My European Invasion: The Hills are Alive in Salzburg, Austria

September 21

Parted ways with Kathrin this morning, and took a long train ride to Salzburg. On that train ride two Americans and a British guy from Czech Republic got on and were talking about how they left 3/4^th of their souls in the tents of Oktoberfest. Well that is an entrance…

Later an old woman got on the train and took the seat diagonally from mine, and started speaking German to me. Bettina said she would have let the woman know that I don’t speak German, but she was afraid the woman would start speaking to her. Either way this elderly woman on the train spoke to me in German for about 10 minutes before she realized that I wasn’t German! I kept smiling and nodding, trying to pick out a word here or there. She was trying to tell me about this shopping area where I could go and get things 50 percent off. Then when she found out I was from Seattle she started telling me (luckily in English… well for the most part) all about her sister who moved there back in 1948 and how the kids every year would come back to Germany for Christmas to see where her sister, their mother or grandmother, was from. How it is sad that there is no aide from the government in New Orleans, how her sister’s husband had bad memories/flashbacks from the war that he would drink and her sister had to pretty much be the lone parent in raising the kids. Well when the woman left, I was a bit sad, I mean I really enjoyed hearing all about these stories. Bettina wasn’t so comfortable with it, as the woman tried to talk with her towards the end of her ride. The Americans and the UK guy were talking with us afterwards on how we needed to find another old woman to start telling us things; but our stop came too soon to find one.

The first thing I noticed in Salzburg is that the signs are very detailed, like the painted on person on a street for a pedestrian actually looks like a bit more like a person than the American stick figure. Same goes for the ‘walk’ and ‘don’t walk signs. Everything just has more detail.

As we set off in Salzburg, the skies were a clear blue and it was warm. The whole town was brimming with charm with the architecture and the lovely river meandering slowly through separating the old and new Salzburg. Bettina and I went to the Mirabellgarten, it is an absolutely magnificent sight; flowers everywhere, a fountain, and many sculptures- not to mention many tourists! A couple asked to get a picture taken in front of it, so afterward I asked if they could return the favor. Just then a tour guide intervened my picture opt with a whole crew of retirees completely blocking my picture. The guy who was going to take the picture said how about you go into the grass so I can get you in the picture. Well Bettina and I were kind of hesitant, but saw not many other options in getting our picture taken there. Right after the camera clicked the tour guide said in an irkly manner, “Please get off the grass, our taxpayers money goes to preserving it!” I seem to have a bit of a knack in getting into trouble. Though now I am one of the few people who have a picture in the Mirabellgarten where I am standing on the grass- Success!

Wandering through the narrow Austrian alleyways reminds me of Diagon Alley from Harry Potter. The shops all have interesting signs out and paved or cobblestone walkways. Bettina and I took a cobblestone side road that went under an archway and quickly became quite steep as we walked our way, nay hiked our way (far too steep to be considered a walk), up the side of a mountain to a little church high above the town. From there we could see all of the rooftops of the churches and towns; I even saw a little roof top patio complete with lounge chair and many green plants that one smart resident had. We continued hiking past the church where the paved path became dirt and our surroundings were swallowed up by tall trees and natural ponds. Once again I was accidentally hiking, but this time I was wearing boots rather than the open toed shoes as I did in Neuschwanstein, though I was still in a dress. Bettina and I eventually found an area to the side of the trail, where we caught a view of a castle that was about equal in elevation from where we were standing. From there, the Salzburg looked a lot smaller, even though it is a small city to begin with. Knowing that we were only visiting this lovely Austrian city for the day, we decided to head back down to explore some more sights.

Back into town, we crossed a bridge over the river to the old part of Salzburg; which very much like the new part of Salzburg, consisted of beautiful buildings and narrow cobblestone alleyways. Bettina and I stumbled across the birthplace of the famous Mozart, a community figure that according to Bettina, the Austrians at one point wished would leave but now capitalizes on. The birthplace was a cheerful yellow building and if it weren’t for the plaque, it would blend in with all the other cheerfully colored buildings on the street.

We walked to Hohensalzburg, a castle that is very high on the hills and to get there are really steep switchbacks. I do not recommend having a backpack on when walking up there on a nice day, or else at least have a good sized bottle of water and a means to put your hair up if you need to. Going up to the castle gates, we had a clear view of the castle and decided that we were not going to go in. After the first switchback down from the castle, you can see great views of Saltzburg, as well as keep going on the road instead of taking a second switchback in order to see the Abbey from the Sound of Music. The Abbey, or also known as the Nonnberg Abbey, is the location of the monastery that Maria was part of throughout the movie. With a great view of the domed like rooftops and sunlight shining through the leaves of the tree outside of the Abbey, Bettina and I took a small break to write postcards on top of a stone wall.

As we made it back to the main part of town, there was a fair taking place with goodies and rides right in the middle of town square. I noticed that unlike the fairs in the U.S., the people who go to them are not usually overweight. Near all of the festivities, Bettina treated me to an Austrian specialty at a beautiful dainty restaurant called, Demel. It was a place that I always imagined eating at in Europe; it is a chocolatiers, the interior and exterior looked like one of those shops from a Channel Perfume ad. Bettina ordered us Kaiserschmarren, which is like a funnel cake with a plum sauce on the side and a physalis on top! You pour the plum sauce over the funnel cake like pastry and Guten Appetit! (or as they say in Bavaria An Guadn!)