Munich, Germany - Day 3, Salsburg and Moondee in the Austrian Alps
Rising early we grabbed a quick breakfast and headed for the train station (bahnhof) to catch a train for Salsburg.
A quick rundown of Salsburg. A border town between Bavaria and Austria, it's a modest sized city of 150,000 people. Despite that, the buildings of the town are tightly packed together so Salsburg is a small city. Other things Salsburg is known for is being the home of Mozart, the world famous music school, various castles there that belonged to the Hapsburgs, and being the primary location (and inspiration) for the movie, the Sound of Music (which is based on a real family from named von Trapp.
We signed up for two tours, one for the city itself and the other called the Sound of Music tour. There are other tours but it was enough to get these two for today.
The city tour drives you around Salsburg in a slightly larger than normal minivan where a guide explains the city. Naturally he was quite passionate for music, and so took great pleasure to explain about Mozart's personal home, his family's home and so on. No complaints really, it was fascinating information. Like how he preferred to dress, the various titles of nobility that were conferred on him and that he never , ever bothered to use them or pay attention to them and so on. Really fun stuff.
After that hour tour, we ran over to a coffee shop and got some lunch. They had gulash so of course I had some! I'm raving about the gulash because it's nothing like what we have in the US. The gulash here is not spicy at all. It's closer to a beef stew with vegetables, only the stew broth is not so thick. Goes quite well with the Bavarian pretzels which are good all by themselves. Apparently real Bavarian pretzels have a crunchy outside but are very soft on the inside.
In a way, twisted toast comes to mind.
Afterwards I was quite proud to have managed a complete transaction in German. Now, Im sure I fooled no one, as most certainly I'm sure I've an accent. That aside I was proud to have managed the conversation. If I keep practicing, I bet I can be well on my way to getting a handle on this language.
After the coffee we went back over and joined the tour going to all the sites used for the Sound of Music movie. Fantastic stuff. Various castles were used, and many tree-lined areas. Surprisingly, the working Abbey there wanted to have nothing to do with the movie but the castles did. Maybe not so surprising as they possibly didn't want the disturbance.
Part of the tour led us up into the Austrian side of the Alps proper. Just an amazing sight! Snow capped mountains skirted in fog with a hint of gray to the trees that dotted the snowy slopes. The large mountain lakes were like glass, reflecting the sky and the Alps themselves. just takes your breath away.
Finally we wound up in a little town called Moondee. That was were the 'wedding scene' of the Sound of Music was filmed. The church there is every bit magnificent as anything. It has been so far the highlight of the architecture that I've seen. Simply magnificent. words fail to describe the appearance. Everything had some glow or luster to it. everywhere you turned 'wow' did not do it justice.
When we had our fill of the sights there, the tour leader took us to a small cafe in Moondee that reportedly has the best hot chocolate in the world. After having some, I agree. I've heard some people call hot chocolate a 'warm fuzzy' when drunk on a cold day. If that's so, this is a 'warm fuzzy that wraps itself around you and hugs you for 30 minutes while purring'. That was, beyond any shadow of doubt, a fantastic cup of hot chocolate.
The tour leader, amid playing songs from the Sound of Music, took us back to the terminal for the train, told us the stories about the historical Von trapp family. She even had a CD with a recording of the real Von Trapp children singing. They were very, very good. Mostly hymns and choral pieces and a few German folk tunes. And she had a few stories about the historical Maria. Apparently she was a wild child. Who knew?
After that we boarded the train and returned to Munich for dinner and to turn in. A note on the trains. As in Scotland, it is a fantastic way to travel and the most comfortable. With that said, there are some differences. German trains are a touch more utilitarian. They don't have the tables in the middle of four seats. I missed that.It made for a good place to sit and unpack your things for the trip if you so chose. Still, it was comfortable and a very quick two hour trip back to Munich from Salsburg.
A quick rundown of Salsburg. A border town between Bavaria and Austria, it's a modest sized city of 150,000 people. Despite that, the buildings of the town are tightly packed together so Salsburg is a small city. Other things Salsburg is known for is being the home of Mozart, the world famous music school, various castles there that belonged to the Hapsburgs, and being the primary location (and inspiration) for the movie, the Sound of Music (which is based on a real family from named von Trapp.
We signed up for two tours, one for the city itself and the other called the Sound of Music tour. There are other tours but it was enough to get these two for today.
The city tour drives you around Salsburg in a slightly larger than normal minivan where a guide explains the city. Naturally he was quite passionate for music, and so took great pleasure to explain about Mozart's personal home, his family's home and so on. No complaints really, it was fascinating information. Like how he preferred to dress, the various titles of nobility that were conferred on him and that he never , ever bothered to use them or pay attention to them and so on. Really fun stuff.
After that hour tour, we ran over to a coffee shop and got some lunch. They had gulash so of course I had some! I'm raving about the gulash because it's nothing like what we have in the US. The gulash here is not spicy at all. It's closer to a beef stew with vegetables, only the stew broth is not so thick. Goes quite well with the Bavarian pretzels which are good all by themselves. Apparently real Bavarian pretzels have a crunchy outside but are very soft on the inside.
In a way, twisted toast comes to mind.
Afterwards I was quite proud to have managed a complete transaction in German. Now, Im sure I fooled no one, as most certainly I'm sure I've an accent. That aside I was proud to have managed the conversation. If I keep practicing, I bet I can be well on my way to getting a handle on this language.
After the coffee we went back over and joined the tour going to all the sites used for the Sound of Music movie. Fantastic stuff. Various castles were used, and many tree-lined areas. Surprisingly, the working Abbey there wanted to have nothing to do with the movie but the castles did. Maybe not so surprising as they possibly didn't want the disturbance.
Part of the tour led us up into the Austrian side of the Alps proper. Just an amazing sight! Snow capped mountains skirted in fog with a hint of gray to the trees that dotted the snowy slopes. The large mountain lakes were like glass, reflecting the sky and the Alps themselves. just takes your breath away.
Finally we wound up in a little town called Moondee. That was were the 'wedding scene' of the Sound of Music was filmed. The church there is every bit magnificent as anything. It has been so far the highlight of the architecture that I've seen. Simply magnificent. words fail to describe the appearance. Everything had some glow or luster to it. everywhere you turned 'wow' did not do it justice.
When we had our fill of the sights there, the tour leader took us to a small cafe in Moondee that reportedly has the best hot chocolate in the world. After having some, I agree. I've heard some people call hot chocolate a 'warm fuzzy' when drunk on a cold day. If that's so, this is a 'warm fuzzy that wraps itself around you and hugs you for 30 minutes while purring'. That was, beyond any shadow of doubt, a fantastic cup of hot chocolate.
The tour leader, amid playing songs from the Sound of Music, took us back to the terminal for the train, told us the stories about the historical Von trapp family. She even had a CD with a recording of the real Von Trapp children singing. They were very, very good. Mostly hymns and choral pieces and a few German folk tunes. And she had a few stories about the historical Maria. Apparently she was a wild child. Who knew?
After that we boarded the train and returned to Munich for dinner and to turn in. A note on the trains. As in Scotland, it is a fantastic way to travel and the most comfortable. With that said, there are some differences. German trains are a touch more utilitarian. They don't have the tables in the middle of four seats. I missed that.It made for a good place to sit and unpack your things for the trip if you so chose. Still, it was comfortable and a very quick two hour trip back to Munich from Salsburg.
posted by Chris Ash | 5:26 PM
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