The Hills are Alive in Austria!

Our biggest adventure of this semester took place during our Thanksgiving Break, where we travelled to Salzburg and Vienna, Austria. Thursday was a crazy day of transportation! We flew into Vienna and had tickets for a train from Vienna to Salzburg, which of course departed less than an hour from our arrival in Vienna. To make matters worse, it took 20-40 minutes to travel from the airport to the train station, depending on traffic. Needless to say, once we landed in Vienna there was a mad dash in the airport to the taxi station, a taxi ride consisting of silent prayers and anxious looks at watches, and another frantic dash in the train station. The transportation odds were in our favor for we made it safely on the train with three minutes to spare! It was a very stressful 50 minutes, and we congratulated ourselves for our efforts. Our reward was a pleasant train ride through Austria as we headed towards Salzburg. 

After checking into our hostel, we headed to the old town of Salzburg. It took about thirty seconds for us to fall in love with this city as we walked in awe down the small streets bursting with lights and Christmas decorations. Although it was technically Thanksgiving, we welcomed the joyful Christmas spirit! We also got our first taste of Salzburg's festive Christmas markets. The lights, shops, and decorations were absolutely beautiful, and the markets even included a large Christmas tree and an ice skating rink. It was like Disneyland, but even better! While we walked the streets we stopped to treat ourselves to a traditional Austrian meal of sausage, potatoes, and sauerkraut, which proved to be a tasty replacement for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  

Christmas lights in Salzburg!

Our first walk through of the Christmas markets.

Our Austrian Thanksgiving meal.

Friday was packed with sight seeing, the infamous "Sound of Music" tour, and Black Friday shopping, "Austria Style." In the morning we took a funicular up to the fortress on the hill, Festung Hohensalzburg, where we found the most spectacular views of the city and the surrounding mountains. Although we've consistently said how beautiful the scenery has been on all of our adventures so far, nothing can compare to the mountainous countryside, not to mention the Austrian Alps, in the winter. 

The fortress had a smaller Christmas market, and it was here we tried the classic "gluhwein," or spiced wine, to help keep us warm. After we spent some more time exploring the fortress and admiring the views, we travelled back down to the Christmas markets for some traditional pretzels as a snack. We tried a cinnamon sugar pretzel as well as a cheese pretzel; both were delicious! We also visited the Cathedral of Salzburg and listened to a youth choir that came all the way from Atlanta, Georgia to sing! 

The Christmas Market at Festung Hohensalzburg.

The singing put us in the mood for the highlight of the trip: "The Sound of Music" tour!! Extremely excited for the adventure to begin, we boarded a big bus full of dedicated fans such as ourselves and a quirky tour guide ready to lead us in song. As we drove through Salzburg our tour guide gave us some interesting information about both the city of Salzburg and the history behind the film itself. For example, before "The Sound of Music" was filmed, a German film company produced a movie called "The Vonn Trapp Family Singers," which was close to the original book Maria Vonn Trapp had written. It took years (and a Broadway musical) before Fox Studios could buy the rights to their own production of "The Sound of Music." According to our tour guide, most Germans and Austrians know the German version of the movie and aren't quite as big of fans of the Fox version as the rest of the world is. 

Anyways, our first stop was at Leopoldskron Palace, where the scenes of the back of the house, such as the lake scenes, were filmed. Although almost completely frozen over, we could still recognize the scenery from the film and could imagine how beautiful it must look in the spring. Our tour guide threw a rock onto the lake, and as it skipped it made a musical sound. Quite fitting! On our way to the next stop we passed by places such as Nonnberg Abbey and Frohnburg Palace, which are private property and we unfortunately are not allowed into. We made our way to another palace which houses the Hellbrunn Gazebo, or as we know it, the "16 going on 17" Gazebo. Needless to say, there were lots of reenactments occurring outside of the famous Gazebo! 

Leopoldskron Palace

Frohnburg Palace

Nonnberg Abbey

Hellbrunn Christmas Market on the way to the Gazebo. 

The Gazebo!

We then took a longer drive into the Lake District of Salzburg, where many of the beginning panoramic shots were taken. We felt we couldn't be more in love with Austria as we drove through the countryside covered with snow, listening (and singing along) to the songs from the film. Our tour bus even stopped to let us take some gorgeous pictures of the mountains and lakes! Arriving in the small town of Mondsee as it was getting dark, our tour guide let us roam the main street for an hour, where we went inside the Mondsee Cathedral, the setting Maria and the Captain's wedding. Of course, there was a small Christmas market in front of the Cathedral, which only added to our delight. We also ate some typical Austrian apple streusel with vanilla cream sauce to warm us up. The town of Mondsee was very picturesque, with the buildings painted different colors and adorned with beautiful trim and the streets were lined with decorations and lights. It was the perfect end to our "Sound of Music" Tour, and while we didn't get to go inside some of these sights or get as close as we would have liked, the visit to Mondsee and the views we saw on the drive in the Lake District were absolutely worth it and only added to our experience. We have already decided that we need to take this tour again when it's spring or summer!

The beautiful Lake District of Salzburg

Mondsee Cathedral

Mondsee decorated for Christmas

Enjoying some apple streusel!

We were back in the old town section Salzburg in the early evening, which was perfect timing to spend the rest of the night exploring and shopping at the "Christkindlmarkt." While we didn't buy much at these shops, it was so much fun to walk around and take in all of the painted and wooden ornaments, candles, sweets, decorations, etc... We spent hours roaming from shop to shop, occasionally purchasing something that we loved, but more so allowing ourselves to experience this holiday culture. 

We woke up early Saturday morning to get in a few more sights before we left for Vienna. We went to Mirabell Gardens, in one of the central areas of Salzburg, where most of the "Do-Re-Me" song was filmed. Here our group re-enacted many of the scenes, such as walking along the fountain, running through the ivy tunnel, and standing on the famous steps. We were all giddy with our overwhelming "Sound of Music" fanaticism! We also walked across the Mozart footbridge, where the children and Maria run across in the beginning of that song, and we finally realized that one of the fountains that we had been searching for (the one shown in "I Have Confidence") was actually hidden by the Christmas markets all along! It was a very productive morning as a continuation of the previous day's tour. For lunch we tried Bosna, which is basically a sandwich containing two sausages covered with curry, some mustard and grilled onions. 

Mirabell Gardens

Cuckoo, cuckoo!

Bosnas!

We hopped on the train back to Vienna, where we didn't arrive until the late afternoon. Wanting to get in as much of Vienna as we possibly could in the short time period, we walked through the Museum section and part of the old town to see some recognizable monuments and buildings. We had a nice Austrian feast consisting of pork schnitzel and sauerkraut, and we tried one of Austria's classic desserts: sachertorte, which is a chocolate fruit cake. As we walked around the city we came across two more Christmas markets, one of them being a huge market in front of the Parliament building. Being a larger city, Vienna was a little more decked out with decorations than Salzburg; this market even had a small train-car to transport people around! We sipped on some Kinderpunsch as we walked around the stalls and enjoyed our last night in the cold yet festive weather of Austria. 

Vienna at night

More markets!

Megan, Stephanie, and Katie enjoying the Christmas spirit!

Before our flight back to Rome we visited the Schonbrunn Palace Gardens. For those of you who watch the TV show "The Amazing Race," this palace was recently a stop on the show, and the reason we knew it existed. While it was noticeably barer due to the season, the property was still vast and beautiful, and we took our time wandering around. There was yet another Christmas market on the grounds in front of the palace, and we had some delicious potato soup before it was time to go to the airport and eventually back to Rome. 

Katie, Stephanie, Megan, and Holly in the Schonbrunn Gardens.

The Schonbrunn Palace Christmas Market!

After considering all of the cities we have visited so far this year, we agree that Salzburg, Austria was definitely our most favorite stop. Its gentle, yet festive and welcoming atmosphere surpassed our expectations and convinced us that we will definitely be coming back to this wonderful city and country in the future. While it seems like we did a lot in our few days in Austria, there is still so much more to explore and experience, especially in different seasons. No matter what season, Austria has so much more to offer than it often gets credit for, and we look forward to seeing more of it in the future.

We will not say "So long, Farewell" to Austria, but rather, until next time!