Last weekend Dan had a 3 day weekend, so we decided to go to Salzburg, Austria. We knew it was going to be a rainy weekend, but the forcast said light rain, so we went anyway. It took us about 4 and a half hours to get there, which was through the rain and a lot of construction. The drive was beautiful.
The weather was pretty good for the first hour or so then rained a little bit. We had to stop right when we crossed into Austria to pay a road tax and put the sticker on our car. When we started going again we noticed a beautiful rainbow welcoming us to Austria :)
Dan found the Hotel online and it got great reviews, so he booked it. It was up in the hills looking down over Salzburg, it was a beautiful view.
The hotel was very homey, the room was small, but perfect for us and we didn't spend much time there anyway. The hotel also had a great restaurant downstairs, so that was a plus. We brought Shae with us and just crated her while we were out and about, she did really well.
The first morning we had the best weather! It was nice and sunny, but not hot. We went to Mirabell garden and palace first. This is where they filmed "Do-Re-Mi" In The Sound of Music. It was beautiful. Looking over the gardens you could see the fortress up on the hill, made for some good pictures.
We then went walking through the shopping streets and made our way to Mozart's Birth Home.
After that we went into some beautiful churches and went up to the Nonnberg Abbey. This is where the real Von Trapps got married, but when they made The Sound of Music, they didn't want anything in the Abbey to be filmed, so most of the abbey that you see on the movie was based off of a Hollywood set. That also goes for the cemetary scenes on the movie. It was based off the St. Peter's Cemetary, which we also went to, but for the movie they made a set in Hollywood. After we walked up to the Abbey, we decided to walk the rest of the way up to the fortress. They also have a tram you can take if you don't want to walk, the abbey was up the hill about halfway, so we just walked the rest. Once in the fortress you are free to roam around and there is a museum in there as well. There is also a tour that you can take that takes you up the tower and to the highest point onto the roof to overlook Salzburg. Once again, it was very beautiful. While we were up there we spotted where they filmed the scenes of the backyard in the movie. The house that is on the lake. We also learned that it is now on private property, so the only way to view it is from across the lake, which we did later that night.
St Peter's Church
Nonnberg Abbey
View from the top of the Fortress
We then got back in the car and went to Hellbrunn Palace. While we were on our way there I saw a long yellow wall that looked like the wall and house on the movie. We continued on to Hellbrunn palace because I was unsure if that was it. Hellbrunn Palace was great, it kind of reminded me of Mirabell. The grounds were well kept, ponds, lakes...it also has the pavilion where they filmed "16 going on 17". The pavilion was moved to this location and remains locked because people were breaking their legs trying to recreate the movie. At this point it started raining, so we headed back to the hotel.
Where they filmed "16 going on 17"
The grounds around Hellbrunn Palace
Once back at the hotel I did some research on some other places to go and also where to fins the front of the house in the movie. This is where Maria gets off the bus to meet the Von Trapp family. It said it was off of Hellbrunn Allee, which is where we saw it on the way to Hellbrunn Palace. It said online that a lot of people don't know about it's location and the Sound of Music tour does not take you there. The rain slowed down and Dan and I went back out and went to the house. We think it was a private road, open to only those who live on it because it looked mainly like a bike/walking path. People were looking at us weird, but no one said anything to us. There was also a police officer in front of us on the road and he didn't say anything either. So, I got out, snapped some pictures and we were on our way. We then went to the lake where you view the house that they used as the back of the house of the sound of music. Sounds confusing...they should have filmed it in one location, but I guess it's prettier this way. We parked, walked down a path and took some pictures. This is when a playful dog (pointer) came up to us with this huge stick and dropped it in front of us then stuck his butt up in the air while backing up. It was pretty funny...We threw the stick and he wouldn't leave us alone. He followed us all the way back to car.
Front of the house
Back of the house
We went back to the hotel, had a great dinner and desert and that was it for day 1.
The next day we got up early and headed into Germany to go to Hitler's vacation home, "The Eagles Nest." We drove up to where you buy a ticket and get on a bus to take you to the top. The road is closed to the public. You can also choose to walk up, but the drive up on the bus was about 25 minutes...so I don't know why anyone would want to do that. It was pretty cloudy when we got to the top, we walked through a tunnel and got into an elevator and rode our way to the very top. It was very cloudy up there, the more time we spend up there the cloudier it got. There are some paths you can take and look at the views...but there wasn't much we could see on this day. Inside was a disappointment, you can only access the bathrooms, the restaurant and one walkway. So, there wasn't much to look at inside. We will have to go back up on a clear day and see what the view looks like then.
Fireplace in what is now a restaurant
We went into the town Berchtesgarten, walked around, ate lunch and then headed back into Austria. We drove an hour to get to a town called Hallstat, a beautiful town between the mountains on a lake.
We walked through the town, went into shops and spent about an hour there before heading to Mondsee. This is where the church is used in the movie where they got married.
We went out to dinner that night with some others that were there from the EOD shop. They wanted to eat at a sushi place, then we went to an Irish pub in old side of Salzburg and watched the world cup.
It was a great trip, I'm so glad we went around Salzburg that first day and started early before the rain came in. It rained pretty much the whole time, but like the forcast said, it was only light rain. We had a great time there and I can't wait to go back. The people were incredibly nice, much nicer than the Italians, much more welcoming, so that was a nice change. Too bad there is not a base there :)
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