Berchtesgaden 26/5/15

The day started with rain which continued all day. Our adventure today was to go to Berchtesgaden, a forty minute bus ride from Salzburg. Berchtesgaden is comprised of a national park where there are many hiking and climbing areas, as well as many significant WWII historical sights. We took a four hour tour of the hillside location of Hitler's closest friends, Documentation Center and the Eagles Nest. The Eagles Nest was Hitlers 50th birthday present from the Nazi Party. It was a tea house that cost about 100 million marks to construct. It is in Germany but on the border of Austria. It is high in the mountains at 6017 feet; and, when there is no clouds, you can see up to 120 miles. Yesterday, there was both rain and clouds reducing visibility to less than 100 feet. The mountains around us were covered in snow. Berchtesgaden is a small village with lovely homes and churches.

 

Posted via Blogsy

Wolfgangsee 25/5/15

Today we took a bus up to St Gilgen which is a quaint town on the Walfgangsee. This is the most beautiful place we have been. The town and surrounding mountains were part of the opening scenes in the movie, The Sound of Music. This is where the Austrians go to hike and sail and hand glide. We walked around the lake to a town called St Wolfgang. It took us about 21/2 hours and a good part of it is a very long steep climb up and then a steep climb down. The views are fantastic. There is a boat that can take you around the lake. We chose to walk and it felt wonderful to be out in the country walking in the fresh air; and, it was not raining. There is a cog railroad that takes you to the top of the mountain for panoramic views. Today was a holiday so the bus schedule was more limited preventing us from staying longer. Our hostess had invited us to a family dinner at 1700. She had invited her parents, her daughter, son and other friends. The meal was delicious and a good time was had by all.

 

Posted via Blogsy

Sound of Music 24/5/15

If you don't own the music or the movie, go out and buy either. We started out early to take the Sound of Music tour left at 0930. It is a four hour tour that takes you to all of the different locations where the movie was shot.

Our guide Sharon was born in Israel where she lived for ten years and then London for twenty years She then came to Austria where she fell in love with the mountains and the lakes. She was most charming with a great sense of humour and in depth knowledge of the history of the Von Trapp family. She admits seeing the movie more than eight times. Some on the packed bus had seen the movie more than eight times.

The tour took us out to the Lake District to Mondsee where the church is In which the couple was married. The mountains around lake Fuschi and lake Wolfgang are where In the opening shots of the movie took place. Sharon told us about the real Von Trapp family and the difference between their life and the movie's. When they left Salzberg there were the seven children from his first marriage and two from his marriage to Maria. She was also pregnant at the time they left Austria. Making the escape a true challenge. Eventually, they ended up living in Stowe, Vermont.

During the tour music is played from the original movie. It seems that 350,000 people come a year to do this tour. The tour is in English since the movie only played here for two weeks 50 years ago and was never on television. The Austrians and Germans know little about it. The story was of a real musical family unwilling to sing for Hitler. To avoid repercussions, they packed whatever they could carry and took the train to Italy. A grand story of an Austrian family.

.

Front yard scenes and tipping over in cold water. twice!

Gazebo

Lake

Church

Church

Apple strudel with vanilla cream

Mozart, competition

Mozarts birthplace

 

Posted via Blogsy

Salzburg 23/5/15

This was our first full day in Salzburg. We arrived yesterday after a very noisy train ride. There was a bachelor party on board with a lot of beer drinking young men. Arriving in the rain with umbrellas up, we walked out to our lodging. It is a lovely house about a 40 minute walk from old town. Johanna is the owner; and, she has a separate apartment in her home . A bathroom small kitchen and a large bedroom living room. She is a charming hoast and very helpful. Today we started out early about 0800 to get a 0915 hop on and hop off bus. We generally take this bus to get an overview of the city. This was an interesting ride and made especially appealing because Mozart,s music is playing in the background. Since this is the birthplace of Mozart we heard about his life and were shown where he lived. He died in his mid thirties after having 6 children and writing such beautiful music. Can you imagine what he could have done. We then started visiting the sites. We will share with you the pictures. We started with the fort and castle and the modern painting museum. These are all up high on the cliff and do offer spectacular views. Because it rained all day the views were not so fantastic. There are both churches and cathedrals and each different and unique.

For lunch we found a small pub and cafe that was not crowded. They did not have much to offer but we decided to try two of their traditional dishes. The first was weisswursts. This is a white sausage probably veal. It comes in a terrine of hot water and possibly spinach accompanied with large pretzel. It was delicious. The second meal was called a hunters meal. Sounded interesting. A very large board with several different cheeses thinly sliced, four or five different kinds of dried meat and sausage thinly sliced, pickles, peppers. bread and butter and two pates. We learned that the meat was from boars, deer, and maybe goats or sheep. The meal came with two white beers.

After lunch, we took the stairs to the castle and art museum. The view from the cliff above the city was spectacular. The plazas and streets are very crowded with turists all with umbrellas. The streets are alive with musicians all hoping for a contribution.

By 1600 we were exhausted and decided to head home to our little apartment

Horse bath

 

Posted via Blogsy