And THAT’s why the population is so small.

Ok. Before anyone says anything, I know I am ridiculously behind with these blog updates. So,without further ado, I give you "Salzburg".

The train ride. I felt spoilt by the scenery

Salzburg, home of Mozart and the Von Trapp family. It is also home to a flamboyant tour guide, awesome hostel and quaint scenery. My time in Salzburg was far too short; however, it holds the first “touristy” venture of my trip, and what a venture it was!

After another absolutely beautiful train ride I arrived in Salzburg in the late afternoon on the 4^th to overcast weather and a train station in the middle of renovations. I managed to find my way to the info point and grab a map and some help with directions, before heading off to find my hostel, “The YoHo”.

“The YoHo” is a cute little building in the back streets of old town Salzburg. Coloured yellow (incidentally, the same as the palaces *gasps*) it is a newly renovated building, holding a small kitchen and laundry in the basement; above which sits a bar and kitchen alongside the reception. My room was nice and unoccupied for the time being so I dropped my things in my locker and set off to explore.

Mirabella Church

Although I had a map, it was the tourist days of old that came out as I walked in two circles around the block before deciding to use general guesswork and saying “I think it’s in this direction” and starting to walk.

I managed to find my way to the Mirabella Church an Palace and find not only an ATM but a supermarket. I was flushed with success, and returned home as night fell to a nice dinner of "instant ramen" (the Chinese ladies laughed with me on this one-they were also cooking it!). I was exhausted, so after dinner went to bed early. The fascinating thing about sitting on a train for hours is that it actually tires you out when you have actually done nothing except stare blankly out of the window.

Schloss Leopoldskron

However, as I sat to eat in the basement reading the graffiti scribbled all over the walls and door (it adds character, apparently) I was torn.

Those of you who know me fairly well will know that I detest anything remotely “touristy”. This includes guided tours in large groups, loud and conspicuous map reading, and any sort of photo that includes a ridiculous pose. But I was in Salzburg-the home of the Von Trapps and Mozart! Surely I had to do something?

I was torn; to go on a tour in a big painted bus; piling on and off at every stop and taking enough photos to fill 3 albums on Facebook, or to do my own guided tour; the guide being my trusty map and the group being me?

20, going on 16 going on 17

I bit the bullet; I wanted to see the Lakes District and doubted that I would get there on my own,so I went to the reception and bought a ticket on the Panorama “Sound of Music Tour” for the next morning.

I trundled off to bed, planning for an early night but not quite getting there (oh hello there 11:30pm), and awoke the next morning to face the music.

I walked my pack downstairs to the luggage hold and checked out; as I did meeting the tour guide and being told I not only looked Austrian, but like “Little Gretel all grown up”.  This was the first indication of how my day was to go. As I returned from the basement and made more conversation with our overly flamboyant, middle aged tour guide, I met three young American girls who were also staying in the hostel but were living in Vienna rather than travelling around for a long time. Eliza, Rebecca and Emily were all friendly and excited, so I joined up with them to experience the one and only “Sound of Music” tour.

Do you have confidence?

As we boarded the bus, we soon found our Tour Guide, Peter, to be quite the character. He made friends and then lost them again by telling female “kitchen” jokes, and male “beer bottle neck” jokes (I won’t’ repeat them, Google is your friend) but his knowledge was astounding. He talked nonstop for the first 2 hours, only falling quiet when someone was asking a question or there was music playing.

I found him hilarious. His voice bore more than a slight resemblance to Jon Lovitz ("Mel" from "The Benchwarmers" movie) yet he looked something like "Charlie", from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". My day was to be filled with Pop Culture references and this was just the beginning!  

Born in Austria and raised in the United States, he was quite lovely, and promised to take care of us if the “criminal” bus driver Ferdinand did anything out of line. He wasn't actually a criminal, but we had "fun" laughing nervously at the joke whilst he told us all the facts about the film interspersed with jokes and anecdotes about his time as a tour bus driver.

Lookout over St Gilgens

We started to tour by going through Salzburg itself; driving past some of the sights, before heading out to the “ice rink” which also doubles as the place where Maria and the children capsized the canoe. Schloss Leopoldskron, the Palace on the other side also provided the set of the gardens of the Von Trapp manor. After hearing Peter’s “Lovely speech” we hightailed it out of there toward the Hellbrunn Palace, driving past the actual palace (which is now the Mozart Music School) used as the Von Trapp manor; the lane which Maria skips down singing “I have confidence” and finally to our destination of the gazebo in which Rolf and Maria dance and sing “16 going on 17”. Peter jovially explained that it was locked a few years ago because an 80 year old woman had fallen and broken her hip trying to dance like Maria (whether or not this is true or his fabrication remains to be seen). It was originally set in the grounds of Schloss Leoopoldskron; however the owners soon got sick of people climbing the walls to see it in the 70s and relocated it to the other Palace.

St Gilgens

After taking our photos we again boarded the bus for a slightly longer ride, this time out to the lakes district. On the way was stopped on a lookout (alongside the other 3 tour buses) over St Gilgen, the place where Mozart's mother grew up.

We moved on from the lookout and made our way to the Church of St Michael's where the wedding scene was filmed. It was quite beautiful and the interior is lavishly decorated with gold highlights and Jesus figurines, as well as a beautiful old black and gold organ.

St Michael's Church

After this we had free time, effectively marking the end of the tour, and Peter had told us that the best “apfelstrudel” (Apple Strudel) in the world was served in a restaurant opposite the church. Hearing this, Emily, Rebecca, Eliza and I made our way to the restaurant for a while; sitting and indulging in delicious sweets and cakes. The strudel was incredibly delicious, and we were left feeling more than content as we left the restaurantAs we boarded the bus, the “Sound of Music” anniversary DVD was put on, showing us some of the sights we had seen already, but also some that we hadn’t had time to discover; the Mirabella Gardens being amongst them. We travelled along a part of the original autobahn built by the Nazis (which I found slightly unsettling but altogether very cool) and made it back to Salzburg by 1:30, leaving plenty of time for me to collect my baggage and hop on the train for the next part of my journey to Vienna. This post ends here as the next part of my journey makes it's way to Vienna, the musical city.

Until next time!

Love Love!

Clem xx