Salzburg, and how it sings to my heart!

Chia! Again, your baking is wonderful! I remember that even in Perth you would always have some goodies for me to try and eat... remember this time:

You and Me in 2008, baking.

My god we look young. AND my pimplesssssss... yuck! Anyways, seeing your muffins reminded me of this day, and it made me miss you in Perth!

Yea the rides looked awesome! Though Kev and I didn't manage to go on any because we always were too full from food or beer, and those rides would have made us yack!

But yes... Salzburg... Ahhhh... it is the city where The Sound of Music was filmed, and also where Mozart was born and raised until he moved to Vienna. Our time here consisted mainly of two things things:

1. Mountains; and
2. Music

Let me go through all those things.

Mountains

As in my previous posts, I do find something special about being high in the mountains, or deep down under the sea. In both places, I feel like I am in a different world, and nothing else matters. Big love for nature. Love love love! When we took the train from Innsbruck to Salzburg... I had to film our ride:

The mountains are so mysterious and I think it is because we are so much higher, that the clouds are closer to us. I also think that seeing clouds touching land, gives an impression that that land is somewhat near to 'heaven' or where the mythical gods live. 

On our first day in Salzburg, Kev and I went on an ice cave tour to the largest ice cave in the world. What I didn't expect was the beautiful hike we would have to take to get up to the ice cave.

Some of the path that we walked

We discovered Mezzo Mix! I mix of coke and fanta!

Kev's Austrian alternative to beer!

The mountain birds standing at attention!

Unfortunately, we were unable to take photos once inside the ice cave, but it was huge! And so very cold despite being summer/autumn!

Mountains were everywhere! Even in the city of Salzburg we could see them. When we went on our Segway tour (organised by Kev), our guide said something really cute: "Sometimes the clouds are too heavy to get over the mountains, so they stay in Salzburg. Once it rains, the clouds get lighter and then they can get over the mountains."

Me on a segway

Music

Sound of Music

In the heart of Old Town, Kev and I ended up going to a 'Sound of Music' dinner performance at Sternbrau (a beer garden and restaurant). It had traditional Austrian pub-like food as well as a live stage performance of songs from the Sound of Music, some traditional Austrian folk music, and Austrian classical pieces including some Mozart. I enjoyed The Sound of Music songs of course, and though Kev and I were the youngest couple there, we were the only ones who were singing along! Anyways, mid way through, they had a traditional folk dance, and Kev was dragged on stage!!! He did really well actually! Later on, when they were singing the last song of the night (so long farewell, tea with jam and bread) I was then dragged on stage to sing along too. AH! We both had our share of the limelight!

Kev and I walked everywhere as Salzburg is quite small. We eventually made it to Mirabell Gardens which was beautiful! It was built by an Archbishop for his 'wife' that he was not supposed to have, but more importantly, it had scenes from 'Do, re, mi' in The Sound of Music. When we first got there, there were SO many people. It got SO annoying.

Augh! Tourists, tourists, and more tourists!

I got so frustrated, and poor Kev had to try and keep me sane. Eventually I just gave up with trying to get photos and said to him "I'm sorry, but we are going to have to get up super early tomorrow morning and come here when everyone is asleep!" 

So the next day, Kev had set our alarm, and we walked to Mirabell Gardens at around 8.30/9/00am and it was quiet. There were still tourists, but a lot less of them, so we had to wait to get certain shots. Eventually we got the photos and footage that I really wanted to take. By way of introduction, and to get you into the right mind set... here's a video from YouTube of the song 'Do, re, mi' from The Sound of Music, and perhaps you can see where my shots are taken from!

Other scenes from the movie include:

'I have confidence in sunshine! I have confidence in rain! 

The cemetery that the movie based the runaway scene from.

I think there is a scene here... I think. But anyways, its the horses bath - for horses (back in the day) to wash after a long journey.

I am 16 going on 17...

Mozart

We also visited Mozart's birth place and place of residence in Salzburg. We were able to go inside and have a look at things like Mozart's piano and original music sheets with his handwriting. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any photos. But from memory, the thing I really liked was seeing his handwritten notes. There is something about handwriting that is so special. It's so personal, and there is no denying that time was spent by that person, pressing down that sheet of paper, and creating fine strokes and shapes to communicate one thing or another. I just loved it.

Mozart's residence

I just realised that there is so much more to Salzburg, and so, I will have to do another post for the other special things about this beautiful city! Until then, I hope you had a great Monday Chia!