Salzburg was a radical shift.  While I’d been to Italy before, knew a few words of Italian, and had a warm fuzzy that I had a clue what was going on, I had no such warm fuzzy in Salzburg.  I didn’t recognize a word of German, and the Rick Steve’s German dictionary had only about half the words I looked up.  In touristy parts of Italy, nearly everyone speaks a little or a lot of English.  In Salzburg, outside the hotel you were doing well to get a little English.  Still, pointing to what you want to buy always works, and we managed to struggle through our ignorance.

Thursday morning Dusty got up early and walked around the city. Our hotel was about 15 minutes from the old city (half that the way I walk).  After breakfast we went on Bob’s Sound of Music Tour.  Our guide Manfred picked us up at the hotel in a minivan. The weather was warm and sunny - Manfred indicated that only the week before they were running the heater in the van.  He was a friendly wealth of knowledge who appeared to be a ski / mountain bike bum. We drove to the convent where Maria lived, around the old town, and then to the first of the two homes used in the movie.  Here's your very own Sound of Music Tour!

Schloss Leopoldskron, used in the Sound of Music for the back of the von Trapp house.  Hohensalzburg Fortress is above it to the left, obscured by trees.

The gazebo used to film the song Sixteen going on Seventeen (or at least a reasonable facsimile of the original).  The gazebo is now at Hellbrunn, and is of course locked to keep tourists from dancing in it and breaking limbs and glass trying to leap gracefully from bench to bench.

I believe we are on route 158 on the way to Wolfgangsee - no idea what mountain is in back of us, though I should be able to figure it out.

Rodelbahnen Luge - not part of the movie, but a fantastic side trip.  The luge was interesting – they indicated no one ever fell off. There were two young ladies from Great Britain also in our van, and they also rode the luge. The first one went way too slow, and the second one went way to fast, nearly collided with the first one as she nailed the brake, and then fell off the luge onto the track, where she received severe burns on her thigh, hands, and fingers. We later saw her covered in bandages after a trip to the hospital. We witnessed this as we were all on our way up the mountain still, so it gave us reason to pause. After some discussion all the Ketchums rode the luge, each enjoying it to varying degrees.  Obviously, this would never fly in America, home of the lawyer and land of the lawsuit.

The view from the Muehlradl Restaurant, where we had lunch.  The town is St. Gilgen, the lake is Wolfgangsee, and a picture does not begin to do justice to the beauty of this place.

Mondsee.  Our guide indicated in a little while several huge tour busses would be arriving, bringing dozens or hundreds of tourists to this now sleepy town.

Mondsee - the church where the von Trapps were married in the Sound of Music.  I believe only the interior was shown in the movie.

Unlike the Sound of Music, there's no convent in the back of this church

While not visible in this picture and not very noticeable in person, there are three skeletons in the altar - one seated in the middle, and two lying down on each side.

You don't have to be able to read German to see that this memorial, on the side of the church in Mondsee, is for those lost in the two World Wars. 

After a siesta Thursday afternoon Dusty planned a long walk starting at the fortress and ending at the beer garden.  Bob agreed to come with me, and everyone else hung around old town.  

Salzburg Cathedral, built in 1628.  The Allies accidentally bombed the dome during WWII, and it wasn't rebuilt into 1959.  If you look closely the angels on the Cathedral are holding a golden halo that appears to be above the Virgin Mary's head.  The statue is actually in the foreground.  I wouldn't have seen this illusion without Rick's book.

Salzburg Cathedral

We walked through old town and rode the funicular ride up to the fortress.  The fortress is interesting, but the best part are the views of the city and surrounding countryside.  The fortress was built up over centuries to protect the city and its lucrative salt trade - salt was mined nearby and floated down the Salzach (salt) River to the rest of Europe.  The fortress was never take by force, but was surrendered to Napolean.

Salzburg from the Hohensalzburg Fortress.  Old town is on this side of the Salzach River; we stayed in the new town just the other side of the river.  The Cathedral is right center.  St Peter's Church and cemetery are in the left foreground.  The cemetery at the end of the Sound of Music was modeled after St. Peter's.

After we left the fortress I got lost at least once.  Rick's book indicated it was a quick 30 minute walk to along the cliff toward the beer gardens.  We ended up taking at least an hour longer than that, and seeing nearly all of Monchsberg.

Click here for a 330k panorama of Salzburg from the Gasthaus Stadtalm Cafe.

At last we ended up at the Augustiner Braustubl - my first beer garden!  They have several food booths inside - two bakeries, two delis, and a couple of places that had only meats and cheeses.  Beer was served by the liter and half liter, as seen above.  I bought a liter to drink, and bought 3 half liter mugs to bring home, but only two survived intact.  The place was packed with locals on a beautiful warm Thursday evening.  After we got a table three local men who spoke no English asked to share the table with us.  Actually they knew one word - 'cheers!'  They, along with many other folks, were eating rolls with some sort of white vegetable that had been turned into strips.  I finally decided to go local and try it - it had to be good if everyone was eating it.  I couldn't translate the word 'reddich' on the food booth inside where they were serving it - it wasn't in my pocket German dictionary.  Finally the lady at the food booth told me in English - radishes.  I passed on the radishes, but the rolls - heavily salted like a pretzel - were good. 

Everyone else went to old town, then went back to Frauenberger for dinner.