Salzburg

When I was a little girl, I was crazy for Julie Andrews movies, from Mary Poppins, to Thoroughly Modern Millie, but her crowning glory was my favorite, The Sound of Music. I can't even remember the number of times I asked my mother to take me to see it or watched it on TV (no DVDs or even VCRs back then), but I think it's safe to say I've seen it in excess of 15 times and I still love it. I was so disappointed, when we were living in Frankfurt, that all of Austria we saw was Innsbrook, not Salzburg.  So when I made plans to visit Samantha in Vienna, the top thing on my list was the Sound of Music tour of Salzburg.

 

We took the train from Vienna, arriving in Salzburg in mid-afternoon. We checked into Hotel Elephant, which is a pretty little hotel in the old city, and headed out to the beautiful Christmas market in the shadow of the fortress and the to see the ice skaters in Mozart Platz.  While very pretty, the lightly falling snow was also wet and chilly, so we sought an early dinner down one of the picturesque side streets off of Mozart Platz.   On Wednesday morning, we walked back to Mozart Platz for our pick up by the tour company.  We changed to a big bus and headed off on the tour, which I thoroughly enjoyed. 

Fortunately, Wednesday was a beautiful, sunny day, although still quite cold.  The light dusting of snow made everything look magical. We first drove around downtown Salzburg, past Nonnberg Abbey, where the original Maria grew up and where she and The Captain were actually married.  We drove past the marionette theatre where the Lonely Goatherd scene was shot, which is still used to stage marionette plays to this day.  We headed off to the outskirts of Salzburg to see Leopoldskron Palace, where the back scenes of the movie were shot, when Maria and the children fall out of a rowboat into a lake upon seeing the Captain's return. 


We learned that the movie was actually set in several locations, although many of the interior scenes of the whole movie were filmed on sound stages in L.A.  Exterior shots were filmed in Salzburg, though.  The lake behind Leopoldskron Palace is beautiful as are the grounds.  This is also where the gazebo scene was filmed - "I am 16 going on 17" -  although the gazebo was moved as the Palace is now a conference center and tourists were too disruptive for the conferences.

We next went to a picturesque little Christmas market, which is just next to the new location of the Hellbrunn Gazebo.   We had to take pictures there, although it is locked, so we couldn't go inside.  From there, we drove past Frohnburg Palace, which a private home, but it was used as the exterior of the Von Trapp villa, including the tree-line lane that leads up to it, where the children hung from tree branches as their father and his guests drove beneath them on his way home.


We next had a long bus trip into the lakes region outside of Salzburg, which was absolutely stunning.  I tried taking pictures out the window of the bus with limited success.  Fortunately, we did stop in some lovely spots to take pictures.  The lakes regions were filmed for the opening and ending scenes of the movie, shown in panoramic scenes of the region, and they are just beautiful.  We also saw bits of Untersburg Mountain, peaking through the snow and clouds, upon which Maria sings Sound of Music in the opening scene and where the family allegedly climbs to safety at the end of the movie. Of course, in real life, the family escaped Nazi Austria on a train to Italy.

We arrived in the town of Mondsee, where the interior of the Mondsee Cathedral was used to film Maria and the Captain's wedding.  This Cathedral was beautiful and felt very much as it looked in the wedding scenes of the movie.  I was so obsessed with this movie that I used the music from that wedding as the processional for my own, and I still love that music to this day. 








Unfortunately, once we saw the inside of the Cathedral and had purchased a few souvenirs, there was little else to do in Mondsee, as most of the restaurants and shops were closed, even though this is planned as our lunch break.  We found a small bakery cafe, as did almost everyone on the tour, and bought some "kaiser brotchen" (cheese baked on delicious rolls) and hot chocolate to warm our hands.  Then it was back on the bus for the return to Salzburg, all the while watching some footage from a special anniversary edition DVD and listening to the soundtrack from the movie.

Once back in Salzburg, we checked out another small Christmas market, and then walked through Mirabell Gardens, where much of the Do-Re-Mi song was filmed.  Then we walked over the Salzach River and back to our hotel, where we picked up our bags, called a cab, and caught the next train back to Vienna.


It was a short, cold, snowy visit to Salzburg and I'd love to go back someday, but it was a lot of fun.  My daughters made a little fun of me and my long-held desire to go on the Sound of Music tour and see Salzburg more for it's role in that movie than for it's heritage as the birthplace of Mozart or the home of the Salzburg Music Festival or it's historical and architectural wonders.  But, I was so happy that we saw the sights, took the tour, and made time during this quick trip to Vienna to go and see the city that brought me so many wonderful memories and brought the world one of the most-loved movies of all time.

Bologna

As soon as Beth's flight from NYC landed, we stored her big suitcase and dragged her upstairs to check in for our flight to Bologna, Italy.  While it might seem odd that she hadn't seen anything of Vienna yet, we all decided that we wanted to visit Bologna and take this incredible tour that Samantha's doctor had recommended. So, we flew to Bologna on Friday, changing planes (and literally racing throughout the airport) in Rome.

I can't help but mention the lovely older Italian man in the Vienna gate area who asked if we were all sisters and exclaimed that Samantha and Elizabeth we so lucky to have such a young-looking mother. It seemed like a good omen of Bologna to me, but maybe not so much.

We landed in Bologna in pouring rain and took a cab to the hotel, which was basic but nice. We immediately headed out to walk around and found a fun open-air market, where Beth bought some cute flats for 5€.  When we got hungry, we stopped a great restaurant filled with English speakers and delicious food. The pasta and desserts were incredible, just as we expected in Bologna.  But after a couple glasses of wine, the jet lag started to catch up with Elizabeth and we headed back to the hotel to sleep.

We were picked up at 7 a.m. On Saturday for our Italian food Days tour.  After picking up a Swedish family at the train station, we drove about an hour, in the pouring rain, into the Italian countryside.  I'm sure the drive would be beautiful on a sunny day. We first went to a factory that produces Parmaggiano-Reggiano cheese.  We had to get there so early to see the cheese being made step-by-step.p, except for the milking of the cows and delivery of the milk to the factory.   We saw the 20 huge vats in which 2 standard-sized 100 lb. wheels of cheese are cooked. We watched the cheese master check when the cheese is ready to be cooled into one large block, divided into 2 cheese cloths, and then moved into plastic forms to make rounds or wheels of cheese,  it was really interesting to see the plastic inserts put into the plastic wheels on the second day to imprint each wheel of cheese with the Parmaggiano-Reggiano logo and the governmentally-regulated markings, including date and vat number. The cheese is moved to stainless forms and then, on day 20, is moved to racks to age for at least a year.  At that point, governmental quality control agents check the cheese by tapping all around it and determine if it's grade 1 or 2, which determines how long it can be aged, or if it's just cheese, which can't be aged.  They have to scrape the imprinted Parmaggiano-Reggiano cheese markings off the "cheese" and draw lines through the words if it's grade 2.  We also learned that ricotta, which is a dairy product but not really cheese, is made from the leftover cream and whey that are produced in the production of Parmaggiano-Reggiano. 

While this was all very interesting, tasting it was even more fun. :)

From there, we drove a short way to a beautiful villa where they produce balsamic vinegar.   This was also fascinating, as we learned about the Government-regulated quality control on the DOP balmasic, which is made in a pain-stakingly slow process. We got to taste-test several types, including some on vanilla gelato and some fresh ricotta made that morning - yum!

From there, we all went to an elaborate, long Italian lunch with the 3 Swedes, 2 other Americans (a mother and her 23-year-old daughter from Orlando, although the daughter has been in Germany for a year working as an au pair) and our guide, Alessandro. Lots of different food, including pumpkin soufflés and polenta gnocchi and everything with Parmaggiano-Reggiano on top. :) And, of course, lots of wine. What a wonderful way to spend a rainy day in Bologna. 

After we got back to Bologna, we wanted to go shopping a bit before dinner, so I said zi'd need to stop at an ATM, since I'd gap had to pay Alessandro in cash. By the time we made our way through the crowds to an ATM, my purse had been opened and my wallet stolen with me none the wiser. Unsettling, to be sure - I loved that wallet and still can't remember exactly all that was in it.  Fortunately, I'd left my passport and a couple of extra credit cards in the hotel for just such an eventuality. The biggest hassle is no ATM card, but fortunately I have 2 adult daughters with me. I sent Samantha some cash online and she took out more cash from her ATM. Just really annoying, as I'll have to get a new drivers license, health insurance cards, AAA cards, and all that sort of stuff, but fortunately Chris was at the apartment in Shanghai and could cancel the credit cards, so the new ones should be waiting for me whenI get to Elmhurst.  

On Sunday, we wandered the streets of Bologna, sight-seeing and eating. We stopped at a couple of famous churches, the Bologna Museum, the towers and the Piazza Maggiore. We had some good food and had a nice leisurely day, in the rain. Monday, we went back to airport - it was finally sunny - and flew to Rome, ate some delicious Buffala mozzarella there, and then flew to Vienna. After a quick dinner nod luggage sorting at Samantha's apartment, Elizabeth and I headed to our hotel for some sleep. Next, to Salzburg!

More Christmas Markets...

Our quest to find all the Weihnachtmarkts (Christmas Markets) in Vienna continues, although I'm not sure we have enough time to find them all!  Unfortunately, Samantha has had classes much of the past 3 days in Vienna, so I was on my own some of the time and with her some of the time.

 
So, on Monday, I walked down Mariahilferstrasse to the Museum Quarter to visit the Leopold Museum. It's a long walk - took about 45 minutes - but it gave me a chance to see more of Vienna. So many of the shops along Mariahilferstrasse were the sames ones we shopped at in Frankfurt, it brought a smile to my face. However, there were so many shoe stores that it made me wonder if the Viennese are obsessed with shoes. :) And, of course, along the way, I found another little Christmas market at a small church, which I think might be St. Josef's.

I enjoyed some of the art at the Leopold, which boasts about their collections of Schiele and Klimt paintings - both famous Viennese artists. For all the paintings in the museum, though, I definitely liked the landscapes more than anything involving people, especially Schiele's landscapes. I had lunch at the Leopold mostly because, after the walk and with the time zone change, I became hungry very suddenly,  After the museum, I headed out to Maria-Theresten Platz again, where the Weihnachtmarkt is not yet finished being set up.  A few of the booths are open, but mostly it’s still under construction.  I walked around the area and then took the U-Bahn back to Westbanhof, where I bought some toiletries, water bottles, and a laungenstange (pretzel bread roll) before going back to my hotel.  I tried to nap but couldn’t really sleep, so I read a bit and then took the U-Bahn to Krieau, the area near Samantha’s school to meet her.

We went to Praterstern, where there was another Winter Market open in an amusement area, where there is a ferris wheel called the Wiener Riesenrad (Viennese giant wheel), various other rides, and Madame Tussauds’s Wax Museum.  We bought a kartoffelpuffer – a potato pancake – because we were hoping to find some as good as those we got in Germany.  We learned that, in Austria, they are not served with applesauce or sour cream and are more like hash browns.  Tasty but disappointing.  There were a couple of big Coca-Cola displays, so as a good Emory girl, Samantha posed with them.  

 

We wandered the market, shopped in the souvenir shops and then headed back to Mariahilferstrasse to the small Weihnachtmarkt I had seen earlier in the day.  Here we ordered a hot apple cider which smelled delicious but tasted like straight rum.  Samantha discreetly poured it into a trash can, but at least she got the pretty mug like the ones in which we’d been served our hot chocolates in the Ratskeller.  We also saw an incredible gingerbread house and some pretty Christmas ornaments.  

Samantha had a morning class on Tuesday, so I was supposed to meet her at the Stephansplatz stop on the U-Bahn at 11:15 so we could meet up, do lunch at one of the two cafes recommended by teachers at York, and then go to see Time Travel Vienna, a “5D” exhibit of the history of Vienna.  I left early so I could go to see St. Stephan’s Church in Stephansplatz, as it is one of the most famous in Vienna. 

Again, the morning was foggy and cold, but I came up from the U-Bahn in Stephansplatz and saw the beautiful cathedral and the little Weihnachtsmarkt next to it in the square.  I went in the church and looked around, but they weren’t offering an English tour until Saturday.  I bought some postcards and then walked around the outside of the church and nosed about the little shops.  From there, I decided to find out where the cafes and Time Travel Vienna were before meeting Samantha.

After checking a map, I turned and walked down The Graben, a major pedestrian area and central shopping area of Vienna’s first district.  This is a beautiful area of town – large holiday decorations, the Plague statue, ornate buildings and St. Peter’s Church, which apparently forms a triangle of sorts with St. Stephans and the Plague Statue.  It was a lovely area and quite festive – I saw two punch shacks set up for the holidays next to each other – one by the Lions Club International and one by the Kiwanas. 

I found the two little cafes right across the street from each other on a little street off of the Graben.  Also, Time Travel Vienna is off another little street a couple blocks up, so I bought us our tickets.  The English tour is only offered at 40 minutes past the hour.  I went back and met Samantha and we checked out the two cafes, but realized neither was really right for us.  One was truly just a café, not a lunch place, and the other, while famous for open “spread” sandwiches, did not appeal to the allergic people that we are.  So, we went to a little Italian place next door and had a delicious lunch.  We headed out along the Graben and did some window shopping before our tour.

Time Travel Vienna is interesting and a nice, brief introduction to the history of Vienna.  It covered some ancient history, the music history of Vienna, the Hapsburg Dynasty, and Vienna through the two world wars – all in a fairly short time by use of interactive films (in Disney-style shaking seats), animatronics, and moving stages.  It’s a little corny, but I found it amusing.

After our tour, we headed back out to the Graben and walked over to the Weihnachtsmarkt outside of St. Stephans.  Very pretty area.  We took the U-Bahn back to the Rathaus to go to that Market, though, because Samantha was freezing and wanted to buy a hat at one of the booths like where I had bought one at the Rathaus.  So, we went back to the market, bought her a nice, warm hat, had some chocolate-covered bananas and strawberries, and wandered around.  I had bought one at the Rathaus.  So, we went back to the market, bought her a nice, warm hat, had some chocolate-covered bananas and strawberries, and wandered around.  

Eventually, we had to head over to the area where the Volksopera House is, where we will be attending The Merry Widow on Thursday night.  Samantha was meeting there with a man who apparently works at the U.S. Consulate, even though he is Austrian, at the Café Weimar.  She had to interview this man about the charity he works with that provides relief to Uganda.  Café Weimar was a traditional Viennese Coffee House, where people meet and talk and sip a coffee, or in our case, a hot chocolate, (which always is served with a glass of tap water) and stay for hours.  Her interview was very successful and interesting.  She is meeting with her group on Wednesday to finalize their presentation and report on this project.After our tour, we headed back out to the Graben and walked over to the Weihnachtsmarkt outside of St. Stephans.  Very pretty area.  We took the U-Bahn back to the Rathaus to go to that Market, though, because Samantha was freezing and wanted to buy a hat at one of the booths like wher

After the interview, we took the U-Bahn back to Westbahnhof and picked up some dinner in the food court and grocery store there.  We took it back to my hotel room and watched some more American TV before I started to nod off.  I was expecting to stay awake longer, as I have been sleeping longer, but I was walking around Vienna all day and must have gotten tired out.  Hopefully I’ll be able to stay awake long enough to enjoy the Merry Widow on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Samantha had class and meetings from 1-8 p.m., so we only had the morning together. First thing, we went back to Heldenplatz to see the Morning Exercise of the Lipizzsaners at the Spanish Riding School of Vienna.  We had a nice hot chocolate in the café there and then watched the Morning Exercise for about an hour and a half.  We got to see three groups of riders put the horses through their paces and it was fascinating to see the footwork of these horses.  They don’t allow pictures – I’m sure it could frighten the horses – so, unfortunately, I have no pictures, but it was fascinating to watch.

After we left the Riding School, we had lunch in a nice little café right on Michaelerplatz, which was good because she wouldn't have any other breaks, so that was her meal for the day.  We parted in the U-Bahn, as she went off to meet her group to finish their presentation before class and I went to Belvedere Palace.  The weather was a little warmer in the morning, so we were too warm with our hats, gloves and scarves, but rainy in the afternoon, so cooler again.  Unfortunately, it is supposed to rain most of the rest of the week, so it doesn’t look like the pictures will be very good.

I took the U-Bahn and then walked a few blocks through a very run-down area on the way to Belvedere Palace.  The grounds of the Belvedere are beautiful and must be stunning when the gardens are in bloom.  Of course, there is another Weihnachmart being set up in front of Upper Belvedere, part of the same market that is being set up in Maria-Theresten Platz and other places around the city.  I don’t think these markets are opening until this weekend, but there was a lot of activity as the booths were being set up.

The Upper Belvedere houses an art museum with the most famous painting in Vienna, the Kiss by Stimt.  It’s interesting and the iridescence of the gold in the painting is fascinating, but Stimt doesn’t really do it for me.  There were some impressionist pieces, including some by Monet, Renoir, Manet, and Degas, so, of course, that was my favorite part of the museum, beyond the grounds and the architecture of the buildings themselves.  I met 5 girls from a small university in Arkansas who are doing a semester abroad in Florence and were touring the area this weekend.  They had been to Berlin and Munich and were in Vienna for only about a day before moving on to Prague, I think.  A lot of study abroad students are sightseeing in Europe every weekend, from the sounds of it.  I never did a semester abroad, but it sounds like it would have been fun.

On my way back to the U-Bahn after Belvedere, I stopped at St. Elizabeth’s Church, just a pretty little church in the neighborhood.  Then I hopped back on the train and headed to Westbahnhof, where I picked up some bread, water, cheddar cheese, and train schedules for Salzburg and Budapest.  I can’t believe we only have tomorrow left before Elizabeth arrives and we fly to Bologna.  It’s going to be so much fun!