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.

 

 

Birthday Wowza

Though my brother had booked us two standard rooms at our hotel in Salzburg, apparently since it's my birthday (and the rooms weren't otherwise booked, I presume), they upgraded both of us to suites.  And mine is the suite of suites!  I am still pinching myself that this is all real and not some elaborate movie set I've wandered into.  Here are some shots of where I'll be staying for the next three nights (the bathroom alone is bigger than some hotel rooms I've been in before!).

 

 

Given the opulence and how unexpected this level of upgrade was, my response is perhaps understandable:

Added to that were the long-stemmed roses my brother had ordered for me, along with a beautiful (and very tasty) birthday cake left by the hotel staff. 

After settling ourselves (I almost felt like I had to apologize to the ornate wardrobe for hanging my shabby Target sweaters and Gap T-shirts in them), we got gussied up and headed down to the hotel's dining room, where Peter treated me to a 5-course gourmet dinner.  I don't think I've ever used so many pieces of silverware in my life.  I can't even begin to describe the food, but trust me when I say I'll remember this dinner for years to come.  After dinner, we Skyped with my father and oldest brother's family, giving them a 'tour' of my room and some of the views from my windows. 

I feel so full right now, and not just because I ate a ton of food.  I feel full of joy and gratitude to be able to experience all of this, to have a brother who has treated me so generously to experiences I wouldn't be able to have otherwise, and to be able to share this (thanks to technology) in some small way with all the dear people whose friendships I treasure.  Thanks to those of you who have been following me on my adventures and sending encouraging words.  My love to you all!

Prague to Salzburg

Prague to Salzburg

My foot and ankle were finally small enough that I could get my tennis shoes on yesterday, which was a good thing since it rained all day and my feet would have been very wet and unhappy otherwise.  We headed back across the Charles Bridge and visited the area of Prague that had been the Jewish Ghetto for centuries.  Our first stop was the Old Jewish Cemetery where the stones are crammed in every available spot.  This is because Jews weren’t allowed to leave that area until the 1800s, so for centuries, they had to bury their dead all in this cemetery, piling the bodies one upon another.

 

 

After that, we went into the Old New Synagogue, which is the oldest continuously functioning synagogue in Europe.  It dates back over 700 years, and its medieval heritage shows in the stone interior.  Photographs are not allowed, so I’m afraid I can’t share.

After that, we got some ice cream at a place recommended by our guide on Wednesday (Angelato’s, which was very very good) and then happened upon a large outdoor market selling everything from fruit to soap, and of course any number of tourist chochkies.  I also made my way back to this street, which is one of the oldest in Prague and the one the kings used to process up and down.

 

Above a number of the doors, you’ll find carvings of various things, which our guide told us was how the postal system used to work.  Because most people were illiterate in the medieval period, they would hand the letter to the guy and say, “take this to the house with the three violins.”

 

Prague is full of musicians (you see them walking around carrying instruments on their back all the time), and every time you walk by a church or other type of historic building, someone is handing you a flier advertising a concert for the evening.  After an early dinner, we attended one here, which you can see isn't too shabby:

 

 

The lead violinist had hair the color of carrot juice, but she played sublimely and her violin had one of the richest, sweetest tones I’ve ever heard.  When we returned to our hotel room, there was this cake and a nice note waiting for me wishing me a happy birthday for the next day.  All in all, not a bad way to spend our final night in Prague and my final night of being 39.

 

This morning we said goodbye to the fabulous breakfasts (my favorite was their scrambled eggs with truffle oil/shavings, followed by a small pot of homemade raspberry yogurt that just might be the best yogurt I’ve ever eaten in my life) and breakfast views we’ve been enjoying the last several days. 

 

Now we are on the train to Salzburg.  Note to those of you who might find yourself in the main Prague train station:  if, while you’re looking at the screens listing the trains, a man in a semi-official looking outfit offers to show you to your platform and helpfully rolls your bags with him, a tip isn’t sufficient and you should grab your bags back and tell him “No!” in a firm voice.  But we didn’t know this.  Once we arrived (pretty much chasing after him vs. asking him to perform this service for us), he demanded 150 crowns ($7.50).  I gave him about a third of that and told him that’s all I had (and it was) ready to refuse him anything further, but my brother is nicer than I am (and we were both caught off guard), so he shelled out the rest.  “Congratulations,” I told him.  “We just got scammed.”  I guess no European trip is complete without something like that for an American, and it could have been worse.  We are now enjoying a train compartment to ourselves after having a brief detour on a bus from one station to another in the middle of the Czech Republic due to a repair they were making on the tracks.  Other than the fact that the bus reeked of Eau de Stale-European-Body-Odor, it was interesting to get a few glimpses at the small towns we drove through. 

 

Prague Castle & St. Vitus Cathedral

Prague Castle isn't a single building but a sprawling collection of buildings that spans about a half mile on the top of a hill.  We braved the starting rain and got to see the ceremonial changing of the guard at noon in the courtyard just through this front gate.  Fun fact from our tour yesterday evening:  the guards' uniforms were designed by the costume designer who won an Oscar for designing the costumes of Amadeus.

Next, we spent quite a while exploring St. Vitus Cathedral, which took 500 years to build.  The front was only finished in the 1920s, but parts of it obviously go much further back and many historic kings and bishops are buried in its crypts.  Here are a bunch of shots.  As you can see, this is a church packed with gorgeous things to see.  If some of the photos are a bit off-kilter, it's because I had to take many of them very quickly in order to take advantage of gaps between tourists.

And outside, just to balance out all that extravagant beauty, an ugly (scary) gargoyle:

 

After purchasing our train tickets for Wednesday's trip, we headed back to the center of Old Town to take another look at the clock and watch the Apostles roll by at the hour (I now have a fun little video to show my nieces and nephews on my next visit), and then crossed back over the Charles Bridge.  I kept an eye out for the little marker Teresa told us about yesterday, which shows the location poor St. John of Nepomuk got tossed into the river.  He was the court priest of King Wenceslas IV, who wanted the priest to tell him what his wife had confessed (he suspected she might be cheating on him).  When the priest refused, the king had him tortured.  When he remained silent, the king had him thrown off the bridge.  It's now tradition to rub his head on the little plaque and make a wish, which I did in spite of my doubts about a poor guy who was tortured and thrown off a bridge being a source of good luck.

 

Now to relax a bit for the evening and recharge for tomorrow's adventures.