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| I had the BEST time with my baby girl on this trip! |
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| "Salzburg here we come!" |
Polly and I have just returned from a wonderful 2 day trip to Salzburg, Austria. We had a blast!! My super cool friend, Sandi, sent us "The Sound of Music" dvd for Christmas and we have enjoyed watching it over and over and Polly fell in love with the movie and it's one of my favorites too so I decided to take Polly on a little overnight stay to Salzburg where the movie was filmed. We left our little village of Gauting at 9am on Tuesday and we arrived in Salzburg at 11.30am. It was a fabulous train ride with endless snowy fields to look out over the whole way - so pretty! Polly is a great little traveler - she either listens to her ipod or reads which makes for a very pleasant journey. We caught a taxi to our fabulous hotel and then set out on foot to explore this fascinating city.
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| Still further to climb! |
Dominating the skyline of Salzburg is the Hohensalzburg Fortress - which is the largest and best preserved fortress from the middle ages overlooking this gorgeous city. Before the steep climb to this major landmark, Polly and I indulged in some local cuisine; apfelstrudel and topfenstrudel - sure to give us the energy for the upcoming climb....and what a climb it was!! It took us about 30minutes and involved excessive huffing and puffing but it was worth every step! From the top we could see all of Salzburg and the Salzbach River - truly a breath taking view!
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| View from the Fortress |
We toured the rooms of the fortress, the outer grounds and the torture chamber before heading back down in a cable car which took only 60seconds compared to our lengthy climb up!
The sun was setting quickly and it was only 4.30pm but we were determined to find the Nonnberg Abbey which was established around the year 700 and still functions as a convent today. We had already booked 'The Sound of Music Tour' for the following day but the abbey was not included in the tour and we wanted to stand at those same gates where the von Trapp children stood hoping to talk to Fraulein Maria ... here is Polly at those very gates searching for Maria ... in fact, we were searching for the gates in the dark ... we had to climb again to find the abbey but it was fantastic to be there where it all really happened ... and you know we were singing the whole way!!
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| "Mozart's Birth-house" |
When we were told that Maria wouldn't see us, we continued to explore Salzburg. The gorgeous fountains were all covered up, protected from the snow which is a fabulous excuse for us to return to this pretty city another time. Among many fabulous sights, we saw the house where Mozart lived, Polly had fun ice skating downtown before we both enjoyed a delicious meal and then walked back to the hotel to enjoy a scrumptious Austrian vanilla pastry dessert in bed ;-)
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| "Where's Polly?" |
Unfortunately, Polly was in excruciating pain with an earache over night and we thought we'd need to come home immediately but with some drugs and some home remedies from the internet she was ready to roll again in the morning! Phew!! A huge, delicious breakfast started our day off well ... 'The Sound of Music Tour' ... here we come!!
The Sound of Music film was never released in Austria or Germany so the tour was full of international tourists and while we are doing our best to live as a 'locals' during our time here, we were definitely 'tourists' in Salzburg ;-)
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| The trees the children climb in their curtain clothes |
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| Polly is standing on the frozen lake where the children fell out of the boat at the rear of the von Trapp house. The famous gazebo was built to the left of this building but has since been moved to another location to make it easier for tourists to enjoy. |
We visited many filming locations and our guide was very knowledgeable and shared all sorts of fun information about the film. All the inside scenes from the film were filmed in Hollywood studios including the famous "I am 16 going on 17" scene in the gazebo....but we did see the gazebo! We also visited Leopoldskron-Palace where filming was done at the von Trapp house.
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| The wedding church |
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| Maria and the children ran across this bridge on their way to the picnic in the hills |
We saw the trees that the von Trapp children climbed in their curtain clothes, the church where Maria and the Captain were married (well outside Salzburg) and the wonderful gardens from the scenes of "Doe Ray Me".
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| Famous archway the children run through |
You will need to use your imagination with the snow covered photos until we can return to Salzburg in the Spring for some greener shots. Polly and I had so much fun on our first ever girls trip - the first of many!! After our tour, we had one last walk around this gorgeous city before catching the train home to Munich. Such a fun 2 days ... where to next?!?!
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| "Doe Ray Me" steps in the background |
We left Munich while it was miserable and raining and arrived in Nördlingen an hour and half later in blue sky and sunshine!! We explored the town, walked around the city wall, climbed the tower "Daniel", enjoyed a wonderful Bavarian lunch followed by delicious apfelstrudel then headed home.
A wonderful, adventure filled day - thanks Nick for organising it all!!
