The Hills Are Alive (in Salzburg, Austria) with the Sound of Music

So Tom and I set off in the car on our epic three-week adventure around the European Alps, and our first stop is just 3 hours away in Salzburg, home of The Sound of Music.

Nothing says, "Welcome," like a cow, right?

We had to prepare for this by watching The Sound of Music, and I'm glad we did.  I'd watched the play numerous times over the past years, but hadn't actually watched the Julie Andrews version of the film in quite some time.  I started recognizing places everywhere!  And when we were on our tours around the city and the surrounding hills, singing the songs and experiencing the nostalgia, I was able to go all out.  :)

We toured the hills that are alive on "The Original Sound of Music Tour", of course, and yes you could hear them singing (unless that was the other tours in the hills (or the echo of my loud voice)).

Back in the city we saw some of the sights such as the main house from the film,

the trees that were made for swinging (even though they told me I couldn't ):),

well, you know what happened here...,

the wedding chapel,

inside said chapel

and we definitely had to come up to Nonnberg Abbey.

They wouldn't let us in - apparently it's only for nuns.

It had already started to rain steadily at this point

We could see the rain coming

(which became a constant for the next couple weeks), but it was still a nice hike.  After the Abbey, we decided to go to the castle on the hill that overlooks the entire city.  That was a less-friendly hike in the rain.  Just so you know, my way of preparing for the rain is by donning a hat, Tom at least had a jacket.

Abbey from above - it's the red-roofed tower

 
The castle was huge!  You can see if from virtually everywhere in the city, but you don't realize how big it is until you walk around in it.

We walked in through the courtyard to get to the exhibitions and other things on display, as well as to the view point.  Wow, Salzburg would be gorgeous in the sunshine.  But it was still pretty in the rain.

Animation showing what it looked like in 1560

After a ride down on the funicular and playing a game of wizard's chess (not really, but the board was not one for the kitchen table!) in a plaza, we walked the old town.

For the Win!

Looking back up at the castle

The rain had picked up and we were getting drenched again, so we ducked into an ice cream parlor (a regular thing, whether raining or not) for some frozen goodness and waited out the rain while watching the World Cup match. 

Salzburg is also the birthplace of Mozart, so we switched back and forth between learning about him and The Sound of Music on our next city tour.

Mozart Bridge

The downtown gardens were beautiful, and it seemed every flower was in full bloom.

Church was interesting.  We found the Salzburg ward and, of course, it was a German-speaking ward, and I hadn't (still haven't ;)) learned any of the language yet, so we got a missionary to translate.  Funny thing, I think I understood as much as he did.  He did warn me, though, that it would probably be the worst translation I've ever received.  Turns out, missionaries tell the truth. :)

Great way to kick off the excitement of the trip, and gave me plenty of songs to sing in my head (and outloud) for the next few days.

Dam Tour Without the Tour: Welcome to the Top of Austria

I arrive in Vienna, Austria, at 6:00am Saturday after a no-sleep night (or flight) in London.  The goal is to stay awake all day.  Ha, yeah right.  My body may have been upright and moving, but I think I was asleep.  Tom gave me a small city tour, of which I remember nothing; then we went walking for some sausage and ice cream, but not mixed, cause that's gross!  I honestly don't remember what else we did that first day (and I don't think I would have if I wrote this right after that first weekend in June, either), but Tom had the Monday off, so we took off to go to a dam.  Yes, a dam.  But look at the view from it, it's amazing! 

It's the highest dam in Austria and that funky-looking circular building was our sweet hotel.  It's actually my favorite hotel I've been in for a long time, because you can (ability-wise, not permission I'm sure) get on the roof, but more on that later.

The reservoir

The view from the dam viewing platform

The reason we wanted to go to this dam is because of the drive.  Looking at the drive on Google Maps, the road kind of looks similar to this: (_/)_$~~~@
I was struggling to stay awake for the first bit, but when we started getting into the region with lakes like this, I couldn't help but take in all the beauty.

Little did we know, but soon found out, that the valley we were in, in Malta National Park, is nicknamed the "Valley of Cascading Waterfalls".  Driving up to the hotel, I'd look left and see a few waterfalls, I'd hear one on the right, and see a couple up ahead.  Waterfalls were everywhere, it was surreal!  Here are just 4 of the better-looking ones.

The waterfalls definitely added to the grandeur of the place, and the overall enjoyment of the ride.  In fact, seeing them all kept me awake, so that's saying something.

After a quiet evening at the dam, I decided I wanted to have some fun, which means wake up around 2am and take pictures.  I'd never gotten any pics of the Milky Way before, and figured this could be a great chance.  Here are my attempts:

So, welcome to Austria, they lock the hotel at night. I found that out the hard way.  Morning light had begun to show, so I wanted to get a little bit of sleep, at least.  I head back up, but can't get in.  I try another door, locked.  I go up to the main floor, locked.  I head to the front door, locked.  I had my room key, but it didn't work in the lock I saw on the front door.  I call Tom, wanting to have him wake up, come down, and open the door for me.  But then I see a ladder. :D  Oh yeah, I'm gonna try it.  I climb up and get to the roof.  I'm creeping along the rooftop, hoping two things: 1) that I don't find a soft spot and fall through the roof, and 2) that I don't get seen and get the manager called on me.  I sneak my way around to our room and finally climb in.  Sorry, Tom, for waking you, especially when I could've scared you crawling in the window.

Morning came way too early, and we set off for the Gossglockner, the highest peak in Austria.  The Grossglockner High Alpine Road was similar as the earlier one, but with higher peaks and more snow. It was hard to pay attention to the road, so we filmed some of it on my birthday present.  Tom put together a short video of a little bit of it on YouTube; here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBfMPcxLjx4 (in HD), and normal resolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Put8RrT3SiE
And here are some pics:

At the bottom of the valley

Grossglocker on the left, glacier on the right

A little view of the road from above

I wish the pics and the view could do it justice, because it was so majestic.  What a great way to welcome me to Austria. :)