Salzburg: A Room with a View

Ah, Salzburg, the city where The Sound of Music was filmed, and where we people watched.  We arrived Sunday night, June 30th, and after wandering about the city a wee bit lost, we finally found St. Sebastian’s Kirche (Church), but then we couldn’t find St. Sebastian’s Institute, where we were to stay.  However, we soon found it, and were taken up to our rooms, 210A & 210B.  Isabella and I got a room to ourselves, while Johanna shared with three other Asian girls.  (Johanna's correction: make that “three Asian girls”).  We went out for an evening stroll, crossed the river, and wandered around the mainstreet for a bit, passing Mozart’s birthhouse, and exploring St. Blasius Church, a very dark stone church built in the 1300’s against the cliff face.  After standing outside a McDonalds trying (in vain) to siphon off their free wifi for a bit, we headed home and continued our Star Wars marathon with the first half of Star Wars IV. 

                Monday morning (July 1st) we started our Salzburg visit in earnest with a tour of the Mirabell Palace gardens and their famous “Dwarf Garden,” every statue of which was supposedly modeled after a real person.  I (Anneliese) hugged them all.  On the way there we stopped in a St. Andra Kirche, which we all really liked.  The building was old, but due to WWII bombing, the stained glass windows and alter pieces were quite new, which gave it a lovely mixture and a dynamic feel.  Then we headed back to St. Sebastian’s for lunch, and afterwards climbed up the nearby Kaputzinerberg, which is crowned by monastery of capuchin monks.  After an impromptu walk around the Kloster (monastery or convent) walks, we went into the church and listened to the silence for a few minutes.   It was a grey, rainy day, so after walking down the Kaputzinerberg we went to our rooms and people-watched passersby from our window for a few hours.  I (Johanna) also really wanted to hear some good singing and organ music, so we decided to attend an evening mass at St. Sebastian’s Kirche, just next door.  (Back to Anneliese).  Boy, was that a mistake!  First off, there was no organ music, only a cantor who started everything on the same note, secondly, the was entirely in Latin (we even chanted the entire Misse Brevis), thirdly, we somehow managed to pick the CREAKIEST row there was in the entire church, so that every mistake we made (and we made quite a few between sitting when we should be kneeling, standing when we should be sitting, and kneeling when we should be standing) was painfully obvious.  All in all, it was mortifying.  Following the service, we went to McDonald’s, ordered a hamburger and fish burger, plus French fries and ketchup (an extra €1 for ketchup!), and tried to contact our family, with limited success.  Then we got me an Eis (Ice cream), and headed home for an epic night of people watching.  While watching people, we were soon joined by a young man across the way, who was obviously an American.  So after waving hello once, we continued watching people, but just for fun we only spoke German (it is really annoying when you go to a country to practice German, and find that everyone there is speaking English!).  The other boy was having fun also.  He kept calling his friends to the window to watch people.  At one time, he was calling for his friend on the floor below, but his friend was not coming, so trying to be funny, he grabbed a handful of water, and started flicking water into the open window below.  Since it wasn’t working, he was just starting to give up when suddenly a hand flew out of the window below, and with perfect aim, threw a cup full of water straight into the face of the young man.  SPLASH!  It was so incredibly funny!  Also that night we had several couples kissing right under our window.  Johanna took photos while Isabella and I hid under the windowsill. 

Tuesday, July 2nd (according to Isabella).     

             

      We started our second full day in Salzburg by visiting the Salzburg Dome, the church where Mozart was baptized and served as organist.   An interesting feature on the outside of the church is that if you stand in the right place (the middle of the street), the statue of Mary in front of the church appears to being crowned by the cherubs on the church who are holding a crown of gold.  Inside the Salzburg Dome is equally impressive, complete with 5 organs (four below the dome and a large one in the gallery).  After staring at the ornate ceiling attempting to do the impossible and observe every detail, we went below into the dark and chilly crypt.  I personally don’t consider staring at tombs (be they empty or in use) to be one of my favorite pastimes but I suppose if you’re going to see such a church I suppose you may as well see it all.  Also, since the acoustics down in the crypt were quite good, Johanna and Anneliese took this opportunity to practice some and serenaded the dead Catholic archbishops (and any living tourists who happened to venture into the crypt) with protestant hymns.  Gladly leaving the archbishops to mull over the hymns, we exited the church and wandered on through the city.  Along the way we passed the oldest bakery in Salzburg, which smelled delicious.

       From the bakery we made our way to St. Peter’s Kirche Monastery Cemetery, and stared at more flowers and graves, including that of Mozart’s sister.  We continued ambling around the city, passing by the oldest restaurant in Europe which has been there since 803 and has served everyone from Charlemagne to modern-day tourists toting cameras and guidebooks.  It did not, however, have the pleasure of having us as guests; we very economically ate our lunches on the steps of a fountain while listening to the tolling church bells.  Our next stop was the old riding school where in the Sound of Music the Von Trapp family performs a few songs before their escape.  While searching for it, we climbed up the side of the mountain via several flights of stairs, only to find that the riding school was closed.   We continued a little further up before stopping to consult the map and figure out the next logical destination.  We decided to continue up the mountain to the Hohensalzburg since we were already about half way up, even though our original plan had to been see it later in the day.  The climb was quite steep and the sky threatened rain but we made it to the castle without incident (but not without some sweat).  This was the first time on this trip I was truly grateful for my hiking boots and their good traction – poor Anneliese’s shoes do not have much grip so climbing up was quite challenging!  Admission into the castle also provided us with an audio guide which was really nice because now we could know what we were looking at instead of simply walking by.  Our audio guide even told us funny stories about the castle, including this one:  Once the castle was under siege and all they had left for food was one cow. Not wanting their attackers to know this, they took the cow and paraded it down the wall, then brought it back and painted it black.  The next day they paraded the cow (which was now black) down the wall, brought it back in and painted it another color.  They continued this day after day until finally their attackers, assuming that they had an endless supply of provisions, left.  After touring the castle, the staterooms, and a marionette exhibit, we paused to decide where to go next. 

Our admission tickets included a one way ride on the funicular to the bottom of the mountain, but as we all wanted to see Stift Nonnberg (the convent Maria is at in the Sound of Music) which was just a few meters over on the mountain, we decided to skip the funicular and rely on gravity and our ever-strengthening muscles to get us back down the mountain.  After spending some time inside the dimly lit church at Stift Nonnberg, we were about to go searching for the famous gate in the Sound of Music movie when we heard some loud dance music.  Joking that the nuns must be having a dance party, we peered around the corner and saw a large group of about 50 people in neon green shirts doing some form of exercise that faintly resembled Zumba.  It was hilarious!!!  After taking a few pictures of them, we headed down the mountain and back to our rooms at St. Sebastian.  We stopped for some Eis on the way and found that the entire selection of fruit flavored Eis was dairy-free, so I was able to have some!  It was so creamy that after a few bites we turned around to ask (yet again!) if it was dairy-free, which they assured us it was.  As we were leisurely eating our Eis, the green shirt exercise group passed us, this time running through the streets of Salzburg.  We all took naps in our room (the one Anneliese and I were sharing), Johanna on Anneliese’s bunk, I in mine, and Anneliese on the floor with two blankets beneath her.  I alternated between napping and reading Dreaming in French, the book I need to read for Smith this fall.  After about an hour, Anneliese woke up, listened for a minute, and remarked, “That sounds beautiful!” and glanced out the window to see where the sound was coming from.  I put my book down and listened as well.  The faint strains of music reaching us were coming from St. Sebastian’s Kirche.  We quickly slipped on our shoes and ran over to St. Sebastian’s Kirche and saw that a high school String Orchestra from Australia (yes, Australia, not Austria) was giving a free concert.  We ran back and woke Johanna up, telling her she had to come hear them play.  The orchestra was fantastic!  They ended the concert with Plink, Plank, Plunk (Here’s a link to it, not the same group, but they are also good http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy7KFVRYK6M ), which is full of little musical jokes and seems quite difficult.  The ever-growing crowd gave the orchestra a huge round of applause at the end and kept them bowing for quite a long time!  Then we returned to our room, ate a little something for dinner, and finished unwinding from our long day by watching the rest of Star Wars V.  

We hope to get another post up in the next few days!  Anneliese, Johanna, and Isabella