salzburg - the hills are alive!
So, on the weekend, I went to Salzburg!!! I went with my friend Olija (her name is Olga, but really, they don't say it with a 'g'. I think it's nicer without...but I don't know how to spell that, so that will do!!).
We left on Friday night, from Heidenheim at six. 45 mins to Ulm, then a half hour wait. We boarded the ICE to München, everything good, we caught the train. Then the conducter chick came along. She told me we were on the wrong train, and that we should be on the one in 2 hours time. I was like, "What the....?!?" The two sheets of paper I had with the info on them were different. She ended up saying that we could either get out at Augsburg, and wait there 2 hrs for the next one, or, we could pay the difference (our tickets were cheaper). I was sooooooo confused!! I showed one of the other worker ladies, and she said she'd send the other one back. It confused her too, cos evrything was the same, the order no. etc, except for this one train. When the first lady came back, I showed her and explained everything. She kept saying the same thing, that on this sheet it said a different train, and she was saying it like I was dumb and didn't understand....! Anyways, we hadn't done anything wrong, it was a mistake from DB (deutsche bahn) and she ended up saying "next time be more careful" Pft! A lil stressful that was!!
Anyways, we got to Salzburg at about 11pm after a train change in München. From then, it was all ok! We found our youth hostel pretty easily, (ok, admit, we had to ask someone at the start.....but even she said it was a terrible map!! :D), and settled in for the night.
On Saturday, we went on a tour around Salzburg, showing us the main sites. We went on a German tour......bad idea.....I could follow some things, but in general, I was frustrated, cos I didn't really understand!! Grr! This photo is of the old city of Salzburg, with the Fortress on the top there. The city is divided by the Salzach river into 2 parts, the old city and the new. We spent most of our time in the old city, as that is where most of the 'big' sights are.
After the tour, we went to the Hohensalzburg Fortress which is 'Europe's largest fortification'. It was built in 1077!! It was really really interesting. And, even better, the info was in English as well....aaaaahhhh! :) We rode up and down from it in the funnicular, which was pretty cool! There was a beautiful view of the alps on the top. Here's a piccie of me, not from the top, but pretty close!!
After the Fortress, we went to the Salzburg Cathedral, which is just.....really big and freezing!!! :D Then we went to the 'Viva! Mozart' exhibition. That was a lot of really interesting information about Mozart's life and what he did. It was really good. :) From there, we went to the house where Mozart was born. Somehow......I neglected to take a picture of that building....I think cos it was too dark, and it would have been a terrible piccie. Anyways, it was a yellow building :D
After that, we went to Mozart Cafè, where we had a 'Salzburger Nockerl'. Supposedly, it's supposed to be really really yummy......Olija and I both agreed that it was ok, but nothing special. Was kind of expensive too! €9,50 for 2 people, and all it's made from is egg, sugar and cranberry jam!! Interesting experience!
On Sunday, we headed back into the old city. Our hostel was only a 10-15min walk away. We went to the house where Mozart lived for about 7 years when he was young. That was also really interesting. There was heaps of info on him and his family and I learnt so much that I don't even know how much of it I could tell people! Useful huh?!?
Anyways, that afternoon was the whole reason I went to Salzburg!!!
Our train home left on Sunday night at 11:57pm.....we decided to stay at the youth hostel. Good that we did, cos I ran into someone I knew!! Dwayne!! (He comes from the Barossa and was in my brother Kerryn's year at school.) It was really cool to see him and we ended up chatting for 3 hours!
We left on Friday night, from Heidenheim at six. 45 mins to Ulm, then a half hour wait. We boarded the ICE to München, everything good, we caught the train. Then the conducter chick came along. She told me we were on the wrong train, and that we should be on the one in 2 hours time. I was like, "What the....?!?" The two sheets of paper I had with the info on them were different. She ended up saying that we could either get out at Augsburg, and wait there 2 hrs for the next one, or, we could pay the difference (our tickets were cheaper). I was sooooooo confused!! I showed one of the other worker ladies, and she said she'd send the other one back. It confused her too, cos evrything was the same, the order no. etc, except for this one train. When the first lady came back, I showed her and explained everything. She kept saying the same thing, that on this sheet it said a different train, and she was saying it like I was dumb and didn't understand....! Anyways, we hadn't done anything wrong, it was a mistake from DB (deutsche bahn) and she ended up saying "next time be more careful" Pft! A lil stressful that was!!
Anyways, we got to Salzburg at about 11pm after a train change in München. From then, it was all ok! We found our youth hostel pretty easily, (ok, admit, we had to ask someone at the start.....but even she said it was a terrible map!! :D), and settled in for the night.
On Saturday, we went on a tour around Salzburg, showing us the main sites. We went on a German tour......bad idea.....I could follow some things, but in general, I was frustrated, cos I didn't really understand!! Grr! This photo is of the old city of Salzburg, with the Fortress on the top there. The city is divided by the Salzach river into 2 parts, the old city and the new. We spent most of our time in the old city, as that is where most of the 'big' sights are.
After the tour, we went to the Hohensalzburg Fortress which is 'Europe's largest fortification'. It was built in 1077!! It was really really interesting. And, even better, the info was in English as well....aaaaahhhh! :) We rode up and down from it in the funnicular, which was pretty cool! There was a beautiful view of the alps on the top. Here's a piccie of me, not from the top, but pretty close!!
After the Fortress, we went to the Salzburg Cathedral, which is just.....really big and freezing!!! :D Then we went to the 'Viva! Mozart' exhibition. That was a lot of really interesting information about Mozart's life and what he did. It was really good. :) From there, we went to the house where Mozart was born. Somehow......I neglected to take a picture of that building....I think cos it was too dark, and it would have been a terrible piccie. Anyways, it was a yellow building :D
After that, we went to Mozart Cafè, where we had a 'Salzburger Nockerl'. Supposedly, it's supposed to be really really yummy......Olija and I both agreed that it was ok, but nothing special. Was kind of expensive too! €9,50 for 2 people, and all it's made from is egg, sugar and cranberry jam!! Interesting experience!
On Sunday, we headed back into the old city. Our hostel was only a 10-15min walk away. We went to the house where Mozart lived for about 7 years when he was young. That was also really interesting. There was heaps of info on him and his family and I learnt so much that I don't even know how much of it I could tell people! Useful huh?!?
Anyways, that afternoon was the whole reason I went to Salzburg!!!
The Sound of Music Tour!!!!!!!
I got picked up from the hostel, and taken to the Panorama Tours meeting point, where we got on the tour bus. The tour went for 4 hours. The guy who explained everything was really funny. Well, he wasn't funny, which made him funny.....he made a whole lot of really bad jokes, (dad jokes really), then he would move the mike away from his mouth and laugh at it saying he knew it was bad!! Hehee! He reminded me of Elaine's boss in Seinfeld. Mr Pitt was it? Can't remember...he was funny anyway.
Don't know how much you really want to read about it, but I guess all you need to know, is that I loved it! (Would have been nicer in summer but.... :P) We went half an hour out of Salzburg, to Lake Wolfgang and Mondsee, both of which froze over this winter - first time in 100 years!! Crazy! We also saw where Mozart's mother was born.
It was just a really good tour, and I think I heard a lot of the same stuff that was in the tour on Sat, but I actually understood it that time!! ;) We also got to listen to the SOM soundtrack :D
This is the gazebo where Rolf and Liesl danced and sang, you know, 'I am 16.....' and is a prime example of how risky it can be to get a stranger to take your photo!!!
I also met two Aussies, from Melbourne, which was really really good! They were really nice people and it would have been good to hang out with them a lil more.
After the tour I met Olija at the oldest cafè in Europe - Café Tomaselli - since 1703! It was Mozart's favourite café and was very quaint! ;)
Our train home left on Sunday night at 11:57pm.....we decided to stay at the youth hostel. Good that we did, cos I ran into someone I knew!! Dwayne!! (He comes from the Barossa and was in my brother Kerryn's year at school.) It was really cool to see him and we ended up chatting for 3 hours! God is good!
To cut the rest of a long story short, we caught the train, found our carriage (after doing 2 laps of the train!!) but our seats were nowhere to be found!! So the DB guy had to open up another lot of seats. We also got checked by the Austrian police!! We got back to Heidenheim at 5:30am, I had to wait til 6:15 for a bus, got home just before 7, showered, and looked after the kiddies for the day! I even fell asleep for 10 mins while I was outside with Johanna! Oops!! How bad is that!!
Anyways, since then, I've had a good week - after I caught up on sleep!!!
I'm really looking forward to my next trip, (which is in less than 2 weeks), because John will be here!! :D I'll post affter that! ;)
Lots of love, Vivien
PS Angela, guess what T-shirt I bought?!?!? ;) I think you know!
posted by viv at 11:20 pm
3 Comments:
Sound of Music tour....that's awesome. Glad you enjoyed it, I reckon I'd really enjoy that tour too. And I can't believe you ran into Dwayne, that's crazy. Sounds like you're still having a great time. All the best for the next trip. Love Sal.
Were you trying to say that your dad's jokes aren't really funny.....??!!!! Loved the comment about the gazebo picture - how true!!! Don't worry about the background.... make sure you have the person IN THE CENTRE!!!! Sounds like you're still having fun. Luv Roma.
Hey chicken,
I just considered reading your blog stuff, but I got about 4/5 of the way through the most recent one then just looked at the pics from the rest of the front page.
Have fun
Big Dave.
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