After our time in Germany, we woke up one morning, ate breakfast, finished packing, checked out of our hotel, got in our rental car and started the drive to Austria. Within an hour of the drive all 3 kids were sleeping. Score for mommy and daddy! Alone time on vacation without anyone interrupting our conversations! YES! Brooks and I were excited about the scenery and of course it was raining, cloudy, and a dreary day. Oh well.
Before we crossed the border we had to stop and get tags for our car and Brooks was told he had to drive in Austria with a bright, orange vest on. Hmmm... He started out wearing it and we made a deal if the next 10 drivers that passed us on the highway weren't wearing a vest then he couldn't wear it. 2 minutes later, the vest was off. Such a strange concept.
We finally arrived in Salzburg and after checking into our hotel we started our visit on the hunt for food. Once again, we were using a Ric Steve's book for recommendations. The day continued to be cold, rainy, and dreary, but thankfully while we were walking it never became a down pour. After searching for 2 restaurants and checking out their menus outside, we picked one, went back to it and they were closed until dinner. Bummer. We found a cafe nearby that had a table in the back corner so the kids could be contained without bothering the other people there. As soon as we walked out of the restaurant it started raining. I mean pouring down rain! We quickly ran into a covered area while Brooks went and found us some large umbrellas. We only had two days in Salzburg so there was no way we could afford to go to the hotel and sit while it was raining. The boys got to run around in the "tunnel" while I got Brooklyn readjusted and in some warmer clothes. Brooks was so sweet and got the boys some wooden swords as a gift when he picked up the umbrellas and those things entertained them the entire trip! Perfect idea daddy!
We toured Salzburg's Old Town and saw tons of gorgeous buildings, Cathedrals, fountains, statues, and more. One of the beautiful places was the Domplatz (Cathedral Square). It rained on us the entire time, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the architecture and ornate, detailed places.
Brooklyn was stuck in the carrier throughout the entire day and was so relieved to be free once we got to our hotel. She was excited!!
The next day we spent the morning on a Sound of Music Tour. The movie is very popular in our house and was somewhat of a dream to go see the sights and locations from the movie so while we were in Salzburg we couldn't pass up the chance. Thankfully, we were the only people on our tour so we didn't have to share our car with anyone else. Our tour guide was a history fanatic and eagerly shared a multitude of information that had NOTHING to do with The Sound of Music, but was extremely interesting to learn about the city and what all was around.
For starters, we saw the child hood home of Mozart. We also saw the building where the doctor who invented ultrasounds lived.
Our first stop on the tour was the Palace that was used as the back of the Van Trapp family house in SOM. This was also the lake where the kids fell into the water. Miles and Brooklyn were asleep in the car so we left the van door open while walking along the water.
 |
| The Salzburg Castle |
Outside the park and alongside the road from the Yellow House is the lane where Maria sang "I Have Confidence".
Our next part of the tour was to drive up to The Lake District. It was a very scenic drive and we got to see unique places, including Red Bull Headquarters. Behind us is the mountain where Hitler did something (can't remember what it was for the life of me).
During the tour, we stopped at a restaurant and ate some lunch. The view was breathtaking and behind us you'll see one of the lakes that was used in the movie. Along our drive we saw the mountains where Maria sang "The Hills are Alive" and where the kids met for "song lessons" and play time. It was all just beautiful!
Here's the church where they filmed the Van Trapps getting married. The actual church was somewhere else in the city along our tour that we passed in the van.
After visiting the church, our tour became extremely interesting. Our guide told us he had another tour group to pick up at 2pm. It was now 1:20pm. We still had a 25 minute drive back to the city and also had one more stop on our tour-- the Mirabell Gardens, the scene where Maria and the kids run through the hedge tunnel as well as the steps where they sing "Do Re Me". Our tour guide ended up taking the highway back to the city versus the scenic route, which was actually fine by me since I tend to get car sick. After almost getting in a wreck he drove us up to the entrance of the Gardens, literally threw us, our kids, 2 strollers, 2 car seats, and all our bags from the day (including jackets, umbrellas, baby carriers, diaper bags) out of the car. It was now 2:00pm. Brooks and I were just in shock. He preceded to tell us we'd have to get back to our hotel on our own. HAHA. Brooks and I just laughed at each other. We knew there was no point in getting upset about it, we couldn't control it and at this point our driver had already driven off. Thankfully, our hotel was 2 blocks away. We made the most out of the rest of our tour after organizing and regrouping all our stuff into the least amount possible, we dumped Miles car seat at the entrance of the Gardens and prayed and hoped that no one would take it. We attached Brooklyns carrier to the handles of our umbrella stroller (thank goodness I saw that done on the Duggars a long time ago) and off we went. The Mirabell Gardens were beautiful. It was clean and pretty, with gorgeous flowers and interesting statues all over. The view of the Salzburg Castle through the fountains and buildings was BREATHTAKING.
After making several trips to the hotel to get all of our stuff back, we decided to let the kids all nap in the strollers while Brooks and I continued touring the city. We wanted to make the most of our time in Salzburg since we were leaving the next morning. Since it wasn't raining this day, we decided to go back to the Old Town and Domplatz and finish seeing all the sights we missed the day before. We were so glad we did. We didn't realize how much we had missed out on. The views were gorgeous around town and we were really able to take in the whole city. We visited St. Peter's Abbey right before they closed and spent some time in the square outside of it and let the kids run around. It was almost 6:00pm, the sun was going down, it was getting cooler, the kids were running around playing, s Brooks and I took some time to enjoy uninterrupted time just the two of us to take everything in.
Our 3 troopers. They didn't let the cold weather bother them! They were as happy as could be!
After having dinner at a fun restaurant and checking out a few other sights in the city during the evening, we headed back to our hotel, packed our bags, went to bed really late and prepared for our next trip to Fussen, Germany. Salzburg was a fun place to visit and we so wish we would have had more time in the city and maybe even the surrounding areas.
**On a side note: the week we got back from our trip we watched The Sound of Music again to look for all the sights we visited. It was pretty cool to say, "hey, we've been there!"
1 comment:
What a wonderful treat on a hum-drum day! Thanks, Lindsey!
Post a Comment