The Hills are Alive!!!!

Now, let's travel back in time to Labor Day weekend of 2011. Yes. That is how behind I am on my blogging. I'm sorry, but I have to record these memories before I forget.

Over last Labor Day, Dallin and I took a little trip to that beautiful country everyone fantasizes about after watching the classic musical, The Sound of Music. We went to Salzburg, Austria. I have always wanted to go to this beautiful place, just to impersonate Julie Andrews and sing at the top of my lungs in the hills of Salzburg, and I finally got my chance!

We left on a Friday morning to begin the five hour drive to Salzburg. We arrived at our accommodations in the early afternoon. We stayed at a charming privatzimmer called the Bei Erika. It was such a great deal! We basically had our own apartment in the back garden of a residential building. It had a kitchen, and two extra beds that we didn't even use, and a spacious living area, and private watercloset and shower. It was spotlessly clean, the rent included free parking, and breakfast as well. And to top it off, it was run by an extremely cute old Austrian couple. All of this for only 25 euro per person, per night. A steal!

When we arrived, it was unfortunately raining in Salzburg. But Dallin had had kind of a hard week at work, the previous week, so we saw the bad weather as an opportunity to take a nap. When we woke up, the weather had cleared and it was sunny, so we took a walk along the beautiful Salzach river to the old town.

View of the Salzach River, coming up to Old Town Salzburg

Salzburg's old town is very charming. The buildings and streets are perfectly manicured and the city seems to be preserved as it was in Mozart's classical time period.

I loved these old wrought-iron signs on the Salzburg's main drag, Getreidegasse. Not only are they pretty, but they served a functional purpose as well. When most of the general population was still illiterate, they could still look at the signs and determine what was sold in each shop.

Here is Salzburg's pride and joy, hometown boy-- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His statue stands in Mozartplatz. The pink Church of St. Michael dates to A.D. 800.

Me being a great tour guide, with Rick's help, of course.

After a little stroll through the old town Dallin and I embarked on a search for some good eats.  We had dinner at Gasthaus Zum Wilden Mann, a traditional hofbräu restaurant. Mmm. It was delicious. We were served mountains of ham, sausages, roast beef, kraut, potatoes, and dumplings for a great price. It was so hearty and yummy! We topped it off with a delicious apple strudel. (Dal can't pass up an apple strudel, especially one that looked this beautiful.)

Yummy dinner and dessert!

After dinner we went on a hike up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress.

This fortress was such a good investment, it was never even used. Salzburg was never attacked because of the castle's foreboding appearance.

The castle gave us a great view of the city at sunset. Unfortunately there was a really bright light shining up on the castle, so we couldn't get a very good shot of the view.

Chillin' at the fortress.

After exploring the castle a bit, we headed back to our apartment and called it a night.

The next morning we began our day with a great breakfast at Bei Erika and then headed to the city to see Mozart's residence. We unfortunately don't have a picture at this site, but it was interesting to learn about Amadeus and his life. I grew a greater appreciation for him and his music by visiting his house, reading old letters written from him, and seeing his old instruments.

After touring Mozart's house we headed to the beautiful, Baroque, Mirabell Gardens.

I was excited to see the gardens because this is where the majority of the "Do, Re, Mi" scene of the Sound of Music was filmed! I sang the song in my head all while walking through the gardens. Compare our pictures to the still shots from the movie!

After traipsing through the gardens, Dal of course found a playground that he had to play at. I love my husband's kid-at-heart spirit. He makes life fun.

HAHA!

We then got some lunch at the Balkan Grill downtown. Delicious Bosnian sausages with curry seasoning on them. YUM! Then we headed to where our car was parked to drive over to a salt mine in Hallein, a couple miles away.

The salt mine tour, tells the history of Salzburg's salt industry and allows visitors to walk through the the mines. It was a little cheesy, but it was fun. We had to put on these mining uniforms and then take a train down into the mine. Dallin and I had an ongoing joke about how we were all some weird cult dressing up in ceremonial clothing to go underground to meet "the Great One". Haha! It was funny. The funnest part about the tour was riding down these slides that the miners actually used. Watch the video to see what I mean.

Our ceremonial clothing. Haha!

The first video is of us taking the train into the mine. Then us going down the first slide in the mine. And then us going down the second slide. Dallin started going down the second slide before I was ready, so my foot got stuck! Haha.

In the mine.

 After exploring the mine, we headed back into town and we did an evening hike up in the Monchsberg cliffs that overlook Salzburg. It was a beautiful walk.

View from the Monchsberg cliffs

View of the Hohensalzburg Fortress from our hike

After our hike we got some yummy dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant called Zirklewirt. It was delicious!

The next day we woke up, had breakfast at our zimmer, and then packed up. We headed out of Salzburg and we made it home later that afternoon. We had a lovely break in the beautiful country of Austria.