The Hills Are Alive….

The girls and I took a train from Switzerland to Salzburg, Austria for a weekend trip. It was a long ride (8 ½ hours), but we had stunning views of the Alps and interesting people watching as the 10 guys next to us drank the entire way to Austria. Salzburg is a beautiful city. In addition to the history of the city (it dates back to A.D. 700), we also enjoyed the touristy stuff like the Sound of Music sites. The darn songs from that movie are still in my head from over a week and a half ago. I don’t know how the tour guides remain sane listening to it every day!

Here are a few of my favorite things about Salzburg:
• The Christmas Markets – We were just in time for the Christmas markets. We enjoyed wandering through these at night with all the pretty lights. We enjoyed gluwein and big pretzels as we made our way through the different stands.
• Augustiner Brewery – We took the scenic way – a hiking trail across Salzburg’s little mountain, Monchberg, to the brewery. The girls enjoyed rinsing out their own mugs and getting a beer straight from the barrel. The brewery was founded in 1621 by the Augustinian monks. I decided to eat, rather than drink, my way through the brewery. I was thrilled to find a kasekrainer there. I was on the prowl for this sausage, which literally translates to ‘pus sausage,’ since I had it in Vienna last year. It may sound disgusting but it’s really good with melted cheese in the middle.
• Sound of Music Tour – We enjoyed our ride through Salzburg and the nearby lake area on a minivan with Bob’s Special Tours. I was kind of hoping our tour guide would be dressed in one of the SOM curtain outfits (if you know the movie, you know what I’m talking about), but he wasn’t. We saw Mirabell Gardens which was featured in the SOM, when the kids are on the steps singing, ‘Doe, a deer.’ We also saw the backside of the vonTrapp house and the lake, where Maria and the kids fell out of the boat. Another highlight of the tour was the gazebo from ‘I Am 16 Going on 17’. Unfortunately, it was closed to the public because someone tried to do Liesl’s dance moves on the benches a few years ago and ended up getting hurt. We also stopped at the church where Maria and the captain were married. We were hoping that Cameron Diaz or Tom Cruise might also be taking Bob’s tour that day as they were in town filming a movie that weekend. No such luck.
• Mozart Balls – These little chocolate balls filled with marzipan were everywhere you looked in Salzburg. We tried them all – the ones wrapped in gold foil, the ones wrapped in silver foil, and on and on. Mozart was born in Salzburg, so a lot of things are named after him, including these interesting little chocolate balls.