The hills are SO alive with the Sound of Music! Yes, we arrived safely in Salzburg and are in Sound of Music mode! The hostel (which is actually just outside of the city in the mountains, and is more of a B&B) is very nice, and because we arrived quite late in the evening, we were even picked up at the main train station. Day 1 in Salzburg started with us journeying into town. We saw most of the old town and mostly just putzed around (in the rain) until the start of the Sound of Music tour. We boarded the tour bus with lots of like-minded people, but I have to admit, E and I sure did sit in the very first row! Trudy (no, not Julie :)) was the tour guide and started things off with a little sing-a-long of "let's start at the very beginning....." Erin and I were in our glory! We saw all the important sights of the movie that we actually filmed in Austria...apparently all the inside scenes of the movie we filmed on a sound stage in Hollywood. We visited Leopold's Crown Palace (the rear of the house and lake scenes), Hellbrunn Palace (the gazebo), the Nonnberg Abbey (where Maria was going to become a nun), the lake district and the town on Mondsee (the wedding scene) and the Mirabelle Gardens (Do Re Mi song). And yes, Erin and I sang, danced and pranced everywhere Julie Andrews did. Really, it was a momentous day for both of us...with about 100 pictures to prove it! Also in the Lake District is the headquarters of Red Bull...I had no idea it was even Austrian. The tour and guide were fantastic and we couldn't have asked for anymore...there was even one Euro beer on the bus...yay!!! (hehe)
We were tired by the end of the tour and not really feeling like eating, so we picked up a frozen pizza to take back to the B&B with us, assuming that we would just be able to ask to use the kitchen. Interesting assumption as it turns out. After hiking up the HUGE hill back to the house, we found that there was no one there. What were we to do? We had this stupid frozen pizza and no way to heat it up. So we broke into the kitchen....before you freak out, the key was in the door so we just let ourselves in (and prentended that we didn't see the "privat" sign....my argument would have been that we don't speak German so we couldn't read the sign!). I stood guard while E cooked the pizza and up to our room we scurried when it was finished. Whew! Didn't even get caught!
Day 2 started with us trekking back down the hill with our packs, trying not to fall head over heels. We took the Fenicular up to the Festung Hohensalzburg, which is a big fortress overlooking the city. We went into the museum there and went on the audio tour. We then re-visited the Nonnberg Abbey...seriously, not overly impressive in real life. We just wandered for the rest of the day, having dinner before catching a train to Villach (I dunno, some town close to the border with Italy). From there, we boarded a midnight train...no not to Georgia, but to Florence!
We are actually now in Sorrento, but seeing as though time is running out, I will have to write about our 2 days in Florence at a later date.
Ciao from Italia!
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