The hills are alive!!!
Hi friends! So, for the past few stops, we have been quite close to missing our train. Vienna was no exception. We caught our commuter train as scheduled, and arrived to the central station with some time to spare. In the spirit of unity and teamwork, I won’t mention names, but one of our party needed to use the restroom and took off. About 15 minutes later, with the other members of our party getting antsy, said team member returned from the opposite direction, telling us how the restroom was behind us…not in front like the signs indicated, on the 3rd floor… ANYWAY, we ran to our train…and barely made it. Because this was such a short trip, we were not able to purchase assigned seats, AND since we were a little late, there were hardly any seats available. We concentrated our luggage to a single location and left Javier to guard, while the rest of us went hunting for seats. After our rowdy night, we were all pretty tired, and it would have been nice to sit together where we could sleep and drool on each other, but that just wasn’t in the cards.
Salzburg
Javier and I looked for apartments for all of us to stay together, but there was absolutely nothing available, so for Salzburg, we had to separate 
As soon as we started walking to our hotels, we instantly fell in love with the scenery. It was like something out of a story book.
Despite the new and inspiring scenery, we were all pretty tired, so after getting settled in our hotels, we met for dinner and called it a night. The plan was that since Annette and Baylon were staying at a fancy hotel, they would book our tour for the following day. Annette sent us a message to meet at their hotel the following morning bright and early, and I believe I was already asleep by then, so Javier set an alarm, and it was lights out.
Salzburg
The walk to Annette and Baylon’s hotel gave us an appreciation for the city. We were set just outside of the crowded tourist area, and their hotel was right in the heart of it. Along the way, we walked through a small square with a church, fountains, sculptures, and a huge chess/checker board painted on the ground with wooden chess pieces about two feet tall. The streets were small and cobblestoned, with little hanging signs above the doors of the shops. Even the McDonald’s sign was pretty. We arrived to the hotel on time (15 minutes early) and waited…and waited… Turned out the tour ran out of shuttle vans, so the hotel was scurrying to call us a cab. The cab arrived, dropped us at the meeting point, and the tour picked up the tab. Not too shabby.
Our guide in Salzburg. Hi Sharon!
We met our tour guide, Sharon who was dressed in a dindrl, and while very polite, seemed slightly cynical, which made us love her instantly. The bus was not full, so we sat in the back, where we could be loud, sprawl all over the seats, and not bother anyone. The tour took us to all the major sights from the Sound of Music. Sharon told us little movie secrets like the mountain that the family is climbing over to get to
Palace Leopold (Schloss Leopoldskron)
Switzerland, is actually the mountain where Hitler had his “eagle’s nest” so the family would have hiked right into Hitler’s headquarters, and that the house used in the movie is actually not on the lake. So, when Maria and the children fall into the water, the scene was shot at two locations. All of the scenes with Maria’s face were filmed at the fake lake house,
Frohnburg Castle
and the scenes with the Captain’s face were filmed at the real house. Sure enough, when you watch the movie, the scene shifts back and forth to their faces, and his background is always the house and hers, always the lake. Really random, I know, but I thought it was really cool. We did go to the actual house, which is now used as student dorms, we saw the row of trees where Maria sings “I have
Frohnburg. Gazebo fun.
Confidence, “ which is a reeeeeally long stretch of sidewalk passing by the front of the house, and the gazebo which was a whole lot smaller than the studio version, at the other end. We went to Mondsee to visit the church where Maria and the Captain were married, and since it was a bit of a drive to that location, Sharon put on the soundtrack, and we sang our little hearts out! We ended the tour in the Do-Re-Mi garden, but decided to return at a later time, since we had another tour for the last half of the day.
After a quick bite and potty break, we boarded our bus for the salt mines. So, Salzburg literally translates to “salt fortress.” Apparently, Salzburg made its money in salt mining and exportation. We
let’s go to the Salt mines
went to an old salt mine, where we put on protective suits, boarded a small train, and headed deep into the mountain. Now, I know I said train, but it was actually much smaller. It was like being on a kiddie ride. The “conductor” sat on a cushion at the front, and connected to it were maybe 5 carts that consisted of a baseboard and long bench that you had to straddle that fit 6-7 people, while still providing some personal space. There were no side walls or ceiling, and if I stretched my arms in any direction but down, they would get scraped against the sides, or top of the cave. All in all, the cave was about 4 feet wide and 5 feet tall…thank God none of us are claustrophobic. After about a 5 minute ride, we arrived in a large cavern. Here the guide explained where we were and the highlights. Since we don’t understand German, we were given an audio guide. The salt tour was really, really cool. There were parts where we slid down these long wooden slides (hence the jumpsuit), crossed a salt lake on a little boat, and I have to admit, I was quite impressed with the interactive and informative displays, light shows, and equipment on display. At first, I thought it might be boring, or even cheesy, and no one else in our group had heard of it. I had been told by a handful of people that it was a good tour, so I dragged our group hoping they hadn’t led me astray, and they hadn’t! Everyone had a blast. Whew!
Schloss Fuschl
On the way back, we stopped by this little town, which for us equaled ice cream and some quick pictures, and made our way home. Once home, we had some pretty tasty Korean food and went our separate ways. By now, Javier was all better, but I became sick as soon as we arrived in Salzburg. So, Annette and Baylon went to another Mozart concert later that night, but Javier and I went home where I passed out.
Untersberg
On our Sound of Music tour, our guide had pointed out a mountain and cable car. Since we were having great weather, we decided to take the cable car up to the top of the mountain. From there we took a short hike, enjoyed the breathtaking views of Salzburg and the alps, had a snack and a drink, and made our way down. We learned that one member of our party does not do well with dangling over a mountain in a cable car, but is not necessarily afraid of heights…hmmm…
Sound of music scene at Mirabell Palace
On the way home, we jumped out of the bus early and went our separate ways. Baylon wanted to visit the house from the Sound of Music, and a museum at the top of a mountain, and the rest of us went to a museum of trick fountains, although, once we arrived, none of us felt like going in. Ha. We all met for dinner, after which Baylon went on a date, I went home, and Javier and Annette attempted, yet were not successful, in going to McDonlads to drink a beer, yes, a beer at McDonalds, and plan some more of the trip.
Another Sound of music scene. The hills are still alive!
The next day, we had planned to return to the gardens to take more pictures, and then look for lederhosen and dindrls. After singing Do-Re-Mi, running through the trellis tunnel, and jumping up and down steps, we set off to find our lederhosen. Now THIS turned our to be quite the adventure. Basically, we were given wrong directions, but didn’t know this until walking for over an hour. We finally gave up and called a cab, who took us to our destination only to find out that it was a residential address. This is the address on the store’s website!!! The cabby then took us to a nearby mall, where we would eat and regroup. We asked for help, but no one seemed to know where our store was located. Finally, Javier found the name of another store, while I phoned our original store, and spoke to someone who I could barely understand, wrote down the address as best I could, and googled it. It was on the other side of town! But, it was close to Javier’s place, so the three of us decided to get on a train and make it happen, while Baylon threw in the towel and went back to the hotel. By the time we arrived to the first store, it was after 4pm. We tried on a few outfits, but nothing seemed to really speak to us. We decided to try out the other store, even though we had no idea if it actually existed. We made it to the store around 5pm, and tried on a few dindrls with a rather no-nonsense German woman who proceeded to dress both me and Annette. We were not so taken by this woman in the beginning, but in the end, we absolutely loved her! We both found little gems, and were happy as could be. Javier was a little bummed that he hadn’t found anything that seemed right, and as soon as this lady was done with me and Annette, she marched right
Mirabell Palace
upstairs and started with Javier. She brought us each a cold beer, and we drank, chatted and laughed together, while Javier modeled various lederhosen until he found the perfect pair! We all left in high spirits and empty wallets! 
On the walk home, we stopped at a pub with the intention of eating a snack while we waited for Baylon, but the pizza was so darn good, and so darn inexpensive that we turned it into dinner, made plans for the following day, and made our way home.
As par for the course, Javier and I were a little hectic getting to the train the next day. We actually gave ourselves plenty of time, but decided to stop and pick up pizzas for the train ride. It seemed like a really good idea the night before, but come that morning, neither of us really felt like pizza, so we messaged the others to see if they were still interested. When we didn’t hear from them, we decided to stop by even though it meant we would be cutting it close. Now, had we had the tickets, it probably would not have been so bad, but Annette was carrying the tickets, so when we arrived at the station, we had no idea what platform we were going to. We were hoping that one of them would be waiting at the entrance of the station to meet us, but no such luck. We quickly looked at the departure schedule and started to panic. A quick note for those not familiar with the trains… When looking at the departure schedule, only the final destination is available.
Salzburg
Some fancier stations have the other stops that scroll like ticker tape, but most don’t. Therefore, information like, oh, I don’t know… the train number, is really important. Sometimes departure time is helpful, but in our case, there were several trains leaving at the same time. Since Munich was not the final stop of our train, it was not listed anywhere. We looked for help, but there were no workers around. We ended up going to a platform way out of the way, realized it couldn’t be right, and made our way back to the main area. We decided to chance our luck with another platform, and here comes Annette sauntering down the stairs…”there you are!” Meanwhile, we’re sweaty, frazzled, carrying hot pizza, not to mention the 40-50lbs on our backs. She said they were taking turns going downstairs to wait for us, and once the train arrived, they stowed their stuff and she was coming down to find us…I guess timing really is everything. Anyway, we plopped down with about 5 minutes to spare, felt sorry for the old couple sitting next to our hot sweaty selves, and cursed the pizza in front of us, which for some ridiculous reason, we blamed for our hectic morning.
Check out this video from the Sound of Music Tour. Not us, but pretty close to what we experienced. And to see more pictures of Salzburg click HERE.