up for a Fraulein Maria bike tour and it was definitely the highlight of the trip. The bike tour took us to all of the places used in the Sound of Music while also giving us a little bit of history about the city. We rode about 15km.
We first stopped to see this sculpture of Mozart. Austrians actually nicknamed it the
Mozart with boobies! The artist was trying to show Mozart's feminine side.
We then rode to this fountain, one of many in the movie. This fountain was actually built to drive through in order to wash carriages. It was like taking your car to the carwash.
This is the location where Maria (Julie Andrews) had a beautiful view of the city. You will see later down in the pics that I came back here the next day. Because we were on a tour, we didn't have the time to run up there.
This was Ralph's tunnel where he walked through to give Liesl the telegram for her father.
The famous horse fountain shown on the movie was so beautiful in person! Danny even did a confidence splash like Maria.
This building was where they hung Nazi flags for the film. It caused an uproar when they actually did it in the 1960s, just 20ish years after the war.
You can see the Salzburg castle.
This is the oldest bakery in Salzburg. It smelled amazing! There was a long line and we had very little time, so we didn't get to taste any of it :(. Instead we grabbed an apple pretzel from a vendor nearby. They had many different flavors of pretzels.
The Sound of Music was NOT allowed to use this beautiful cemetery for the film. The Austrians felt that it would be disrespectful to a sacred place. Instead, they were inspired by this cemetery and recreated the scene where the von Traps were hiding in the abbey back in Hollywood.
It was neat to see homes (maybe monasteries?) built into the side of the hill.
We then went to the abbey and this was the view from across the way.
"We want to see Maria!"
This was inside the church in the abbey.
Here was the gate the nuns would walk to, where Maria exited from and where the kids stood when they wanted to see her. There used to be a doorbell (the kids rang it in the movie) and they had to take it off because so many tourists would ring it. The real Maria von Trap lived at this abbey as well.
In the movie, there are two houses used for Captain von Trap's home. When they are sitting on the back porch drinking pink lemonade and when the kids fall out of the boat, the house below was the one they used. It is a hotel now.
For our next stop, the boys took off with the tour guide and left us in the dust.
This was the other house used in the film. When she is singing the
confidence song and swinging her guitar case, this is the gate she stops at. You also see this house when they are pushing the car out of the driveway.
Embry tried to do the heel kicks like Julie Andrews.
Instead of checking out the absolutely breathtaking scenery, all of the kids on the tour suddenly noticed a cat.
Embry wasn't successful with her heel clicks, so she settled for twirling in the field Julie Andrews had been in.
We then rode to Hellbrunn to see the gazebo that was used in the film. It used to sit by the first house, and was moved here to protect it.
We had the kids watch The Sound of Music before we left, so it was very fresh on their minds. Eli and Embry were excited to see the actual gazebo they used. We learned that they created a bigger one in Hollywood too. You see both in the movie.
Viewing the castle while riding bikes.
Mirabel Plaza was also very pretty. There were so many flowers.
There was a unicorn for Embry!
This is the tunnel that Maria ran through with the kids. I had them recreate the scene...
We really liked the dwarf (
Zwergelgarten) garden. The one with all three kids in the picture is the one that they patted on its head in the movie.
After the bike tour, we walked around to see the sites we flew by earlier and also enjoyed the market taking place. These little glass flowers caught my eye. They were so neat!
I also thought this was a great idea to use lederhosen has a beer gift basket! So stinkin' cute!
We then walked to the lock bridge.
For lunch we each ordered some traditional dishes to try. Danny had boiled beef, Evan had Weiner Schnitzel, Eli had Bratwurst, and I had a goulash. For dessert we got the Salzburg Nockerl and it was so different, but tasty!
We then hopped onto the bus to go to the Hellbrunn trick fountains. It kept us guessing when the next spout of water would shoot at us. We all left wet and the kids loved guessing and trying to dodge (or purposefully get into) the water.
Another unicorn!
I paid for this pic at the end of our audio tour. I'm glad I did, because it was the only family picture we took all weekend!
After we got back, the weather started getting crazy windy. Restaurants were frantically grabbing tables as the plates and glasses were flung to the ground. You could hear shattering glass up and down the streets. We were almost hit by a window that broke above us. Everyone hurriedly made their way to the busses to get out of there. I have never seen so many people on one bus before! We were grateful to make it back to the hotel, and God showed us a beautiful rainbow through the window. Once it was calmer, Danny and I went down and ate a late dinner in our hotel restaurant. We brought the kids food and two more traditional desserts to try. We tried the apple (apfel) strudel and the black forest cake. My favorite was by far the black forest cake.
Before we got the heck out of there, we found Mozart's birthplace and I snapped a photo.
The rainbow through the window (obviously the pic doesn't capture it very well).
Apfel strudel
The next morning, Evan and Danny went on a bus tour to see Hitler's Eagle's Nest. While they were gone, we checked out of the hotel, had breakfast, shopped and ate gelato. We also went back to where Maria had a good view of the city and took pictures.
We found random cucumbers....
Here's where Maria stood in the movie.
This is the Mozart statue and plaza.
The kids got a kick out of seeing the floating man.
We went in a Christmas store that had thousands and thousands of painted eggs. There were Christmas eggs, Easter eggs, Halloween eggs and more.
Bubble waffle with gelato. Yum!
We had one last walk-through by the Mirabel Palace.
Below are the pictures from Danny and Evan's adventure up the mountain to see the Eagle's Nest that Hitler would visit.
This is the tunnel that they would drive Hitler through. It was narrow, so they would have to drive backwards out of it. He also had the elevator large and with mirrors because he was claustrophobic.
I love the creative photography that they did up there! It is purty!
The Eagle's Nest is pictured below. It was the only building that wasn't bombed.
They found a black salamander.
The train ride to and from Austria was about 4 hours long. It was pretty easy going and we were able to relax. I definitely preferred it over driving there. It was such a fantastic trip and we will be recommending it to all of our friends!
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