Monday, September 8th
Monday morning we took the walking tour around town. Our guide was a little old Austrian man who liked to smoke. It is such a cute little town. All the buildings are so close together, and wind and zig zag down little cobblestone paths. Germany and Austria both had little cobbleston paths all over the place. The city is so easy to navigate. I thought it would be tough because a lot of the walkways are paths connecting to main "squares." but it is so easy. It also helps that the entire town is at the foot of a mountain with a giant fortress upon it, so you can always tell your reference from that.
We walked through the graveyard of Motzart's sister, and in the United States, you would think that it would be kind of a morbid deal, but here it is not. They are scattered around town, and just part of the main walking paths. They are really pretty, with tons of flowers and decoration. It is kinda creepy that you have to "rent" most of them...
Anyway, we walked around to all sorts of things. Each square had statues, markets, fountains, and one had a giant chess set that we had some fun with. We stopped inside of __________ church, which is where Motzart was baptized. It was absolutely beautiful. It's incredible actually seeing all of these churches that I have studied over the past few years.
The tour ended at the Motzart Museum, which is the house he was born in. Cody and I took pictures outside and then went in to buy tickets. Before we left, the attendant caught our attention and pushed a button to make all the wooden figures in the room sing and dance.
We looked around at the rest of the museum, and it was pretty cool because we got to see some original scores of music Motzart had written, as well as 3 different violins he had.
So, after the Motzart Museum, Cody and I walked around town a little bit, and went back to the hostel. We had to get ready for the Sound of Music Tour later that afternoon. The tour was awesome! Our tour guide's name was Wolfgang, and I forget the driver's name, but I want to say it was something like Rupert. He was super cheesy (so obviously I loved it!) and even had us sing "do re me" as we started off. Behind his whole tour schpeel, he had the soundtrack playing too. We got to see the gazebo from the movie, the location of all the scenes in the backyard and the lake behind it, where Maria runs down the street singing "confidence in me," and of course, the abbey! I didn't know however, that all of the indoor shots were shot in Hollywood, so obviously we didn't get to see those.
Even if the tour had not been awesome, it still would have been great. How you ask? Well, it was great just to be on this bus driving around and seeing the city. We drove all around Salzburg, and even up in the Alps in some smaller towns outside of the city. Our final stop on the tour was the church that Maria gets married in. We went inside and it was absolutely beautiful. The prettiest church I have seen so far (yes, I know I said that yesterday... I'd get used to probably hearing it a lot). There were so many statues, all covered in gold leaf, impressive vaulting, and so many other beautiful aspects that words cannot do it justice. What I thought was the most remarkable however, was the fact that the second I walked in, I turned to my right, and there was a statue and altar for St. Anthony. Some may say it is coincidence, however I knew it was a sign that everything that I was going through would be ok. (I am not going to get into all of the details about my passport ordeal, but this was the turning point for me).
After spending some more time in the church, we went to the gift shop, and there was the most beautiful statue of st. anthony, so I bought it. I didn't have too much money and didn't want to spend a lot this stop, but I just had to.
Monday morning we took the walking tour around town. Our guide was a little old Austrian man who liked to smoke. It is such a cute little town. All the buildings are so close together, and wind and zig zag down little cobblestone paths. Germany and Austria both had little cobbleston paths all over the place. The city is so easy to navigate. I thought it would be tough because a lot of the walkways are paths connecting to main "squares." but it is so easy. It also helps that the entire town is at the foot of a mountain with a giant fortress upon it, so you can always tell your reference from that.
We walked through the graveyard of Motzart's sister, and in the United States, you would think that it would be kind of a morbid deal, but here it is not. They are scattered around town, and just part of the main walking paths. They are really pretty, with tons of flowers and decoration. It is kinda creepy that you have to "rent" most of them...
Anyway, we walked around to all sorts of things. Each square had statues, markets, fountains, and one had a giant chess set that we had some fun with. We stopped inside of __________ church, which is where Motzart was baptized. It was absolutely beautiful. It's incredible actually seeing all of these churches that I have studied over the past few years.
The tour ended at the Motzart Museum, which is the house he was born in. Cody and I took pictures outside and then went in to buy tickets. Before we left, the attendant caught our attention and pushed a button to make all the wooden figures in the room sing and dance.
We looked around at the rest of the museum, and it was pretty cool because we got to see some original scores of music Motzart had written, as well as 3 different violins he had.
So, after the Motzart Museum, Cody and I walked around town a little bit, and went back to the hostel. We had to get ready for the Sound of Music Tour later that afternoon. The tour was awesome! Our tour guide's name was Wolfgang, and I forget the driver's name, but I want to say it was something like Rupert. He was super cheesy (so obviously I loved it!) and even had us sing "do re me" as we started off. Behind his whole tour schpeel, he had the soundtrack playing too. We got to see the gazebo from the movie, the location of all the scenes in the backyard and the lake behind it, where Maria runs down the street singing "confidence in me," and of course, the abbey! I didn't know however, that all of the indoor shots were shot in Hollywood, so obviously we didn't get to see those.
Even if the tour had not been awesome, it still would have been great. How you ask? Well, it was great just to be on this bus driving around and seeing the city. We drove all around Salzburg, and even up in the Alps in some smaller towns outside of the city. Our final stop on the tour was the church that Maria gets married in. We went inside and it was absolutely beautiful. The prettiest church I have seen so far (yes, I know I said that yesterday... I'd get used to probably hearing it a lot). There were so many statues, all covered in gold leaf, impressive vaulting, and so many other beautiful aspects that words cannot do it justice. What I thought was the most remarkable however, was the fact that the second I walked in, I turned to my right, and there was a statue and altar for St. Anthony. Some may say it is coincidence, however I knew it was a sign that everything that I was going through would be ok. (I am not going to get into all of the details about my passport ordeal, but this was the turning point for me).
After spending some more time in the church, we went to the gift shop, and there was the most beautiful statue of st. anthony, so I bought it. I didn't have too much money and didn't want to spend a lot this stop, but I just had to.
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