The Hills Are Alive in Salzburg, Austria

...and with the sound of music, of course.  The beautiful weather, gorgeous sights, and a handsome husband to share this magical city with truly did make the hills "alive," as Maria would say.  Growing up watching "Sound of Music" regularly and then seeing the actual sights where the film was made and where the von Trapp family lived really was quite a priceless adventure.  Thus, begins...
Day 1 in Salzburg
 

The Salzachbrucke-Laufen Oberndorf crossing from Germany into Austria

The drive to Austria was beautiful.  Our GPS took us on back country roads to get there, and it was worth the 30 extra minutes to be driving through the German and Austrian countryside.  One of God's greatest creations.

Driving in Salzburg was a cakewalk compared to our other European city adventures.  I was driving this time, and only drove in a bus lane once.  Right in front of a polizei officer too, but he didn't seem to care at all.  When in Salzburg...

Once we parked, settled in the hotel, and found a map we were off for our walking adventures of the day.  Our first stop was Mirabellgarten, where the song "Do, Re, Mi" was filmed!  FYI: Pictures do not do this garten justice.  Justin and I can honestly say this is the most beautiful place we have been.

Mirabellgarten with Festung Hohensalzburg in the background
(the giant fortress on the hill)

We've never seen a unicorn statue before

The first fountain in the garten

Flowers galore

The rose garden within the main garten with
Schloss Mirabell in the background

Entrance to the rose garden

The main fountain in the garten

We really enjoyed walking around the garten and enjoying its beauty.  There were people playing classical music, combined with listening to the fountain made for quite a relaxing place.  We sat on a bench for awhile just breathing in the moment (something we often forget to do).

Next, we started walking towards the Old City.  On our way we came across several local treasures.

Dreifaltigkeitskirche
(Church of the Holy Trinity)

Mozart Wohnhaus
Mozart lived here 7 years of his life

Crossing the Staatsbrucke to the Old City

Rathaus
(Town Hall)

Kollegienkirche
(The University Church)

Fountain in Alter Markt

Mozart statue in Mozartplatz

Salzburg Museum and Glockenspiel in the background

Residenzplatz

Alte Residenz

Residenzplatz fountain and a side view of Dom

Front view of Dom (it was under construction)

St. Peter's Abbey

St. Peter's Cemetery

St. Peter's Catacombs with the Hohensalzburg Fortress in the background

Water mill

Kapitelplatz with "Sphaera" the giant golden ball of artwork

After visiting all the sights in the Old City, we took the Festungs Bahn (Fortress Train) to the top of Salzburg.  Hohensalzburg Fortress has already been featured from afar in several pictures. It was an awesome view at the top.  So we stopped to breath in the moment again and to drink down some beer.

Beer garden at the top of the fortress

Enjoying the beer and view

Reppin' the Nuggs in Salzburg

Justin didn't want to leave the beer garden (neither did I)

Once we had a few beers, we explored the fortress a bit before closing time.

I saw some little boys climb this, so I thought I'd do the same

Fortress Courtyard

Justin tried to shoot the cannon

Some cool looking contraption

The view of Salzburg

The view of the Alps

Loving life

Justin and the fortress

Once we made it back down, we ate at the St. Peter Stiftskeller, the oldest restaurant in Europe!  It was first recorded in a document back in 803.  That's old!  The food and wine were great, plus, the experience was definitely worth it.

Justin in front of St. Peter Stiftskeller

Dinner was yummy

Then we walked back to the hotel and captured some of the sights at night.

Dom

Residenzplatz and Glockenspiel

Whew!  Day 1 was busy, but oh so fun!

Day 2
The next day we woke up kind of early so that we could catch the bus for our tours.  We went on a tour of Hitler's Eagle's Nest and the "Sound of Music" film making.  It was another busy day. 

While on the bus ride to Kehlsteinhaus, or Eagle's Nest, we learned a great deal.  This mountain top fortress was a 50th birthday present to Hitler from the National Socialist Party.  Eagle's Nest was built in less than 2 years.  The 6-kilometer-long road leading to it was built in 13 months, most of those months experienced poor weather conditions.  Then a tunnel was built into the rock leading to another shaft tunnel where an elevator was installed so Hitler could go to the top in comfort.  Hitler actually went to Kehlsteinhaus 12 recorded times, mostly for business meetings, but he did hold a wedding reception there for the sister of Eva Braun's (Hitler's lover).  

On a more personal note, "Band of Brothers," one of Justin's favorite miniseries shows that follows the history of Easy Company during World War II, filmed an episode at Eagle's Nest when the company captured it.  Needless to say, Justin was really excited to see it in person.

On the bus ready to go

We stopped at the salt mines briefly.
This was a big industry for Salzburg back in the day.

We saw many scenes like this along the way

Justin with the Eagle's Nest in the clouds
We are technically in Germany now

The tunnel leading to the elevator to the top

Hitler rode this elevator all 12 times he visited Eagle's Nest

In the elevator
It had mirrors, and it was weird to think Hitler looked in those same mirrors.

There's a good view of Eagle's Nest

And the view was good from Eagle's Nest

The cross along a hiking trail

Inside the Eagle's Nest
This room was dedicated to Eva Braun, Hitler's lover

Justin in the hall where a scene from "Band of Brothers" was shot
(He was really excited about it)

In the main room, which is a restaurant now

The marble fire place, part of which was a gift from Mussolini to Hitler

We had a beer and banana split in the restaurant before leaving

It was so pretty up there

We saw this brewery on the way back down

After a quick break for lunch, we made our way to a new bus for our second tour of the day.

Inside our "Sound of Music" bus

Mozart Bridge that Maria and the kids rode their bikes across

The walkway leading to the von Trapp (movie) residence.
It would actually take 30 minutes to walk the path.

Entrance to the Hellbrunn Palace

The gazebo used in the movie was moved to Hellbrunn Palace
so it could be enjoyed by the public.

So fun!

After our first stop at the Hellbrunn Palace, while driving to our next destination, we drove by the Fronburg Residence, which was the von Trapp residence in the movie.  It is called Fronburg Residence and is private property, so we couldn't really go much closer than the bus.  This house wasn't the actual house the von Trapp family lived in, but it was used as the front of the house in the movie.  It is yellow today, but in the movie it was white.

Fronburg Residence

We also went by the Edelweiss house
(No relation to the movie, just a neat house in Salzburg)

Next, we stopped at the Palace of Leopoldskron, which was used as the lake with the boating scene and the back of the house.

The lake

The back of the von Trapp house in the movie

Our next stop was to a different town in Austria called Fuschl.  Along the way we saw Nonnberg Abbey where the real Maria and the movie Maria actually worked.  In the real story the Baron and Maria were married in this abbey, but later we went to the church used in the movie for the wedding scene.

It was very difficult to get a picture of the abbey, but
the red roof building in the back of the picture is Nonnberg Abbey

We stopped in Fuschl for some fun.  Along the drive we saw several lakes, this area is known as the Lake District in Austria.

Fuschlsee (Lake Fuschl)

Beautiful Austria

We stopped for an alpine slide ride :)

We headed to another town in Austria called St. Gilgen to see Wolfgangsee (another lake) and the mountain area where the first scene from "Sound of Music" was filmed.  We learned that the first scene was actually spliced together between scenes of Julie Andrews (Maria) in this mountain area in Austria and another mountain area in Germany.  The filming was done by helicopter.  

The hills are alive

Enjoying the moment

We got back on the bus for our final stop, the wedding church.  This was located in a town called Mondsee (Moon Lake).  Our tour guide kept pointing out that there are 42 churches in Salzburg and none were "good enough" for the director, so that's why he chose the Church of Mondsee.

Along the way we saw Dragon Rock
Red dragons have been said to live on the rock

Church of Mondsee

The aisle Maria walked down in the movie.
The inside of the church has been redone since the movie was filmed.

The organ

The front of the church

The steps Maria walked up

We had a chance to hang around Mondsee for a bit, so we walked around the town, enjoying the warm weather.  It is a cute little Austrian town.

Downtown Mondsee

Mondsee's Rathaus

Thank you, "Sound of Music" tour, we had a blast

The bus dropped us off back at Mirabellgarten, so we had another garten photo opp.

The von Trapp kids and Maria stood between these
statues during the "Do, Re, Mi" song

After our 2 tours we were ready for some dinner, so we walked across Makart bridge to a cute little restaurant we found in the Old City.

Lovers put locks on this bridge too, not quite as many as in Paris

Great company and view of the Salzach River

This restaurant has been in Salzburg for over 650 years

And the food is still amazing today

After dinner we felt the need to try and get a better picture of Nonnberg Abbey since we were having such a difficult time in the bus.  This task proved to be just as difficult.

We found the gate

And a great view

But this is the best we could do to capture the actual red roof abbey

After our abbey adventure we found a nice beer garden.  We had an excellent view of Salzberg, and it turned out that this beer garden is part of Europe's largest beer exhibition, but we were a month too early because it doesn't start until July.

Rooftop beer garden

Salzburger Stiegl beer since 1492
(the same year Columbus sailed the ocean blue)

Day 3
Before we headed back to Germany on our last day in Salzburg, we decided to take one last trip to the Old City.

Of course we stopped in the Mirabellgarten one last time

And found a lion (DeLeon) this time

We stopped at the Original Sacher-Torte shop to buy a chocolate torte.
It was so delicious we bought another on our way back.

And we stopped by the entrance to the Stiegl Keller where the beer exhibition is held.

We had lunch in Residenzplatz and had a great view of the Dom, fountain, and Residenz.  Then, we walked back to our car and drove home to Germany. 

Lunch time view

We walked by Kurgarten on the way back

And of course, Mirabellgarten
Auf Wiedersehen!

We had a different route home (thank you GPS), but it was still beautiful.  We had a great time reliving our trip and singing praise and worship and country songs in the car.  Remembering to enjoy each moment.  Life is good.  God is good.