More about Austria and (time-permitting) Paris
Hey everyone! I am back from a whirl-wind trip to Paris over the weekend! Yep, I finally made it! Yippee!
But before I tell you all about that (hours at the Louvre, etc..), I do need to finish up about Salzburg, don't I?
K, where was I? Oh yes, first night in Salzburg, Do Re Mi gardens, rain...Well, since it was raining and I had lost my umbrella in Vienna the day before (don't ask, it was stupid), I decided to head back to the hostel. Grabbed some dinner there and sat down with some nice gals from the States who'd been living in Barcelona for a bit and were now traveling around Europe before going back home. Then I got a couple text messages from Karen who (we discovered) was staying at the same place. lol, we sorta forgot to exchange that info in Vienna. So, she and Chris came down & we planned what we were going to do on Sunday. :-)
Sunday dawned gray and drizzly as predicted. :-P But we headed out from the hostel towards old Salzburg, determined not to let a little rain dampen our spirits (pun intended). :-D First stop was the grave yard where W.A. Mozart's wife and father are buried (nice cheerful way to start out the morning, huh?) and then we parted ways, because they wanted to visit the cathedral and listen to the morning mass (they're not Catholic, they just wanted to hear the music) while I wanted to try to beat the crowds of Asian tourists to the Mozart Geburthaus (place he was born). No such luck! Darn those folks, no matter how early I try to get somewhere, they always manage to be there first! So, yet again, I moved through the house wedged, between tour groups and trying my best to see everything. That house was only 2 rooms, so it was a pretty cramped place to begin with...but it was interesting all the same.
After that, I walked through part of the old town, saw the cathedral and Mozartplatz (Mozart Square), as well as an upside-down helicopter near-by that was supposed to be “art”. Ooookkkk….
From there I climbed up the hill to the Salzburg fortress. Talk about impressive! That castle was a stronghold for hundreds of years and was never actually taken by force. However, it was surrendered to Napoleon, I think. It was quite a bit of a walk up the hill (I was saving money by not taking the funicular train up, lol) but I made it. It was nice, because there was an audio tour included in the entrance fee, so one got to walk through the inner walls and up to the prison tower, where you had an awesome panorama of Salzburg and the surrounding hill country. I also checked out the various other buildings in the fortress and went through the museums there. I even bumped into Karen & Chris, who had decided to do the same thing after the mass. By the time I had done all that, it was 12:30 and I really needed to get back to the hostel, because I had booked a seat on the “Sound of Music” tour (don’t laugh, I did it because it was so drizzly, I didn’t see myself walking to all the various places of interest. ;-) ) which was supposed to pick me up from the hostel at 1:30. However, it was now pouring down rain. Ahhh! You remember I no longer had an umbrella (oh faithless umbrella, leaving me in my weekend of need!) and all though I was wearing a water-resistant jacket, it wasn’t gonna stand a chance. But what’s a girl to do? I had paid 30 euros for the tour and I sure as the dickens wasn’t going to miss it. It would have been nice to take a bus, but there weren’t any up on the hill and by the time I got to town, not only was I completely soaked, I was almost there. :-P I will save you all the agonizing details of the walk back, but suffice it to say, when I arrived (at 1:15!) I was literally dripping wet. I mean, it was rolling off my jacket down my fingertips! However, I had made it (!) in time to change into dry clothes before the tour bus arrived. :-) I was a bit chilly, with wet hair and no jacket, but some very nice people on the bus loaned me an umbrella, so I managed to stay dry on the tour.
The tour was nice. We saw the houses that were used for the Von Trapp house in the movie (they used the front of one and the back of another for the outdoor scenes), the gazebo that Rolf and Lisle danced in, Nonberg Abbey, where Maria was a novice and the cathedral that was used for the wedding scene in the movie (Capitan von Trapp and Maria were actually married at Nonberg Abbey). We also drove through part of the lake country around Salzburg and even went to the town where Mozart’s mother was born. Cool, huh? I even had a lovely apple struedel in one town (I didn’t get lunch, in my dash to the hostel) and a slice of famous Sachtorte in another. It was a rich chocolate cake with apricot jam covered with chocolate icing. Yum!
I was back to the hostel in time to have dinner with Karen & Chris (at the hostel, I wasn’t getting wet anymore) and then we played cards for, oh, about 4 hours until we had to catch the night train (that didn’t leave til 12:45). But at least it had stopped raining before we had to walk to the train station! Then it was just a (cold) 6 hour trip back to Zurich. Lol, I was so cold and tired by the time I got home, I grabbed a blanket and fell asleep on the couch! But, hey, except for the wet part, it was great trip! :-)
Well, I am out of time at the moment, but I will write about Paris ASAP!
But before I tell you all about that (hours at the Louvre, etc..), I do need to finish up about Salzburg, don't I?
K, where was I? Oh yes, first night in Salzburg, Do Re Mi gardens, rain...Well, since it was raining and I had lost my umbrella in Vienna the day before (don't ask, it was stupid), I decided to head back to the hostel. Grabbed some dinner there and sat down with some nice gals from the States who'd been living in Barcelona for a bit and were now traveling around Europe before going back home. Then I got a couple text messages from Karen who (we discovered) was staying at the same place. lol, we sorta forgot to exchange that info in Vienna. So, she and Chris came down & we planned what we were going to do on Sunday. :-)
Sunday dawned gray and drizzly as predicted. :-P But we headed out from the hostel towards old Salzburg, determined not to let a little rain dampen our spirits (pun intended). :-D First stop was the grave yard where W.A. Mozart's wife and father are buried (nice cheerful way to start out the morning, huh?) and then we parted ways, because they wanted to visit the cathedral and listen to the morning mass (they're not Catholic, they just wanted to hear the music) while I wanted to try to beat the crowds of Asian tourists to the Mozart Geburthaus (place he was born). No such luck! Darn those folks, no matter how early I try to get somewhere, they always manage to be there first! So, yet again, I moved through the house wedged, between tour groups and trying my best to see everything. That house was only 2 rooms, so it was a pretty cramped place to begin with...but it was interesting all the same.
After that, I walked through part of the old town, saw the cathedral and Mozartplatz (Mozart Square), as well as an upside-down helicopter near-by that was supposed to be “art”. Ooookkkk….
From there I climbed up the hill to the Salzburg fortress. Talk about impressive! That castle was a stronghold for hundreds of years and was never actually taken by force. However, it was surrendered to Napoleon, I think. It was quite a bit of a walk up the hill (I was saving money by not taking the funicular train up, lol) but I made it. It was nice, because there was an audio tour included in the entrance fee, so one got to walk through the inner walls and up to the prison tower, where you had an awesome panorama of Salzburg and the surrounding hill country. I also checked out the various other buildings in the fortress and went through the museums there. I even bumped into Karen & Chris, who had decided to do the same thing after the mass. By the time I had done all that, it was 12:30 and I really needed to get back to the hostel, because I had booked a seat on the “Sound of Music” tour (don’t laugh, I did it because it was so drizzly, I didn’t see myself walking to all the various places of interest. ;-) ) which was supposed to pick me up from the hostel at 1:30. However, it was now pouring down rain. Ahhh! You remember I no longer had an umbrella (oh faithless umbrella, leaving me in my weekend of need!) and all though I was wearing a water-resistant jacket, it wasn’t gonna stand a chance. But what’s a girl to do? I had paid 30 euros for the tour and I sure as the dickens wasn’t going to miss it. It would have been nice to take a bus, but there weren’t any up on the hill and by the time I got to town, not only was I completely soaked, I was almost there. :-P I will save you all the agonizing details of the walk back, but suffice it to say, when I arrived (at 1:15!) I was literally dripping wet. I mean, it was rolling off my jacket down my fingertips! However, I had made it (!) in time to change into dry clothes before the tour bus arrived. :-) I was a bit chilly, with wet hair and no jacket, but some very nice people on the bus loaned me an umbrella, so I managed to stay dry on the tour.
The tour was nice. We saw the houses that were used for the Von Trapp house in the movie (they used the front of one and the back of another for the outdoor scenes), the gazebo that Rolf and Lisle danced in, Nonberg Abbey, where Maria was a novice and the cathedral that was used for the wedding scene in the movie (Capitan von Trapp and Maria were actually married at Nonberg Abbey). We also drove through part of the lake country around Salzburg and even went to the town where Mozart’s mother was born. Cool, huh? I even had a lovely apple struedel in one town (I didn’t get lunch, in my dash to the hostel) and a slice of famous Sachtorte in another. It was a rich chocolate cake with apricot jam covered with chocolate icing. Yum!
I was back to the hostel in time to have dinner with Karen & Chris (at the hostel, I wasn’t getting wet anymore) and then we played cards for, oh, about 4 hours until we had to catch the night train (that didn’t leave til 12:45). But at least it had stopped raining before we had to walk to the train station! Then it was just a (cold) 6 hour trip back to Zurich. Lol, I was so cold and tired by the time I got home, I grabbed a blanket and fell asleep on the couch! But, hey, except for the wet part, it was great trip! :-)
Well, I am out of time at the moment, but I will write about Paris ASAP!