The Hills are Alive with the Sound of... Wind, Rain and Snow

This past weekend I went with two friends from Chapman to Salzburg and Vienna, Austria. We lucked out and got 'Friend, Family, and More' discounts for the roundtrip train ticket that was 50% off the original price. Not bad! We left on Thursday night and took an overnight train (11 hours) directly to Vienna. From there we immediately took another train to Salzburg where we had the rest of the day to venture around the old city- home of the famous composer, Mozart, and most commonly known for its scenery and sites seen in The Sound of Music. On Saturday morning we stuffed ourselves with the all you can eat breakfast from our hostel (a great find when you can find breakfast included) and headed out directly for the Sound of Music Tour and Saltmine Tour. We were recommended to take the sound of Music tour because it gave a great overview of the city and took you out of the city to see some of the mountain ranges and other discrete locations that are harder to get to by the local metro system. We met our tour guide who was actually a late descendent of Mr. Von Trapp and told us that most Austrians hate the musical movie and don't understand why so many American tourists come to Salzburg solely for The Sound of Music Tour. (DID YOU KNOW: Mr. Von Trapp actually lived in an Austrian colony in Croatia? Maybe we're related..maybe?!) We saw a lot of familiar sites like the 'sixteen going on seventeen' gazebo, the Von Trap House, the Austrian Alps, and many others. Toward the end of the tour our guide was mentioning the fact that a storm might be coming our way, but we didn't really think twice about it. We were overlooking one of the most beautiful sites in all of Austria (see pictures below) when all of a sudden we hear a loud rumbling from behind us and see water pour our way. We all ran into the tour bus and within 15 minutes Austria had become a winter wonderland, completely covered with snow. There were also incredibly high winds that caused huge trees to fall and block roads. After detouring through the hills, we found our way to the oldest pastry shop in Austria and had pretzels and chocolate cinnamon rolls over candlelight (due to the power-outage in the small city).



After our first tour we were taken into the Bavarian Alps for a Saltmine tour. Salzburg is directly translated as Salt City, and is known for its huge supply of salt. On our way up the mountains (the snow and rain had subsided by now) we could see Hitler's Eagles Nest, his winter home given to him by the Nazi regime for his 50th Birthday, set at the very top of the mountains. We then got into white jumpsuits and took a train deep into the mountains and had a guided tour though the mines that outlined the process of extracting salt from the mountains. They had several wooden slides that would take you even deeper into the mountain. Halfway through the tour we actually passed the border from Austria into Germany. So I guess I got a free trip to Germany with admission. Not bad right?

That night we grabbed some Mozart balls (Mozart's favorite chocolates) and headed to Vienna. Vienna is an architecturally beautiful city with huge buildings and world renowned museums. We went into the Cathedral in the middle of the city and took a tour of the catacombs. We saw huge 'grave rooms' full of skeletons and bones where they would bury victims that had the plague. We went into a couple modern art exhibits and then to the largest Jewish cemetery in Austria. It was miles deep and had gravestones toppling over one another. We went right at twilight which gave the cemetery a very eerie feel. Remind me never to do that again...HA. We then hopped on the train and headed home. We had some complications when getting from Bologna to Firenze, but other than that we have a very worthwhile and successful trip!

Can't wait for the French Riviera next weekend! (oh yeah, and classes are good to. HA)