This trip was definitely done on a whim. I had nothing else planned for the weekend. It was sponsored by a local student travel group. I had friends going, and it sounded swell, so I decided to join in. I had no idea what the specific trip agenda would be until I arrived at the train station right after my last class on Thursday. Although I had maps of our destination loaded on my ipod, I didn't have a chance to study them at all, so the entire trip felt like a real-life game of GeoGuessr. (Link here for those unfamiliar with this fantastic website: http://geoguessr.com/ ). We took a bus from the train station. As we got north towards the Alps, we were greeted with snow, a familiar element that has been absent from our winter here. (Apologies to my readers from the northern US.) Through the snow and darkness, visibility was not good at all but the mountains still made their presence known with sheer rock faces, just visible out the bus windows. We arrived in Salzburg, Austria around 430am and we all grabbed two hours of sleep before our day would begin.
At 9am we had a "Sound of Music tour". The movie-musical was actually filmed in the town and region of Salzburg. The town is also famous for being the hometown of Mozart. It was a quite foggy morning, and it was amazing how mountains would hide above the tree lines.
This is the lake that was featured several times in the movie. But the Villa that they filmed inside was not actually along the lake. It was in a different location and is actually being used as a music school now. (Side note: Austrians apparently are quite angry that they are now stuck paying 800 euros per year for a college education. Poor guys... It used to be free...) Also, the lake was frozen, but not enough to allow for safe walking.
This pavilion was used in the movie for a dance scene between one of the daughters and the German courier. It used to be located in the woods on that lake, but has been moved to a different park. They now have it locked up because apparently some lady got seriously hurt dancing on the benches, replicating the movie scene.
The park had some pretty cool trees.
... And mansions.
Very climbable trees actually! If I can't hurt myself dancing like a movie from the 60's then I will try to do so climbing next to it!
Next we left the main Salzburg area and headed out into the countryside. As we drove past scenes like this, they played Sound of Music tunes on the bus. Do, a deer, a female deer,,,
Taking photos from a coach bus became a quite frequent occurrence this weekend.
Interesting fact. The guy who founded Red Bull was from Salzburg. He builds architecture like this. And both the local hockey and FOOTball teams are named the "Red Bulls". He also has his own private hanger at the local airport.
As we turned a corner, the bus pulled over and let us get out to soak up the incredible panoramic view of this lake, town, and mountains.
Stunning, isn't it?
Next we stopped in a town called Mondsee. The main sight to see here was this church. It was used for the wedding scene in the Sound of Music.
The interior had neo-gothic forms (ex, Pointed arches, continuous verticality.) with baroque ornamentation. although as it would turn out this would definitely bee one of the more tame examples of baroque architecture we would see this weekend. Also noteworthy is the fascinating vaulting system used, quite complex, a system you would not see in Italy.
Here is a view looking back to the rear and the organ. One noteworthy thing our guide said was that the locals really dislike the pink trim used on the columns and ribs. Feel free to comment your opinions!
We all went to this place in Mondsee to try some Austrian appelstrudel. I can confirm that it was quite excellent. I'll have to find a recipe.
We had to be back at the bus by 1, and as we were walking back, I just had to break out the camera.
Later, we arrived back in Salzburg and were given the afternoon/evening to roam the city and explore. We started at this garden. It had nice sculptures thrown about. And flowers. I have absolutely no clue, how in this climate, and time of season, they were able to keep flowers alive in the garden.
And the garden would lead us to our next destination, another castle on a hill! Also, on first glance I didn't notice it, but look at that modern building on the left. Austria does a fantastic job at integrating the old baroque with the new contemporary architecture. They are both well done. And they mix very well, in my opinion. There really are no 'bad' buildings here. Everything is built and designed with quality. The old are all good examples of their style. And the new look like buildings fresh off of an A+ architecture student's desk.
On our way to the castle was the Cathedral of Salzburg. For many years in its history, Salzburg was its own independent state, ruled by the archbishop. The archbishops funded the impenetrable fortress we were about to visit. Also, if you look in the bottom left corner of the church, you may be able to see a fellow playing guitar. It was very impressive playing, very classical. And somehow the sound was able to fill the entire plaza.
A gold sphere with a kid on the top, and the 'Festung Hohensalzburg' on the hill.
We weren't exactly sure where the path was, but we ran into this water mill, and ice had accumulated on the fence around it.
And we found this old cemetery. along the side of the cliff.
Finally we found the path and went into the castle. (It was a steep trek up there!) We noticed a dark area, and when we steped towards it, we were startled by a light turning on automatically to illuminate a blacksmith setup.
At several points along the castle walls were low openings, much lower than typical windows. Here is a picture of my friends taking pictures,,,
,,, of what I was about to take a picture of!
Here was a view out the back side of the castle. This is now my desktop background image. Note the speck right below the sun. That was a jet taking off. Its movement appeared so tiny with the mountainous backdrop.
I love my panoramas, so here is one from where I was standing on the backside of the castle.
And we walked around to the front side and I made another panorama!
In the castle there were guided tours of the castle. Now you may be wondering, how did you understand them? They speak German in Austria! And what about the French, Italian, or Chinese (etc.) languages? Well they had a nifty solution. A guide would take us room to room and we had little devices we had that we held like telephones, and they would speak to us in our native tongue. They had a room with models of various expansions on the castle, and paintings of the archbishops that significantly contributed to the project over it's 600 year construction period.
Through other rooms, and a spiral staircase, we were taken to this incredible view from the top of a tower.
We didn't walk back, we took the incline, which is a smaller more modern one that what I have in my hometown.
Back at the bottom, we went into the cathedral. It was a tasteful baroque interior, because it holds on to a classical style and uses baroque techniques as an enhancement. (In a later blog post, there will be interiors I will be critical of.) Notice the organ loft to the left of the altar. There was an organist and a clarinet player performing most beautiful music while we were in there.
We walked down the path by the river and crossed the bridge back to the side of the river where we started.
We went back to the garden and used it as a starting point to re-find a restaurant that our guide recommended. We had some trouble locating it, but after playing a round of GeoGuesser, we made it. (Sorry I neglected to snap any photos after this one.) The second we ordered, a local woman had her dessert delivered to her table. She knew immediately it was too big for her to finish, so she offered a third of it to us instead of letting it go to waste. It was a fluffy egg thing that liked like bread on the outside. Quite interesting. I ordered based off of my standard procedure that I use for any foreign meal. 1) Not overly expensive. 2) I have never tried anything like it before. Unfortunately the second after I handed the menu back to the waiter after we ordered, I completely forgot what it was, and since it was something completely different, I still wasn't even sure while eating it. All I knew was that it tasted amazing. Oh and the Austrian beer the waiter recommended was pretty decent as well.
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