23/24 August Salzburg Austria

23/24 August Salzburg Austria

We had a quick pastry breaky at our hotel and then jumped on the electric tram bus into town. It was a short ride and it delivered us direct into old Salzburg. It was a beautiful day, sunny and about 30 degrees. We first went to a farmers market and bought some fruit - apples, mandarins, peaches, grapes. They were beautiful.

We walked around the old town and saw many historic buildings including some palaces and churches, and beautiful gardens. There was a massive fortress on top of the hill overlooking the town. It is called Hohensalzburg Castle. It is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe.

 

 

We had a few goes on a giant slide in a lovely park playground. We went through the Mirabell park where parts of the Sound of Music were filmed.

We walked over the river on a fancy pedestrian bridge and then along a narrow shopping street (Salzburg's main fashion shopping street) crowded with people. It was very colorful with beautiful old austrian buildings. We had a look at Mozart's birthplace where he lived throughout his childhood and then his teenage years. There was a museum there. We walked through a few lovely plazas and squares, some crowded, some quiet.

We went into an old church and through the cemetery. It was St Peters church where the Von Trapp family hid in the Sound of Music.

We went into the catacombs dug in the rock walls on the edge of the cemetery. The catacombs is a very old burial site dating back many hundreds of years.

We then went and had some lunch and then walked to the church where Mozart and some of his family are buried. We saw their graves.

We then went to the famous Marionette Theatre and watched a puppet show/musical of the Sound of Music. We had pre-booked tickets. It was amazing and the puppets and singing was so much like the movie.

Some of you may know what it's about but some of you may not. It is about the Von Trapp family and a nun. The nun's name is Maria. She is not sure if she wants to be a nun so she is told to leave and go and look after the Von Trapp kids. The kids names are Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta and Gretl.

After a long time looking after the kids Maria falls in love with and marries the kids' father. Maria and Captain Von Trapp go on their honeymoon and when the come back they get a telegram from the Nazis saying the Captain must join the Nazi navy. They decide they need to leave as soon as possible so they sing at a concert in the Salzburg Hall, then run away, hide in the church and cemetery for a while and then walk from Austria to Switzerland across the Alps to make their escape. They make it over the mountains and when the war finishes they come back home and have a happy, happy ending. There is lots of great singing throughout the show. Dad sang along sometimes. Very embarrassing.

We were supposed to sit in the second row but we decided to jump into the front row since there were spare seats. We all thought the show was really clever.

Elodie's favourite part of the show was when they danced to "doe a deer..." but she also loved the puppets.

Holly 's favourite part was when they all announce their names and each say a phrase. Holly also liked the singing.

Erin's favourite part was when they showed us how they do the puppeteering. We all had a fantastic time.

Then we went to Mozart Plaza and to an outdoor restaurant and had a beautiful Austrian style dinner including an open tray of meats including grilled beef, lamb, chicken and sausages and steamed vegies and rice. We also had Wiener Schnitzel. It was delicious. Mum and dad had Austrian beers and we had cokes.

We had a walk around after dinner as it was getting dark and there was a big thunderstorm. We got the tram bus back to our hotel and jumped into bed.

We had a knock on the door and big brother Nathan was standing there. He and his mate Todd had just driven in from Switzerland. We were very excited and talked about what we all have been doing till about midnight.

The next day dad and Nathan took Nathan's car back to the car hire place. It was a beautiful day again after some very early drizzle. We got ready and packed because we were leaving later in the day for Zell Am See where we are staying in the Austrian Alps for five days.

When dad and Nathan returned we had a big breaky downstairs in our hotel then we all caught the tram bus into Salzburg and walked around some more sights till just after lunch. Erin bought a chicken puppet on strings. She loves it and can do tricks with it.

We caught the tram bus back then all seven of us jumped into our van and we drove out of Salzburg through the most beautiful green steep tree covered sometimes rocky mountains and valleys toward Zell Am See. We had lunch on the way at a roadside bistro. The usual lunch but dad and Nathan and Todd had a beautiful austrian goulash meat soup.

We drove into Zell Am See after about 2 hours driving. We went through a tunnel and came out the other side into what looked like paradise with a beautiful blue lake, people swimming and boating and beautiful houses and wonderful mountains all around. We drove into Zell Am See town and got the key to our chalet and drove high up into the mountains about 2 kilometres.

Our chalet is called Chalet Berni. It is beautiful in amongst the austrian pine tree mountains with ski gondolers and lifts all around. We have a massive big verandah and we have panoramic views over the Alps and adjacent mountains and valleys. There is a cable car near us that goes up to a cafe on a very high mountain way above us. We'll have a go on that tomorrow hopefully.

We unpacked then went back downtown to get some food for the next few days. We want to go swimming in the lake tomorrow too. Dad and Todd are doing the Ironman 70.3 Zell Am See Austria triathlon on Sunday. What a beautiful place to race.

Mum cooked up a massive dinner and we ate on our verandah as the sun set over the austrian alps.

More from Zell Am See soon.

The Creber Girls xxx