So on Dec 23rd, we hired a driver to take us into Salzburg and surrounding area for the day. First we went to the Christmas Market in the center of Salzburg to get some goodies and walk around. Rhiannon was entranced by the beautiful angel that was handing out sweeties to little people, and she wasn't the only one because the boys in the family (not just Tryfan) thought she was pretty nice too.
It was colder than we expected at the market, so we had to bust out the extra layer of wool that was in our satchels. Rhiannon and Tryfan ran around like little monkeys.
After we were done with the market, we took a cable car up to the fortress called
Festung Hohensalzburg which had amazing views of the city and surrounding mountains from the top. Here it is as we were driving away. Our driver pointed out that the red turret visible to the bottom right of the fortress was the location of the convent that Maria was from in the
Sound of Music!
Anyway, we had lunch inside the fortress and Tryfan got to sit in a high chair throne that was really cool.
Our driver also took us past the house that was used in the
Sound of Music as the back garden by the lake and to the separate location of the infamous gazebo where Liesl sang and danced with her suiter during a rainstorm. Of course we had to have a photo of me with my parents in front of it!
After our driving tour, we went to one of the two
salt mines in the area (Salzburg means 'salt castle', referring to the fortress we visited and also to the area's abundance of white gold in the mountains nearby).
The one we went to was near Hitler's Eagle Nest in Berchtesgaden. This mine tour turned out to be such a great activity! We all had to wear coveralls with reflective tape and ride on a train deep into the mountain at quite a fast speed. Here is a self-take of all 6 of us on the train (before we started moving).
Once we were inside the mine, we all had to go down a big slide in groups of 2-5 people in order to get lower down into the mine. So fun! We went fast! Then we did the standard tour thing - following our guide around to see different highlights of the mine - and then we got to go on another big slide, then on a boatride across a mirror lake and finally ride an elevator back up to the top level so we could get the train back outside. We all got little bottles of salt as souveniers to take home. I am not so fond of tours and stuff like this, but just when my feet were starting to feel heavy it was time to get on the train to zoom back out into the fresh air!
It was colder than we expected at the market, so we had to bust out the extra layer of wool that was in our satchels. Rhiannon and Tryfan ran around like little monkeys.
After we were done with the market, we took a cable car up to the fortress called Festung Hohensalzburg which had amazing views of the city and surrounding mountains from the top. Here it is as we were driving away. Our driver pointed out that the red turret visible to the bottom right of the fortress was the location of the convent that Maria was from in the Sound of Music!
Anyway, we had lunch inside the fortress and Tryfan got to sit in a high chair throne that was really cool.
Our driver also took us past the house that was used in the Sound of Music as the back garden by the lake and to the separate location of the infamous gazebo where Liesl sang and danced with her suiter during a rainstorm. Of course we had to have a photo of me with my parents in front of it!
After our driving tour, we went to one of the two salt mines in the area (Salzburg means 'salt castle', referring to the fortress we visited and also to the area's abundance of white gold in the mountains nearby). The one we went to was near Hitler's Eagle Nest in Berchtesgaden. This mine tour turned out to be such a great activity! We all had to wear coveralls with reflective tape and ride on a train deep into the mountain at quite a fast speed. Here is a self-take of all 6 of us on the train (before we started moving).
Once we were inside the mine, we all had to go down a big slide in groups of 2-5 people in order to get lower down into the mine. So fun! We went fast! Then we did the standard tour thing - following our guide around to see different highlights of the mine - and then we got to go on another big slide, then on a boatride across a mirror lake and finally ride an elevator back up to the top level so we could get the train back outside. We all got little bottles of salt as souveniers to take home. I am not so fond of tours and stuff like this, but just when my feet were starting to feel heavy it was time to get on the train to zoom back out into the fresh air!
2 comments:
I love the Sound of Music references! I will forever think of watching that movie with you numerous times in our childhood, and still dream of going to Salzburg!
Happy New Year!
Love Polly
Oh...I so love these vacation posts! What a great time it looks like you had, and thank you for sharing your time with us!
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