SALZBURG

Salzburg: Where the hills are alive with the sound of music! And they were alive, indeed. Our bus ride from Zurich to Salzburg was breathtaking. The view was spectacular as the Swiss and Austrian countrysides blended together. We love traveling by bus because of the beautiful rural landscapes.

As we made our way to the Airbnb in Salzburg, we saw the most peculiar building with an ear for an entrance. At first glance we thought it was a really weird church, but it turned out to be a museum (we think… we actually still can’t say for sure what it was). To our pampered millennial horror, we discovered that this Airbnb didn’t have Wifi. Because our selfish families decided not to be billionaires, we have to work for a living… which requires the internet. So, this meant that we spent several full days hanging out in Starbucks. We ended up going there so often, in fact, that they started treating us like regulars. By the time we left, we were on a first name basis with the baristas.

After a few days of working at Starbucks, we finally ventured around Salzburg. One great thing about Salzburg is that it is actually quite small, so we hardly had to take any transportation at all; almost everything is in walking distance. We also became very quickly familiar with the layout of the city and were able to easily navigate around without the help of the internet (see, we’re not completely dependent on it; just mostly). Our first stop was at the Mirabell Gardens. This is where the “Do-Re-Mi” scene of The Sound of Music was filmed. It was fun to wander around the same steps, archways, and benches as Julie Andrews! The gardens are a really great spot to view the giant Fortress that overlooks the city. There is also a famous gnome (troll? we forgot what they were called) garden that was fun to visit.

The rest of the day was spent exploring more of Old Town Salzburg. Amidst our shopping Marcus finally found a suitable guitar to travel with. Needless to say, his addiction had been satiated and his sanity restored. We continued wandering around, had a delicious Bento Box lunch, and did a bit of shopping.

Salzburg has the cutest love lock bridge so Marcus and I decided to officially seal the deal and put on a lock. Inscribed M&M, it is now secured on the bridge, and I wear the key as a necklace. Most people think that marriage is a commitment, but this is the real deal. It’s literally locked in now.

The next day, we visited the Salzburg Fortress. This huge landmark sits on a cliff, and can be seen from any part of the city, . It was built for an Archbishop-Prince of Salzburg when it was it’s own governing city. The history inside was interesting; we learned about the theocracy of Salzburg and how religion and government blended here. We saw cannons, stately rooms, and even some marionettes. We did, however, decided to skip the torture rooms. That’s just not really our thing. What can I say, I’m not a psychopath. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

With the city of Salzburg sprawled out in front of us, we had one of the best meals we’ve had in Europe. We also had one of the best views! We could see the alps ahead of us, and the misty mountains were certainly a sight to behold.

Our last day in Salzburg was spent at Hellbrunn Palace, a beautiful yellow palace built in the 17th century. We came here to see the Sound of Music gazebo, and were pleasantly surprised at how much fun we had!! Since it was built exclusively for entertainment (no one ever lived there), the palace had trick fountains! The man who chartered the building, Markus Sittikus, had hidden jets of water placed in the gardens that he would turn on to surprise (and/or annoy) his guests. Taking the walkways always bore the risk of randomly being doused in water. There were beautiful decorative fountains as well, and the engineering behind them was ingenious.

After our tour of the trick fountains, we roamed the beautiful gardens and the interior of the palace. It was a beautiful baroque setting! While perusing the gardens, we turned a corner and there it was!! The famous gazebo that Liesl and Rolf danced in. My life was complete having found the beautiful structure, and it was the perfect finale to our time in Salzburg!