Salzburg 5

Salzburg Day 5

Today Brian and I woke up extremely excited to spend a full day here.  We have totally fallen in love with Salzburg and everything about it.  First things first, Sound of Music Tour.

Sound of Music is one of the greatest musicals and films of all time and it is set in gorgeous Salzburg.  In fact, Salzburg’s wealth is due to tourism because a ton of tourists flock here because of Mozart and the Sound of Music.  That is amazing! We booked the tour through our hostel and saved 10% on the price.  Also, a van picked us up at the hostel and brought us to the big coach bus that was going to be running the tour.  Everything about the tour was fantastic.  Our tour guide was hilarious and we got to see some of the greatest sites I have ever seen.  We started in the heart of Salzburg and some of the views there and then drove out of the city and into the Alps.  The scenery was fantastic and I admit I got a little teary eyed.   We stopped in a cute town, Mondsee, where they filmed the wedding scene and where there was rumored to be a café with amazing apple strudel.  We ate “crisp apple strudel” and decided it was definitely one of our favorite things…I know, I’m a dork. We had the opportunity to see where they filmed a lot of the movie and heard a lot of information about Salzburg, the people, and the surroundings as well.  Also, while on the bus we got to see some scenes from the movie and hear music.  I loved every minute of it.

Mondsee

Church where marriage took place

Apple Strudel from Mondsee

Most Beautiful View

The Abbey

The tour ended in front of the Mirabell Palace and the Mirabell gardens.  This location was used for the Do Re Mi song scene in the movie.  It wasn’t part of the tour because we started and ended right by it and our tour guide recommended we spend time there on our own because there is a lot to see and we could take our time.  Brian and I walked through the gardens on our way to our next stop: Mozart’s house and Mozart’s birthplace. 

We toured both of these locations.  The first, Mozart’s house, provided us with a great museum that had Mozart’s piano and many of his original works.  There was also a lot of information about his family and how they lived.  After this, we walked to Mozart’s birthplace.  This was yet another museum that showed us more about Mozart’s family and his pieces.  And here was also where I learned how oblivious Brian can be sometimes.  While I walked through the three rooms about Mozart’s operas, Brian only noticed one of them and the gift shop.  And, since there was a gift shop, he thought it was the end and he went to the exit.  Then, I turned around and could not find him anywhere.  So, I figured he went to the next floor where there were three more rooms about Mozart’s music and his life.  But no, Brian saw one of the six rooms in the place and thought that was it…because of the gift shop.  I admit, typically a gift shop comes at the end, but seriously how do you not see 5 rooms?  Anyways, I finally found him at the exit and we laughed a lot about what had just happened.  We also decided we were starving and we should just move on to a nearby café that was recommended by Brian’s harp teacher for having the best apple strudel. 

Tomaselli’s did in fact have fantastic apple strudel, even better than the one during the tour!  Unfortunately, they did not have much else on the menu besides desserts and we were famished.  So, we decided to walk to the largest Beer House, Augustiner Brau, in Austria that our Sound of Music tour guide had pointed out.  This Beer Hall is next to a giant church that sits up on a hill.  We climbed up to the church for another amazing view of Salzburg and then headed to the beer hall for lunch.  It was like a food court, but no one spoke any English.  People were dressed in traditional Austrian clothing and there was a lot of singing, dancing, and of course beer.  This felt like the most Austrian thing we had done so far and it was really neat.  We had a lot of fun and then decided to go back to the hostel to chill out before meeting up with Brian’s mom for dinner. 

Brian, his mom, and I all went to a restaurant called Die Weisse, which was recommended, by the hostel for having amazing home-brewed beer and great vegetarian options.  It didn’t disappoint and we thoroughly enjoyed our meal.  After the meal, we walked Brian’s mom back and then Brian and I headed out to check out the Salzburg nightlife.

We went to two bars and both were great.  The first, Havana, was known for it’s fantastic cocktails.  We both ordered one and had a good time sitting at the bar and enjoying the atmosphere.  Brian had a Mojito and I had a Cosmo.  We were both very pleased with our choices.  Then, we headed to the Shamrock with was known for being the best Irish Pub in Salzburg.  We agreed that this place was great.  Brian had a Guinness with Cider and I had their house wine.  We also ordered a third apple strudel...well apple strudel shots! They tasted just like the dessert :).  We walked back to our hostel a little tipsy and totally happy.  I started singing some Sound of Music in the streets to myself and Brian even chimed in! It was a great day and we were both so grateful to have this experience.