Salzburg

On Tuesday, our Italy "Easy Pace" tour was over.  Belinda made sure that we were all able to get to our departure destinations - she was a good tour guide and we thanked her for a wonderful tour.  Now, we head to Salzburg.  For Mark and me, leaving Venice involved various transport services:  first, we boated to the Venice train station, then we trained to Mestre, then we bussed to Vallach, and finally we trained to Salzburg.  This was an all day travel lugging our suitcases and backpacks. We left the hot mugginess of Venice behind us as we traveled into a rainy, cooler climate.  From the buses and trains, we went over the Italian Alps and the observed small villages clustered around these geological wonders:

 

 

 

 

 

This is our hotel in Salzburg, the Trumer Stube – despite its positive ranking by Rick Steve’s, this was a terrible hotel.  I’m so glad we only had to stay two nights.

 

While we were in Salzburg for our only day in town, we took the Sound of Music tour – this is a huge deal in Salzburg, with cars, minivans, and buses everywhere with SOM signage to take the thousands of tourists to specific film sights.  Our tourguide told us that Austrians in the 1960’s – 1970’s didn’t watch the movie because the Nazi scenes were too terrible for them.  However, by now, most Austrians have finally seen the movie.  Here are a few photos for anyone who remembers the movie:

One of the palaces used in the movie - this back part is featured in the movie. 

One of the gazebos used in the move. 
The other gazebo had no glass -- if you watch the movie, it seems that the same gazebo changes from enclosure to open.

 

In this and the next few photos you will see the landscape in which helicopters flew Julie Andrews in to sing the song "The Hills Are Alive" - the helicopters moved her from one spot to another to create a seamless production of the song.  It's been 50 + years since filming, but maybe you can still make out some of the mountain and grassy backdrops.

This church's exterior - which was white in 1964 - was used in the wedding scene
between the Captain and Maria. Another location was used for the interior scene when
she walks down the aisle at the abbey.

The villages along our SOM tour were quite pretty!

 

That same evening, we attended the Salzburg Music Festival to see Rudolph Buchbinder play Beethoven on the piano – he was excellent!  The performance theater was stunning and very ornate:

 

 

After one last night at this terrible hotel, we took the train to Wein (Vienna).