The Sound Of Music

We arrived early in the morning to Munich. Munich was where we would be sleeping for the next 2 nights, but that was all. After we shoved, twisted, turned, repacked, and finally fit our luggage into highly abused lockers at our hostel, we ran to the bathroom to get ready for our day in Salzburg!
There was only one stall in the ladies restroom at the hostel and that was fine except that the woman currently using the restroom was in there well over 20 min. My sister and I hung out in the hallway hoping and praying she wasn't vomiting and other things so when we could use the loo it would be clean...After the woman finally emerged from the restroom I told my sister there was no way I was going in there. My sister did a quick look around the restroom and said it was clean. PHEW. I slowly entered half closing my eyes because I am afraid of public restrooms when they seem a bit dodgy, it was fine though. We balanced our makeup bags on odd ledges or on our purses and had to warn each other when one of us would need to spit from brushing our teeth. It was a struggle to say the least. The weirdest part was when random women would enter the restroom while my sister and I were in there getting ready, to use the toilet. I understand there was a stall, but the room itself was TINY. We had 2 very weird conversations with two different women. I didn't say anything though because when I am those situations I shut down and pretend I am not there.
People probably thought we vomiting or who knows what for the 20 min we were in the bathroom, but when we left the tiny bathroom at least we looked much more human like and clean. Which is important.
Our hostel luckily was a short 3 min walk from the train station which made travel easy. We meandered around the station and ended up buying 3 different pastries and a cup of fruit along with massive water bottles for the journey to Salzburg.
The train...I believe my brain is a bit foggy on this part....I will try to recollect what was what...
The train was rather large, reminding me of the trains in england mixed with the circle line tube=Spacious and comfy. I sat down and my sister left me. She wanted to charge her cellphone and since the overnight train had no outlets both of our phones were either dead(mine) or near death(hers). So I sat alone, looking out the window at the gorgeous country side, it was purdy. I was really enjoying it, so much so i began blinking really slowly and getting cross eyed and my neck began snapping down and up and down and back up and....ZZzzzzzzzzzz....
I awoke at the next train stop where this really attractive German man got on board and sat in the seats next to me, and since I am me, I smiled at him and he smiled back and then he asked if my seat was free (auf deutsch) I said yes and before I knew it we were chatting about everything from the beautiful mountains to small annoyances in our lives. It was perfect we laughed the whole way to Austria. It was a perfect train ride to Salzburg...........or would have been had I talked to the man, instead I just went back to snoozeville population 1, oh wait population 2 the man with sandwich left in his beard just moved into town....dreamy.
After a while my sister came and said there was a seat next to her that I could sit in if I wanted to. Obviously I did because sitting solo can be nice but I also like sitting by sister sometimes so I thought okay. I gave up my seat for this old couple that came aboard and they were very adorable looked like they had been married for 60 years :) I thought oh you two can sit together!! When I moved into my new seat, I looked where I had been sat and the old woman was sitting there with her legs stretched out on the seat and her husband next to my pretend sir on the isle away. Okay then, time to eat some chocolate then.

When we got to Salzburg I also have no memory of getting off the train........good.
I think we figured out where we were supposed to go, found a grocery store, bought lunch items, water, and CHOCOLATE. Chocolate is a lifesaver for travelers like myself. If you feel stressed, happy, sad, worried, hungry, you just say "I need chocolate." or "I think it's time for chocolate." believe me, it works wonders.
We had to catch a local bus to get us into town which luckily arrived relatively soon after we left the station. Once we got into the city we found a bench in the square and ate our lunch looking at the beautiful hillsides of Salzburg. I think I counted 3 women over the age of 70 riding bicycles through the city. I fell in love with Salzburg that day. It was perfection.

The building above with the three green domes is a cathedral, but not any cathedral, this cathedral was the place where Mozart was baptized, along with the fact that he played the organ there as well. And that organ is MASSIVE. We went inside, walked our way around and entered into the crypt. The CREEPY crypt. I say creepy because in one room it is completely dark except for this shadow box that has a light with a shadow of what looks to me as a skeleton of a witch or something spinning around the room. I began to enter the room but once I saw that I ran the other way, as did another woman who came down after us. Why is that necessary you pretty church? Why?

We had a tour at a specific time which gave us about 20 min to wander the rest of the city. And by wander I mean walk fast, take photos while walking, look up look down look left look right, and KEEP MOVING. From the blur I saw of the city, it looks really nice, I mean the colors blend really well together.

The fountain Maria splashes on her way to the Von Trapp home. 

Mozart's church

We finally found this nugget--the most photographed street in Austria....

I always have to get a bike shot in every city I visit.

When we got to the tour shop, they informed us we would be having a private tour as no one else signed up for that day! We did not complain. Nope nope nope.

Our tour guide, dressed in lederhose drove us around Salzburg seeing as many sites as possible from the movie The Sound of Music. He even made the ambiance complete by having a soundtrack from the film and a cd of the actual Von Trapp family singing. It was lovely. Me and Annie sang and car danced along with the music.

First we saw the home used in the film as the Von Trapp families back yard. They used two homes in the film one for the front of the house and one for the back, as well as a set for the interior. The home used as the backside with the lake, trees (that the children hung out of) was the home of the actual Uncle Max, it now belongs to Havard, therefore we were not allowed to go and stand on the grounds.

The next place we saw was the front of the other home. We could not get close as the road was private (thank goodness for zoom)...

Our bus driver took us to the GAZEBO! Which was pretty fantastic. It had been moved from Uncle Max's home to this park where it will remain, the doors were locked for security and liability reasons, so we pretended dancing inside on the outside.

Next up was a fun drive to the hillside where in the film the children learn to sing and play. We had fun here because on our way to a cafe over looking the hillside we stopped for a luge run. I had no idea we were going here for play. I thought it was just to look at...but no, we went on the luge. My sister and I shared a scooter/sled and up the hill we went, backwards, laughing so much we couldn't breathe and I had tears streaming down my face from laughing...you see this would be a great date, but here I was with my sister, holding on to her for dear life. On the mountain side. In Austria. Thus, we were laughing...also we thought the run was straight down the hill so naturally we thought we were going to die, I guess the laughter was part fear part humor.

Luckily when we reached the top the man told us to get off the sled and he moved it to the other track, a windy curvy metal looking slide that takes you down the hill. OH SO MUCH BETTER THEN STRAIGHT DOWN!!! We were relieved. I held onto Annie for dear life though and we laughed our entire way down the run, it was awesome.

Our driver took us next to the cafe over looking the hillside. We ordered apfelstrudel and chocolate cake and ate them while sitting outside looking at beautiful Austria. It was unreal and I enjoyed every minute of it.

The last stop on the tour was the church where Maria weds Captain Von Trapp. The actual Maria was not wed here, but she was able to have her vision of her dream wedding to the Captain be portrayed on film. Apparently when Julie Andrews was walking down the isle Maria was watching and someone caught her shedding a tear or two during filming. How cool! I even pretended to walk down the isle like Julie Andrews did, because when in Salzburg.

Once we arrived back in the city our driver dropped us off at the park where more of the movie was filmed. We reenacted scenes from the movie because that is what we are good at and danced, pranced and laughed our way around the beautiful park. An old man asked if he could take my picture (auf deutsch) I said thank you and went to collect my sister.

So, do, la, fa, me, la, ray

Riding her "bike" through the garden

Bopping the trolls on the head as the Von Trapp children did. 

We take ourselves very seriously. Clearly.

We had a quick panic when we arrived at the train station to find no trains running that would take us back to Munich! Luckily we asked a woman and she said we could take a different train, phew. All aboard, and it was back to Munich we went.