Voices

On Thursday May 6, Candice, Mike and I packed up for our last weekend excursion (before the start of finals) to Salzburg, Austria & London! Our flight left at around 9PM Thursday night, and flying RyanAir, we had to have an inconvenient layover for the night in the London-Stansted Airport, before flying into Austria. Landing in London-Stansted Airport at around 11PM, we passed through customs and made our way over to some benches by the check-in counters to sleep (uncomfortably) for the night! We thought we would be the only ones sleeping in an airport, but surprisingly, the benches were filled with other snoozing people! After roughly 6 hours of sleeping on our backpacks, we got up to check-in for our flight. The flight was smooth and we arrived in the main Salzburg Airport at around 11PM where we had to take a public bus to our hostel. Our hostel was called “YoHo Youth Hostel,” and was definitely one of the nicer ones I’ve stayed in this semester. There was 24-hour reception and the staff were all friendly and very accommodating. They had free maps to give us and pointers one where to go in the city. We also purchased “The Sound of Music Tour” tickets for a 10% discount through them! (it was still pretty expensive – €35, but it was something we just had to do in Salzburg!) Before going on The Sound of Music Tour, we had about 2 hours of time to kill, so we took a stroll to the Mirabell Gardens just a few blocks away.

If you’ve seen “The Sound of Music” movie before, there are many scenes that were filmed in the Mirabell Park & Gardens! When the Von Trapp children and Maria sang “Do-Re-Mi,” they ran through the garden, and on these steps in the picture is just one of the locations filmed where they all danced + sang.

Salzach River

Salzburg is on the banks of the Salzach River and at the northern boundary of the Alps Mountains.

We were now off to “The Sound of Music Tour!” Our tour guide was a very flamboyant-middle-aged man who seemed to love his fair share of musicals + the Sound of Music film. He was very charismatic and funny. This is a picture of our tour bus – it was almost filled with other tourists who wanted to share in the experience. After all, you can’t go to Salzburg, Austria without taking this tour! We were shown several scenes throughout Salzburg that were used in the filming of The Sound of Music. This included the mini-Mozart foot-bridge (where the children sang and danced on to “Do-Re-Mi” in their curtain play clothes) and the Nonnberg Abbey (Maria’s Abbey).

First stop off the tour bus was the Leopoldskron Lake and Castle. The back of the Leopoldskron Castle (pictured here) was used as the back-setting of Baron Von Trapp’s house in the movie. No filming ever occurred inside the castle and the front of the Von Trapp house in the film was a different building. However, do you remember the scene when Maria and the 7 children fell out of the boat, shortly after seeing Baron Von Trapp and the Baroness for the first time when he comes back from Vienna? This is the lake that they fell into!

Next stop was the gazebo! This is the exact gazebo that was built and used for the film! It is the same gazebo that Liesl Von Trapp (oldest of the 7 children) and Ralph, the telegram boy, sang and danced around at night, trying to hide from her father. They sang “16 Going on 17″ in here!

Lake Fuschi was another stop we made on our tour. It wasn’t in the film but it was a beautiful lake we all had to see.

We drove all the way up to another town just outside of Salzburg called Mondsee. In Mondsee is the Mondsee Cathedral where Maria and Baron Von Trapp were married in in The Sound of Music. As I walked down the inside of the cathedral, I kept thinking to myself, “Julie Andrews once walked these steps!” I was a little star-struck.

After a long 4 hour tour, visiting The Sound of Music landmarks, we headed to a beer-hall our tour guide recommended to us. This beer hall served Augustiner Beer (which is the Pope’s beer that we drank in Munich) and cafeteria-style German food. We took a short walk over and in the beer hall, we ran into a couple of people we recognized from The Sound of Music Tour. They asked if they could join us, so we chit-chatted for a bit. Actually, this small chit-chat turned into about a 2 hour talk as we got to know each other. John and Bonnie (their names) were from Adelaide, Australia. They were both 21 years old and were taking a tour around Europe for several weeks and living out of a rented mini-van! After talking for a bit with them, it was starting to get dark so we decided to all head over to an open café/bar on the top of a hotel, overlooking Salzburg. We sat and chatted there for a while, as well, but as it came to about 11PM, we were all exhausted and wanted to head back to our hostel. We parted ways with our new Australian friends who were to leave Salzburg the next morning. One of the many things I value the most is meeting people from all different backgrounds and cultures on these trips – while I’m trying to immerse myself in the charming city of Salzburg, who knew I’d get to meet and talk with Australian folk?!

Here is a picture of Salzburg at night. The picture right above is a photo I took from the outdoor café. You can see the Salzach River as well as the Hohensalzburg Fortress on top of a mountain – this fortress is a very famous landmark of Salzburg.

After a night of sleeping in an actual bed (not an airport bench!) we got up fairly early to purchase a “Salzburg Card.” This card was being sold at our hostel and allowed us to gain free entry to all kinds of attractions/sights around the city! Also, the card allows for free public transportation! We definitely wanted to see as much as we could on our full day, so we bought the card for €25 and were on our way. (At the end of the day, we calculated that with the regular entrance fees to all the places we visited, we saved a total of €34 with this card!)

Untersberg Mountain

First stop: Untersberg Mountain. The Untersberg is a mountain of the Berchtesgaden Alps that straddles the border between Berchtesgaden, Germany and Salzburg, Austria. There are trails leading to the top, but most people use the cable car. It’s a 1300-meter ride to the peak of the mountain. The lower parts of this mountain was in the film, where Maria opened up the movie by singing “The Sound of Music.” Once Maria heard the bells from the Abbey, she ran from the Untersberg Mountain back down into the city. We take a cable-car up to the top of the Untersberg Mountain. This ride would normally cost us €19, but with the Salzburg Card, we gained free access! Here’s a picture of the mountain, as we approached the top.

These are some pictures of the Alps and mountain range from the cable-car. You could also get a beautiful view of the entire city of Salzburg!

After making our way down the Untersberg Mountain, we headed back into the city center and went to our next Salzburg Card destination – Mozart’s Geburtshaus (Mozart’s Birthplace). Again… instead of paying €6.50, we gained free entrance! The price to get into Mozart’s Birthplace combined with the price of the cable-car up to the Untersberg Mountain already surpassed the price we paid for the Salzburg Card… and the day had just started!

Mozart’s Birthplace

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in this house on January 27, 1756 and lived here until 1773. The family lived in this rented apartment for 26 years and it consisted of a kitchen, small store room, living room, bedroom, and study. 7 children were born here, but only 2 survived to adulthood: Mozart and his sister Maria Anna.

Mozart’s Residence

Our next stop with our Salzburg Card: Mozart’s Wohnhaus (Mozart’s Residence). Mozart’s Residence is the former residence of the Mozart family. He lived in the building from 1773-1780. Inside the building were exhibits relating to the life of the Mozart Family and the history of the building.

Hohensalzburg Fortress

What would Mozart’s City be without the most prominent feature in its silhouette? The fortress is central Europe’s largest, completely preserved fortress dating from the 11th Century. It reigns majestically over the city rooftops and dominates the cityscape. Construction of the castle began in 1077 under Archbishop Gebhard con Helfenstein. The original design was basic with a wooden wall. In Salzburg, the Archbishops play powerful political figures and they expanded the castle to protect their interests.

Our Salzburg Card allowed us to take a cable-car up to the Fortress (originally €10.50 – but free for us), allowed a visit into the Hohensalzburg Fortress have a guided tour of the it. We also had some free time to enjoy the beautiful panoramic scene of the city below us from the top of the castle.

After seeing the Hohensalzburg Castle, we took the cable-car back down into the city and were off to our next Salzburg Card destination: The Catacombs.

These catacombs are hewn out of the rocks of the Mönchsberg Mountain and are of early Christian origin.

Another stop was the Panorama Museum in the center of the city. It holds fascinating panoramic paintings by J.M. Sattler.

Mönchsberg Lift

Next destination with our Salzburg Card was the Mönchsberg Life. The Mönchsberg Life has 3 elevators that take you to one of the most stunning panorama terraces in Salzburg and to the Museum of Modern Art. At this point, I was tired of panoramic views of the city. I had seen so many different angles of Salzburg – at night, day, on the Untersberg Mountain, from the Hohensalzburg Fortress!

Our feet were killing us from all the walking. We decided to make use of our Salzburg Card one last time and take a free mini-boat cruise along the Salzach River. We hopped on the boat and had a 40-minute ride. It was nice seeing Salzburg from a different perspective – on water.

After the cruise, we headed back to the hostel to rest up before dinner. Our hostel had a little dining area that we took full advantage of. I ordered schnitzel with french fries and salad. All this cost me €6, which is a pretty good steal for the amount of food I received. After eating, we headed to bed pretty early to make sure we caught our flight early the next morning into London.