Europe 2016

Woke up 5am. But I was stressing about getting washing done and having breakfast before getting into town by 9:15am. So I wasn't getting back to sleep.

So we got up and headed down to the laundromat. Except they must have forgotten to turn the alarm off because this siren kept going off. I was super tired and hungry and the loud noise made my brain explode. We don't think we managed to get any detergent into the machine. Sigh.

Took the dried washing back to the hotel, had breakfast, but I was still super tired and grumpy. Finished getting ready and checked out, leaving the bags and the car at the hotel.

View over the Salzach, with Kirche Maria Himmelfahrt and Untersberg

Sound of Music tour bus outside Mirabell Palace

Locks on Marko-Feingold-Steg

Salzburg

The Monchsberg Lift

View north along the Salzach from Marko-Feingold-Steg

Mozarts Geburtshaus (Mozart's birthplace)

Then walked into town. We got to the Festspielhaus at 9:30, which does indeed tour the Felsenreitschule.

Except.

They don't allow photos. At least at the moment because they're setup for some festival which starts tomorrow. Well I wasn't going to pay 7 Euro to not be able to take photos, especially when it would have taken up an hour of perfectly good sunlight. Maybe next time.

Back entrance of the Felsenreitschule
Photo by Mum

Photo of the interior of the Felsenreitschule, still the closest I've gotten to seeing the inside

And that's another thing. The damned weather forecasts are completely useless. They predicted rain for today, but it didn't come until much later in the day, and even then not much while we were still there.

So we walked up behind the festspielhaus and over the ridge to the other side. Walked along Nonnberger Hauptstrasse to find where they all had the carriage ride. Then all the way up to Nonnberg abbey. Went into the church this time which I didn't do last time.

Franziskanerkirche from the terrace behind Salzburg

Kollegienkirche from the terrace behind Salzburg

Arch on the south side of Salzburg

View across Seniorenwohnhaus Nonntal (the building is currently a retirement village)

View across Seniorenwohnhaus Nonntal to Untersberg

Festung Hohensalzburg from the southeast

Nonnberg Abbey

Streetscape on Nonntaler Hauptstraße (where Maria and the Von Trapp children rode along in a horse and carriage)

Streetscape on Nonntaler Hauptstraße (where Maria and the Von Trapp children rode along in a horse and carriage)

St. Erhard's church

Entrance to Nonnberg Abbey

Me at the entrance to Nonnberg Abbey
Photo by Mum

View across St. Erhard's church to Untersberg from Nonnberg Abbey

Entrance to the church in Nonnberg Abbey

Courtyard in Nonnberg Abbey

Interior of the church in Nonnberg Abbey

Interior of the church in Nonnberg Abbey

Entrance to Nonnberg Abbey

Me outside Nonnberg Abbey
Photo by Mum

View across Salzburg from near Nonnberg Abbey

Salzburg Cathedral from near Nonnberg Abbey

Kaputzinerkloster from near Nonnberg Abbey

Then back down into the old town to all the platzes where various bits of the movie were filmed, and the Mozartsteg.

Kajetanerkirche as seen in the market scene in The Sound of Music
Photo by Mum

Kapitelschwemme in Kapitelplatz and Festung Hohensalzburg

Sphaera by Stephan Balkenhol in Kapitelplatz

Salzburg Cathedral

Mariensäule sculpture in Domplatz

Interior of Salzburg Cathedral

Roof of Salzburg Cathedral

Me under the arches north of Salzburg Cathedral, where Maria walks through in The Sound of Music
Photo by Mum

Residenzbrunnen in Residenzplatz

View of Residenzplatz and Salzburger Glochenspiel from DomQuartier (as seen in the credits of The Sound of Music)

Salzburg Cathedral

Statue of Mozart in Mozartsplatz

Mozartsteg

Mozartsteg, Festung Hohensalzburg and old Salzburg

Finally walked up to Kaputziner Closter to check out the view back to the old town.

Salzburg from near Kaputzinerkloster
Photo by Mum

Nonnberg Abbey from near Kaputzinerkloster

Salzburg from near Kaputzinerkloster

Festung Hohensalzburg and Salzburg Cathedral

The Festung Hohensalzburg funicular

Came back down and went to a place where I'd noticed earlier they sold Salzburger Nockerl, which Mum had never heard of. So that was lunch (along with some cream of asparagus soup).

Went back to the hotel to pick up our bags, then headed back to Munich.

But with all the roadworks and just general traffic, the trip took about four hours :(:(:(

By the time we'd checked into the hotel, gotten petrol for the car, returned the car, saw about checking into our flight tomorrow and finding something to eat it was after 9pm :(:( So much for an early night :(:(:( Fortunately I didn't manage to bingle the car, so that was a huge relief. Driving on the wrong side of the road is super stressful! Who knew!

The checkin process was super painful. Terminal 2 at Munich airport only has checkin counters for Lufthansa. And its partner airlines in the fine print. So that was a little confusing. So we went to try checking in with the machines, but it brought both of our names up incorrectly, then refused to let us checkin. None of the human-operated counters showed general checkins, it was all just "bag drop" stuff. We asked the local Lufthansa help and she just said we just had to get in line with the bag drop queue. Really not a very user-friendly process.

By the time we got everything sorted and caught a bus back to the hotel, it was 9:20pm :(

So for once we got a hotel with a reverse cycle air conditioner that actually works!! Hot food options for breakfast pretty limited though.

We were going to go into the old town this morning but the weather forecast was for better weather today than tomorrow, so we decided to go out to the lakes district and the other local Salzburg area sights today instead.

But of course everything was still cloudy (low clouds covering mountains) and when it wasn't cloudy it was super hazy. So pretty much everything sucked.

We went to St Gilgan first to do a quick photo stop from the lookout.

View over St Gilgen from Wolfgangseeblick

I wanted to go to the spot in the movie where the little train goes up the hill, and I knew where it was and there's even a road to it, but of course the road is closed at the bottom of the hill isn't it. So that was a fail. (We could have tried to go up on the railway itself, but it would have taken up half the day and we didn't have that much time. Maybe next time. Sigh.)

Next over to Mondsee. Drove along the south side of the lake on the east end where the kids are hanging out of the trees (not really sure which bit exactly though - trees change and clouds covered the mountains). Then along the north side at the east end where they're all on bicycles singing do-re-mi. Again, everything was in cloud.

View across Mondsee to Schafberg

View across Mondsee towards Pichl Auhof

Continued onto Mondsee town. Went into the Basilica where the wedding scene was filmed (I'd been in there before last time we were here, but got some different photos that I didn't get last time). Then up the hill to the Maria Hilf church - one of the stills in the opening credits.

Basilika St. Michael in Mondsee

Interior of Basilika St. Michael

Interior of Basilika St. Michael

Roof of Basilika St. Michael

Kirche zur Mariahilf in Mondsee, seen in the opening credits and intermission of The Sound of Music

View across Mondsee

Basilika St. Michael in Mondsee

Buildings in Mondsee

Next over to Sankt Lorenz. They claim a particular church was used for the opening credits, but the church that's there is different (different steeple). Of course it's possible the steeple has changed - certainly one in Salzburg town has changed. The position looked right so who knows. I was trying to find some other spots there whey they drive along in the car with Max and the Baroness but it was too cloudy and hazy and Mum was getting bored so gave up on that idea :(

Filialkirche St. Lorenz and the Drachenwald

Finally over to Eugendorf to find another church used in the opening credits. But instead of being on a little grassy hill, it's now blocked by a little forest of trees.

Filialkirche zum heiligen Georg in Kirchberg

Filialkirche zum heiligen Georg in Kirchberg

And then back into Salzburg for locations closer to town.

First was the Maria Plain church. It gets about a second of screen time right at the end of the wedding.

Maria Plain church near Salzburg, seen after the wedding in The Sound of Music

Then to places Mum was more interested in.

Firstly Leopoldskron for the view to Untersberg. You need to be a hotel guest to get into the gardens though :( Maybe one day we'll be able to stay there.

Festung Hohensalzburg from Schloss Leopoldskron

View across Leopoldskroner Weiher towards Untersberg

Schloss Leopoldskron

Schloss Leopoldskron

Then over to Frohnburg. That was pretty cool. And we had a nice view of Untersberg from there as well.

Schloss Frohnburg

Untersberg from Hellbrunner Allee

Entrance to Schloss Frohnburg and Hellbrunner Allee

Schloss Frohnburg

Then to Hellbrunn to see the gazebo. Mum was pretty happy about that.

Me and Mum and the Sound of Music gazebo at Schloss Hellbrunn

The Sound of Music gazebo at Schloss Hellbrunn

The Sound of Music gazebo at Schloss Hellbrunn

Schloss Hellbrunn

Tried to go to see Anif Palace but you can't get anywhere near it because it's a private road. So that was a fail.

Brief stop at Elsbethan for a church still from the credits.

Pfarrkirche zur Heiligen Elisabeth, seen in the opening credits and intermission of The Sound of Music

And finally to the actual villa the Von Trapps lived in. Again, you can't really go in and see it because it's a hotel now.

The Von Trapp family home in Salzburg

So we got back to the hotel around 5pm. The pedometer claimed we'd done 11700 steps so far today ?! I was happy at that point to call it a day, but because the weather forecast for tomorrow was for rain Mum wanted to go into the old town while it wasn't raining (just super hazy).

So walked down to find the local laundromat first (at least a fifteen minute walk away :( )

Then down into the old town. Walked along the river for a bit. Then into Mirabell palace. Tried to find the lift up Monchsberg but had trouble finding it. Ended up finding the horse bath first. Eventually found it. Last time we had Salzburg cards so could just go up. This time we had to pay the 2.30. Walked along the terrace and across the top of the hill, which we didn't do last time. Then down next to the theatres. Got photos of the entrance area to the theatres used in the movie, but to see inside you need to go on a tour. Their website says the only tour for the Felsenreitschule is at 9:30am. An advertising board we saw said 2pm. So who knows which is right.

Train crossing Eisenbahnbrücke over the Salzach, with Kirche Maria Himmelfahrt and Untersberg

Mum posing on the Do Re Mi steps at Mirabell Palace

Me at Pegasus Brunnen in Mirabell Palace
Photo by Mum

Pegasus Brunnen in Mirabell Palace

Gardens in Mirabell Palace

Me dancing up the path in Mirabell Palace
Photo by Mum

Mirabell Palace gardens and Festung Hohensalzburg

Mirabell Palace

Me posing at the gates of Marabell Palace
Photo by Mum

Marko-Feingold-Steg

Salzburg

Locks on Marko-Feingold-Steg

Gstättentor

Pferdeschwemme (Hofmarstallschwemme) horse bath fountain

View over Salzburg from Mönchsberg

View over Salzburg from Mönchsberg

Old city walls behind Salzburg

Old city walls behind Salzburg

View across the Felsenreitschule and Kollegienkirche

Me on the terrace behind Salzburg
Photo by Mum

Back entrance of the Felsenreitschule

By now it was like 8pm and we hadn't really eaten since breakfast. We thought we'd see if we could find some pork knuckle but of course that's easier said than done when you're tired and hungry. In the end I hacked into a random hotel's wifi and found a place that sold it on the way back to the hotel. But to be honest, it wasn't as good as Zierholz. The meat was ok but there wasn't any crackling (well there was, but it was rubber not crackling). Sad times.

Finally back to the hotel around 9pm. Ridiculous. So fricken tired.