Salzburg

Sigh. We are back from a wonderful trip to Salzburg. Marguerite and I are very organized people, so it was agreed that we'd leave at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. They picked Annika and me up, wedged her carseat in the back of their van and off we went. The weather was horrible and the Autobahn was a nearly continuous stau...we'd no sooner get going and then hit another backup. We ended up taking a lot of two-lane roads, which was great (I do love getting off the beaten track), but it did end up adding some time to our trip. Also, factor in four kids between the ages of 2 and 7 needing potty breaks and dinner...it wound up taking us nearly six hours to get to Salzburg! A normal trip, barring any bad traffic, should take right around four.

We actually missed our tour, which was scheduled for 2:00 on Saturday, but we called the tour company and they understood and kindly put us on the 9:30 tour on Sunday morning without penalty. We checked into the hotel, all in the pouring rain, and tried to figure out what to do with four little ones who had been crammed in the minivan for over half a day (I must note that they all did VERY well!). We decided to visit a museum called Haus Fur Natur in downtown Salzburg. By the time we got everyone saddled up and ready to go, it was after 3:00 and they closed at 5:00. Luckily, Salzburg is a smallish city and we didn't have far to drive. Poor Ivan left us at the door and we ran in and started showing the kids around while he circled around trying to find a parking place!

The museum was a great idea and the fact that we were coming in a little late in the day actually worked in our favor as it seemed to be a little less crowded. They had an aquarium, a reptile area, a dinosaur exhibit, a Tibetan exhibit, and various other scientific exhibits. And seeing as it was relatively inexpensive to get in, it was a great way to shoot the end of a long day and let the kids explore and stretch their legs. After the museum, we headed down the street to a big area of restaurants and had some excellent pizza and pasta at a pleasant little Italian restaurant.

Next day (yes, I'm skipping over wine and smokes, Marg!), we had breakfast and before we knew it, the van from the tour company was there to pick us up. We were delivered to our tour bus and started the tour. The day was partly sunny, so I believe it was divine providence that we missed the tour on Saturday--it would have been miserable in the rain! It was perfect weather. We visited a bunch of different sites, but we only got out at three or four. One was the lake where the Von Trapp children were boating and tipped in...I believe they used the back of the house in that picture as well. Then we travelled to see the famous "I am Sixteen Going on Seventeen" gazebo, which was used in the movie but moved from the lake to the area of Hellbrunn Castle down the road. I was all hyped to go leaping from bench to bench, but we couldn't actually enter the gazebo.

We drove past a lot of sites, like the wall that Maria goes skipping past on her way to first meet the Von Trapps, and the abbey where Maria was a novice. The tour guide was excellent and gave us a lot of history of Salzburg and the area as we drove out into the gently rolling green foothills of the Alps. Our next stop was the small town where the wedding scene was shot--in the movie, it was in Salzburg, but the actual church is about 30 minutes from Salzburg. I'll have to watch the movie again soon, but it didn't look the same to me. Maybe when I watch it, I'll see it. Anyway--there are pictures of it there.

After we returned to Salzburg, we shot a couple of quick pictures in Mirabell Garden, where they shot some bits of "Do-Re-Me" by the Pegasus fountain and then headed back to the hotel and headed home. It was a wonderful trip, made all the more special because we got to spend it with our great friends, the Torreses (seriously, is that how you pluralize Torres?!). Annika and I got a little mother-daughter time to bond and the weather on Sunday turned out to be perfect.

If this is the last trip I get to take in Europe, I'll be fine. I'm not sure anything could top it!