By the way, I have to mention our driver Giordano and what he was wearing today. He wore slim fitting jeans, crocodile skin shoes.... and a slim fitting purple and green shirt! And the shirt was not a dark purple or dark green colour - it was bright purple with bright green around the collar and green strips down the middle where the buttons are. We all whispered to each other "What is he wearing?!" It wasn't quite flourescent, but it was close.
Anyway, back to my trip. Using our new headsets, our new guide, dressed in the traditional Austrian costume acalled a "drindle", walked us over the old Salzburg. Again, narrow cobblestone streets with magnificent architectural buildings.
Our first stop was at the famous Mirabell Gardens - the scene from The Sound Of Music where Maria and the Von Trapp children sing Doe, a deer. A female deer". We all did a bit of singing as we walked through the beautiful garden.We passed Mozart's house just outside the garden gates and over a footbridge crossing the Salz river. By the way, the name Salzburg means "Salt City" - Salz = Salt, Burg=City. In the olden days, salt was as valuable as gold and people were paid in salt. Salzburg was one of the cities that traded this valuable commodity.
We continued our walk through small covered laneways and came upon a gorgeous little cobblestoned street where we could see a castle at one end and endless shops at the other.
Our next stop was the beautiful Salzburg cathedral. This cathedral was originally built in 1628 and was damaged several times through the years. The last time was during World War II when the main dome of the cathedral was bombed and destroyed. It was then restored in 1952.One of the relics that survived the last destruction of the catherdal dome was a 14th century Gothic baptismal font. This font was used to baptise Mozart.
We took a stroll through St Peter's churchyard which included a small graveyard. This graveyard was used as a model of the graveyard where the Von Trapps hid from the Nazis in The Sound of Music. Of course, the scene used in the mo
vie was a Hollywood set as the real graveyard is quite small.
Near the churchyard, we came upon the fountain where Maria sings the "I have confidence in me" song. This fountain was used as the model by the Italians for their Trevi Fountain. The Austrian fountain is, apparently, the original.
We took a stroll through St Peter's churchyard which included a small graveyard. This graveyard was used as a model of the graveyard where the Von Trapps hid from the Nazis in The Sound of Music. Of course, the scene used in the mo
vie was a Hollywood set as the real graveyard is quite small.Near the churchyard, we came upon the fountain where Maria sings the "I have confidence in me" song. This fountain was used as the model by the Italians for their Trevi Fountain. The Austrian fountain is, apparently, the original.
After walking through some more streets, we came upon Mozart's birhplace. I took pictures from the outside but we didn't go inside. We then were allowed free time to explore on our own. I went off and took lots and lots of photos. And I couldn't get the soundtrack of The Sound Of Music out of my head.
I was quite surprised that it was almost impossible to get lost. Every tiny street I took, or little lane way, I eneded up by the river and not far from where I was to meet our guide to get on the bus again.
I then felt more conformation to stroll and take in the atmosphere of this wonderful town without the fear that I would get lost.
It was then time to head off to Vienna with a two hour drive through the Austrian landscape. This included small towns on rolling green hills and the occasional industry sections including a giant quarry.
When we arrived at our hotel - The Hilton Danube - we checked in and I went straight to my room to dump my carry-on luggage. I opened the door to my room and went "WOW!". It is a huge room with two double beds and farily new and modern. I have a brief view of the Danube river (no longer blue but more of a greenish-brown colour). Fantastique!!
I had a little time before dinner so decided to do some laundry as we'd be staying at the Hilton until Monday morning. I have T-shirts and underwear hanging all over my room!!
It was then time to go downstairs and meet the others who were going to a "Heurigen Dinner" held in the wine-growing area of Vienna. The "Heurigen" is when the wine growers celebrate the wine from the last grape harvest.
The dinner was absolutely delicious. We started with a small salad of cucumbers, sauerkraut, potatoes adn one slice of tomato in a yummy dressing.
This course was followed by a slice of rolled ham, stuffed with a creamy cheese filling with peas, carrots and diced potatoes. This was when we started to think that this was all our meal. Were we wrong.
Along came a platter of different warm meats - veal schnitzel, chicke pieces, sausages, baked ham, sliced dbef and baked potatoes. At my table, there waas seven of us and we couldn't eat the whole thing. On Jean, James, Kathryn and Peter's table, there were only four of them and they finished everything on the platter!
I sat with Jo, Paul and two American couples that were not boring at all - Daniel and Fay, and Carla and Ken. I thought Carla and Ken were a couple of hill-billies because of the way they acted and talked. Carla is quite small in height and weight and I was quite surprised that she advised us that she is actually a Prison Warden in Washington state. Not only that but she is in charge of the most dangerous part of the prison - handling four sections where they keep all the dangerous gang members. And she also handles about 200 staff. You would never have guessed it as she is so tiny. Her partner, Ken, is also in the prison system, transporting the prisoners from one prison to another. He is also not that tall. A true lesson in "Never judge a book by its cover".
Throughout our meal, there were two musicians - one playing a piano accordion the other a violin - roaming our tables playing music. In the restaurant there was also another tour group from Insight mostly made up of noisy Australians. There was dancing and singing along and lots of it - a joint venture from the Insight group and our Globus group. Then, after the Insight group left, it was our group's turn to get noisy. And noisy they got!
All in all, I had a great time. Great people and great food. The only down side is that the musicians called for tips and would only accept paper money - no coins. Cheeky buggers!
Tomorrow we'll be going to the Schonbrunn Palace (which I've been looking forwad to seeing since researching my tour!) and doing a walking tour of Austria.
