The Sound of Salzburg

The hills are alive...with the Sound of Music...

We arrived Friday evening in Salzburg (above, overlooking the Salzach River), the home of the classic film "The Sound of Music" and Mozart. We drove around, getting to know the city (unintentionally) as we searched for our hostel. We finally found it tucked away in a back street, only to walk in and find out this was our hostel for the next night. FAIL. At least we knew where it was now...

We drove across town to get to the correct hostel for the night and gave everyone (including people walking by) a good laugh (at my expense) as I attempted to parallel park our Fiat Panda three times. After getting all checked in, we enjoyed a quiet evening exploring the old city (right).

The following morning (Saturday, September 26th - for those keeping track at home), we awoke to a gorgeous day in Ryan's "fahterlande". We strolled across the river to the Mozartplatz, a square dedicated to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the famous composer born in Salzburg. We continued exploring the around the Dom (interior shown at bottom), a huge cathedral in the Domplatz. It was apparent that we'd stumbled upon a festival as we passed carnival rides (left), bier tents, traditional German song and dance and people dressed in lederhosen and dirndl, the traditional dress of German people. We stopped to browse the vendors in the markets, people watch and enjoyed a 1/2 litre of Stiegl bier, a wurstel with German mustard and pretzel bread (right) for breakfast.

We spent the rest of the day exploring quintessential Austria, enjoying the mountain air and ornate architecture (and seeing many of the sights in The Sound of Music!).

A few highlights were:

• The Hohensalzburg Fortress (castle overlooking the city)
• The Schloss Mirabell (Above, right)
• Walking the trails of the Monchsberg (mountain overlooking the city). 
• It was here that Ryan had a small accident (Right - I had to wrestle him for the evidence) when I yelled "polizei!" during a bathroom stop in the woods...
  
• Eating a delicious dinner at Stieglkeller, a restaurant built into the mountain with a beautiful view of the city.  
• We watched the sunset, heard the sounds of the festival below and listened the the Glockenspiel's evening concert!

We had the perfect ending to an amazing day; our hostel was showing The Sound of Music - and we arrived just as it began! It was wonderful to watch the movie and recognize the things we had just seen! How many times does one get to watch The Sound of Music in Salzburg??