The Sound of Salzburg

The church bells are ringing through the evening air, as indeed they seem to ring through the air multiple times a day.  Since I happen to love church bells, I am all in favor of this and feel a kind of shiver of pleasure every time one of them starts up.  What I especially like is that they don't necessarily ring on the hour or half hour.  I've heard them ring at ten minutes to the hour, forty minutes after the hour, etc.  I'm sure there's a reason for each of them, but I kind of like the idea that maybe someone just says, "Let's ring the bells!" and goes for it.  That's what I would do if I had church bells at my disposal.

(views from my room--just imagine the church bells):

After two straight days of rain in Prague, we had a mostly sunny and beautiful day today in Salzburg, and we made the most of it.  We started off our day with Fraulein Maria's "Sound of Music" bicycle tour, which was the best decision ever.  I'm not some kind of obsessive fan--I can't remember the last time I saw the film, actually--but not only does the movie contain a lot of historic and beautiful Salzburg sights, but riding a bike through Salzburg and into the surrounding countryside is an exhilarating experience. 

After crossing the river and getting a nice view or two from the bridge, we pedaled through Old Town and visited the famous fountain where Maria sings about how much confidence she has and frolics around with her guitar case swinging.

Another stop in Old Town was St. Peter's bakery (where they still use a water wheel to mill the flour) and cemetery, both of them the oldest bakery and cemetery in Salzburg.  Or maybe in all of Austria.  I forget.  Either way, they were both worth a look.  In many respects, this cemetery is very representative of my overall impression of Salzburg--beautiful and very well kept.

 

 

From the cemetery, I caught a glimpse of windows in the side of the rock mountain.  When I asked our guide what they were, she said it had been a monastery.

 



We walked our bikes up a very steep hill (with more great views) to visit the nunnery where the Von Trapp kids go to the gate trying to see Maria when she leaves them and where those naughty nuns show the Nazis a thing or two by taking out their car parts.

My favorite part of the tour was when we got out of the downtown area and more into the parks and fields just outside.  This is where we saw the house they used for the back of Captain Von Trapp's house (they used a different one for the front for some reason, which we also visited, and in front of which I demonstrated my own interpretation of Maria's confidence before she saw just how big the house was.  Or it could just be my bike-riding-through-Salzburg joy getting the best of me).

 

 

We had to bike a few miles further to actually get to the gazebo, although that used to be located right by the house.  However, because so many obnoxious (American) tourists kept breaking into it and singing "I Am Sixteen" while leaping from bench to bench, they moved it multiple times until they found a more public park where people could visit and not be such a nuisance.

After all that biking, Peter and I took a stroll through Mirabell Garden and then enjoyed some lunch.  After that, some more wandering around Old Town, taking in all the beautiful buildings (which have their original building date painted on them), the exterior of the Salzburg Cathedral, and the main shopping street and location of Mozart's birthplace, Getreidegasse.

 

 

For dinner, we headed down the hill from our hotel to a location that used to be a monastery and is now a large food hall where you can go up to various counters and order whatever looks tasty to you, get a big mug of beer, then head out to the garden to eat.

 

 

 

Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, so we're planning to have a more mellow day and stick mainly to indoor sights like the fortress that appears on the top of the hill in many of the city shots and the Cathedral.  Right now, it's time for me to rinse out the load of laundry I've got in the tub.  I have a feeling I'm probably the first person who's stayed in this palatial suite and washed their dirty clothes in the bathtub, but what can I say--I'm just a frugal rebel like that.