The Meadows Are Alive! Salzburg

Okay, the fact that the meadows are alive is not supposed to be a creepy image, although I can imagine that some reading this might be confused. The truth of the matter is that we searched high and low, near and far, for a hill that was alive with the sound of music...JUST so I could twirl around and sing and skip and lose myself in the Rogers & Hammerstein classic but, well, the hills were far away. I even biked towards them on my electric bike and couldn't get there, so I had to settle for a meadow. It did the job well enough but...sigh. This just means I must return one day and find that damned hill.

Salzburg, Salzburg. What can be said other than the fact that it is a picturesque, adorable town overflowing with history, beauty, and personality? Our cheesy, new hostel played The Sound of Music every night at 8pm (have you guessed that this was filmed here by now?) and we rented bikes for one entire day, biking through the outskirts of town during our own makeshift Sound of Music tour. No WAY am I spending 30Euro on that when I don't even spend that much on a hostel for a night! For some reason my bike lock was not working so I lucked out and got the electric bike that gave me a little boost whenever I peddled...so going up hills was CAKE for me, though I think Megan now has some fiiiine looking legs after that workout! I just loved that not being out of breath allowed me to sing "Do Re Mi" across the countryside, through the poppy fields and next to the snowy mountains. I would have made an awesome Von Trapp.

First stop were the Mirabell Gardens where we just awkwardly walked around and tried to eavesdrop on tours. Unfortunately I don't think we actually found the location where Freulein Maria sang "Do Re Mi" with the children?? But I sang it so whatever. Eventually we made it over to the large fountain (without running too many tourists over with our bikes), the cemetary (similar to the one in the movie but apparently not the actual site), Nonneburg Abbey, Hellbrun Palace, the gazebo (semi-disappointing bc some old lady tried to re-enact the "16 going on 17" dance scene a while ago and BROKE HER HIP! Thanks a lot, woman...now it is locked), and other houses used as alternate facades of the Von Trapp mansion. We really biked allllll over the outskirts of Salzburg, even seeing a huge hare hopping along the bike paths! The scenery was so beautiful it is difficult to describe, and this has been one of my favorite days by far. I especially liked seeing the mutant fish in the ponds of the Hellbrun Palace and some of the public gardens.

Had two memorable meals:
First in St. Peter's Restaurant, aka the OLDEST restaurant in Central Europe! Opened in 803AD, it is rumored that Charlemagne dined here... holy moly this was delicious. I had the pork, which looked EXACTLY like my Viennese TGI Fridays meal but cannot even be compared in taste, and Megan got the "Surprise from the Chef" which, honestly, I cannot even begin to tell you what it was. Something jelly and weird but YUM it was slurped up in an instant. Wine, bread, cheese spreads, salads, desserts...and experience not to be forgotten any time soon.
Second was visiting my Uncle Ernsts' cousin Stefan's house because meeting and talking to locals is always a delight. The meal of leftovers was greedily devoured, and I absolutely loved learning that their son Nicholas is into Civil War Re-Enactments and will be participating in one this upcoming summer! I am so intrigued by this idea and this I'd make a great female spy for the Confederacy. Anyone interested, hit me up... this has now been added to my Life List.

Going out in Salzburg was an experience as well. Sitting in an Irish pub, Megan and I overheard the most GHASTLY (yes, I said ghastly) example of American girls hitting on Austrian boys. The pickup line was literally, "Ohmygod! You speak German? I totally speak English!" Trying a little hard there, are we? These are the girls that give American females their loose reputation in Europe. In the next bar, a karaoke bar where I was hoping to con Megan into singing, one guy came up to us CONVICED that we were Austrian and even made us show him our drivers liscenses to prove our identity. Then we realized...the reason he thought we were Austrian is b/c Megan was standing on a step by the table, making her look taller than me!! We had noticed that Austrians tend to be a bit more, ahem, solid, than other Europeans, in both height and weight. So this guy, with his t-shirt tucked into his workout pants, gave us quite a laugh.

I simply loved Salzburg for the ability to walk around the romantic town, bike along the river and rolling hills (meadows), and gaze into the skyline of the Alps. I cannot wait to return one day to this beautiful place!!