Captain von Trapp: Now, Fraulein. I want a truthful answer from you.
Maria: Yes, Captain?
Captain von Trapp: Is it possible - or could I have just imagine it - have my
children by any chance been climbing trees today?
Maria: Yes, Captain.
Captain von Trapp: I see. And where, may I ask, did they get these...
umm...
Maria: Play clothes.
Captain von Trapp: Oh, is that what you call them?
Maria: I made them. From the drapes that used to hang in
my bedroom.
Captain von Trapp: Drapes?
Maria: They still had plenty of wear left. The children have
been everywhere in them.
Captain von Trapp: Do you mean to tell me that my children have been
roaming about Salzburg dressed up in nothing but
some old drapes?
Maria: Mmm-hmmm. And having marvellous time!
And today...... Me Jenny and I followed in their footsteps.
These are the gates to the famous Mirabell Gardens. You might recognise them from the Do-Re-Mi seen in The Sound of Music.
I stood for ages trying to take that picture without anyone on the steps and eventually I gave in. I'm very patient and I never ask anyone to get out of the way. If I can snap, I'll snap it, but if not - whatevs. This woman below was in nearly every other photo I took. She could see I was waiting, with camera poised, but chose to stand right in the middle. After I'd taken mine, she wanted her friend (on steps) to take her picture with the garden in the background, but I was in the way of her shot. I know I should have just gotten out the way and not made a fuss, but I just couldn't help myself, so I loitered, pretending I was checking the photo I'd just taken. She wasn't patient at all and said:
"Excuse me, but can you move, we're trying to take a picture."
I replied, very sweetly, "Oh, sorry, were you tying to take a picture?"
"Yes"
"Were you trying to take a picture without me in it?"
"Yes"
"So, you'd like me to move, is that what you're saying?"
"Yes" - she was a bit confused at this stage
"You see, I didn't think you'd mind me being in it, because you're in every one of my pictures."
To which she giggled uncomfortably as if she didn't really get the joke.
Except there was no joke.
This is the lovely fountain that the von Trapp kids and Maria balance on as their dancing to Do-Re-Mi
The Mirabell gardens are huge and oh so beautiful..... and check out this day that we got to enjoy them!
There's patterned flower beds
And a rose garden
And geraniums that stand up, which Jenny had never seen before!
I was thinking to myself that there must be a whole team of gardeners to keep it looking this good..... and then I turned and saw the team.
Isn't she loverly?
I think this is where Dancing With The Stars might have first found its inspiration.
We made it to the Salzach River and crossed the Mozart Bridge which is full of the engraved padlocks of love. Like the bridge in Paris where a section just fell down recently because of the weight of all the padlocks!
As we were perusing the locks we found ones that we could have put there ourselves..... J & C (Jen & Col) and S ♥ B (which is just I ♥ me - nothing wrong with that!)
Once on the other side and into the old town,
we wandered up and down the Getriedegasse, which has all these fancy schmancy shop signs that hang out into the street. It's a real shame though that this one is now a McDonalds!
We thought it might be just for fun or perhaps that people were dressed up because they worked in folkloric shops or something, but it turns out that people here genuinely wear traditional Austrian outfits by choice.
We saw a number of people wearing lederhosen and the big skirts with the frilly vesty top and apron over the top and they were just walking the street like we were.
Now, Salzburg is very pretty, but really they rely heavily on Mozart and The Sound of Music for their tourist trade. All the tourist souvenirs are different depictions of Wolfgang and/or TSOM.
I mean...... this shop had Mozart ducks!
The house Mozart was born in just happens to be on the main street...
Which they've turned into a museum. I read one review about where the reviewer was disappointed that the museum was just pictures of Mozart rather than the house restored to show how he would have lived back in the day.
I'm not sure what this guy did. We stood there for a bit waiting to see what he was all about, but then it just seemed like we were standing there watching someone which felt a bit creepy.
There are lots of squares and art, both oldy worldy and modern in Salzburg, but none more fabulous that this giant Mozart ball with a person (not real) standing on the top. According to the lady selling fridge magnets, it is meant to represent the world and the man was meant to represent all the people in the world. I guess that's modern art for you! It also creates the only bit of shade in the entire square.
A friend of mine once taught me a song in German that goes a little something like this:
Wo ist die Bäckerei?, Die Bäckerei?, Die Bäckerei?
Wo ist die Bäckerei?
Seine gegenüber der Post!
which translates to:
Where is the bakery?, the bakery?, the bakery?
Where is the bakery?
It's opposite the post office!
I was reminded of this when we past the oldest bakery in Salzburg, if not Austria.... and if not, the world.
There was jobs on today people, and the next one our list was to catch a ride on the funicular up to the top of Festungsburg to Hohensalzburg Castle. The building began in 1077 and then lots of historical things happened...... now its great for a panoramic views of the city and they host dinners and concerts up there.
Here's the view.... what did I tell you?
Yep. Them there are the Alps behind us and the one on the left, behind me Jenny have snow on them - you'll just have to trust me.
They even let puppy dogs up here, but strangely enough, not into everything.... so I'm not sure what you would do with your pooch if you decided to go into those establishments?
Now, this was a strange thing. One of the towers had a lot of cannons, but they were all pointed towards the town..... not a huge amount of thought has gone into that!
Naturally we needed to try the local bier whilst looking at the scenery.
Then it was down the funicular and into the Residenz Palace for some Mozart on the harpsichord. I told you - jobs on!
On the other side of the river from the old town is Steingasse - the oldest medieval street in the city. They've kept it totally original except for a few little shop signs.
This one in particular caught our eyes.... Normally a schmuck is a foolish or contemptible person, but in German, it means Jewlery! Go figure!
And as with everywhere you go, there was a bit of graffiti, but I don't mind arty, Banksi style graffiti.
Our second last job of the day was to have a Sacher Torte chocolate cake. It's famous around the world, but mostly around these parts.
This cake came about by accident as Mr Sacher was the lowly assistant in the kitchen who sometimes made some cakes and when the chef was taken ill on a night where their boss was entertaining some important guests, it was up to him to come up with something amazing.... and this was it.
The cake didn't become world famous though until Mr Sacher's son got married and opened up a hotel, called Hotel Sacher and then he died and his wife took over the hotel and marketed the cake..... then it was on. See you blokes, sometimes it takes the ideas of us ladies to make things work!
And.... our grand finale for our first day in Salzburg was......
A Marionett show at the Marionette Theater which was playing their version of The Sound of Music! Can you believe our luck?
Naturally we sat in front of a large group of people who may or may not have spoken English, therefore lots of the show needed to be translated and also explained to the 4 year old who couldn't see, nor did he understand anything, which in turn caused him to kick the back of my seat and lean forward so that his chin was on my shoulder. Eventually I moved to a vacant seat in the row in front... just a bit closer to the two women in the front row who talked loudly and unnecessarily throughout the show and needed to be shooshed!
Other than that, the puppeteers were amazing and did a great a job. Although the character playing Christpher plumber's Captain Georg von Trapp was a bit wooden (literally! - get it?)
No comments:
Post a Comment