Salzburg (Part 2, with Hannah)

The second trip to Salzburg was much more enjoyable, albeit MUCH colder, on account of the fact that we weren't walking around in a massive group literally blocking all the sidewalks and stopping traffic. It was just Hannah and I strolling along, hopefully not drawing too much attention to ourselves. We walked through the Mirabell Gardens, which were only half open since all the flowers were gone and the fountains were off due to winter, then went to the city center where they had a cute little Christmas market, which I dare say was better than Munich's but only because it had all the same things minus the giant throngs of people. It was also snowing on us, so that might have deterred many visitors. They ALSO had reasonable sized trash cans, as seen here:

Those are the largest trash cans I've seen in all of Europe. We checked out all the kiosks of ornaments, then tested all the olive oils/dips at a stand that had bread out (their mistake) and got ourselves some glühwein :) For lunch, I actually had dessert, as I decided to get chocolate sauce on my kaiserschmarrn (pancakes). Best choice I ever made.

After that we went on the Sound of Music Tour, which was in a little van with two other Brits and also two Americans, so Hannah and I were equally represented, haha. It starts at the Mirabell Gardens, where they shot the "Do-Re-Mi" scene and some others, then they drive past the theater where they shot the Von Trapp Family Singers scene, and since it was the first week in December, a few of these were standing outside.

This picture is from google; the ones standing outside must have been on break, because they didn't have their faces on, but you get the idea. It's like evil santa, children can get punished or even kidnapped by "Krampus" if they're especially naughty. They have whole parades of them on December 5th, the day before Saint Nicholas Day, where they ring huge cowbells and cause a ruckus. That night kids put a boot out and hope that St. Nicholas leaves them some presents. I believe it's only a southern Germany thing, in Bavaria, and Austria. There are a bunch of weird Bavarian traditions that don't exist in northern Germany; I'm gonna have to sort all those out, haha but for the most part if you think of a well-know aspect of German culture, it's actually just Bavarian, like lederhosen.

After this we drove out to the castle they used for the Von Trapp family home, which you can't really get that close to. They use it for seminars now (boringgg) and it's all locked up. We stopped across the lake from it. 

On the right there, conveniently above my hand. Also some swans.

Near there was also the gazebo where the "16 going on 17" scene was shot. It used to be on the castle grounds but people kept breaking in to take pictures, so they moved it and closed it off when someone broke their hip trying to jump from bench to bench.

Across the street from this was the road where all the children were hanging out of the trees, which we walked down for a bit, but then there was essentially a wall of snow blowing right at us, so we quickly ran back to the van. 

They stopped for a quick second back in town so we could get a picture of the top of Nonnberg Abbey, where the real Maria lived and where her and the Baron got married. It's the red dome(spire?) on the right.

After this the tour goes into the Alps for the panorama shots and scenery of the film on the way to the church where they shot the wedding scene. They point out three different lakes, but since it was so snowy we could only barely see the biggest one. At one point our tour guide said there was a lake directly to our left and you could literally only see white, haha. The church where they shot the wedding scene is in the tiny town of Mondsee (literally: Moon Lake). It's reallyyy small and really cute. They had a tiny Christmas market outside the church and a man building a small fire, thank the good Lord. 

We had an hour here so we took a quick walk through the church and the Christmas market, then sat down in the cafe for some hot chocolate and apple strudel :) it was deliciouuus. 

The tour was only about the filming though, so the main thing I learned was that Hollywood is dumb and got kicked out of everywhere, hahaha. First they got kicked out of the castle, for what I do not remember, but were allowed to have sketch artists go back in and then just recreated the rooms they needed. They also got kicked out of the Abbey, which is why the wedding was filmed in a tiny town up in the Alps, and eventually out of the whole city for putting up Nazi flags without permission. Smart move Hollywood, smart move.

When the tour was over we walked up to a beer hall our tour guide suggested. It was behind this tower, and even though our tour guide explained pretty well how to get there, we would have never found it if a group of middle-aged gentlemen weren't walking up there the same time as us. 

The table we were sitting at was against the wall and had a GLORIOUS heating pipe right under the bench, which I very gratefully warmed my feet on. On the way back to the train station I took this picture of the outside of the city center and the castle.

This was a much more adventurous day than the first (we actually stayed till after dark! unheard of with the i-club) and we both fell asleep on the train ride home, haha.

Oh, and this goat was in a corner of the Christmas market.