Europe 2010:
Day 6 - Austria and Germany


Bundlings.com: [Main] [Contact Us] [Events] [Family] [Fun] [Garden] [Misc.] [Photos] [Search] [Site Index] [Travel]

Europe 2010: [Day 1 - Luxembourg] [Day 2 - Germany] [Day 3 - Switzerland] [Day 4 - Liechtenstein] [Day 5 - Austria] [Day 6 - Germany] [Day 7 - Czech Republic] [Day 8 - Poland] [Day 9 - Netherlands] [Day 10 - Belgium] [Day 11 - England]

Wednesday, June 30, 2010: We awoke to the sixth straight day of perfect weather. The view remained awesome as well. We enjoyed sandwiches for breakfast we had purchased the night before, along with fruit from our fruit plate and 1/2 of a Sacher Torte each.
We checked out of our suite and left our bags at the front desk so we could head out for our morning "Sound of Music" tour. We started with our own little tour of Mirabell Gardens, which turned out to be a good move because our tour got a late start and we were able to skip the Mirabell portion of the tour at the end.
These gardens are featured in the "Sound of Music" during the "Do-Re-Mi" scene.
This statue of Pegasus is featured ...
... as is this tree-lined pathway.
There are many different gardens. This one consisted of rose bushes, ...
... and this one contained flowers planted in elegant designs ...
... with a large fountain in the center.
We boarded our tour bus next to this cow statue painted with "Sound of Music" movie locations featured on the tour we were about to take.
Our tour bus drove past the Marionette Theater just down the street from our hotel.
At our first stop, our British guide, Trudy, told us about the movie and which parts of it were filmed here.
This is Leopoldskron Palace which was used as the terrace of the Von Trapp home in the film.
It's located on a beautiful lake in Salzburg, ...
... not far from Hohensalzburg Castle.
Our next stop was Hellbrunn Palace.
It's a lovely building that is currently a music school, ...
... but we were here just to see a recreation of the gazebo used in the movie ...
... and to see the road where Maria sang "I Have Confidence."
Our tour bus was pretty standard-looking, but here is one of the "Sound of Music"-specific buses being used by another one of the tours that day.
We saw references to and pictures of edelweiss all over Switzerland and Austria, but never once saw an actual plant as far as we know.
This drive-by shot is of the Nonnburg Abbey in Salzburg where the real Maria lived and several of the film's scenes were filmed.
The footbridge in the distance is the Mozart bridge which was used in the "Do, Re, Mi" scenes.
Our tour guide and bus driver made an entertaining pair. She often sang and he played along when possible.
We drove out to the Salzkammergut Lake District, with the movie soundtrack playing and many of the passengers singing along.
We passed a farm that had several deer in the field just as the "Doe a Deer" music was playing. Excellent timing!
We stopped for a scenic shot, ...
... and bought an Almdudler from the bus driver. This is a popular Austrian carbonated beverage made of apple and grape juice.
We passed more pretty scenery, ...
... and an Aldi, which is called Hofer in Austria. We saw lots of them during our vacation, and they were called Aldi in every country we visited except Austria.
We arrived at Mondsee and followed our tour guide like baby ducks from the bus parking lot to the town center.
This is Mondsee Cathedral where the wedding of Maria and the Captain was filmed.
It's a gorgeous building.
Across from the cathedral, we had our choice of outdoor cafes.
We went to the Braun Konditorei.
It was a popular location for enjoying a little apple strudel.
We had some too. It was the first time we had tried it and we immediately understood the power it had over Sgt. Schultz on "Hogan's Heroes." It is truly delicious, especially with vanilla sauce and cold Coca-Cola Light.
We also ordered chicken toast and this is what we got. It was toasted slices of chicken on a piece of toast with potato salad and mixed greens on the side.
Yet another tree-lined lane, yet another movie set. This are the trees the Von Trapp children were climbing in when the Captain returned with the Baroness.
We headed back to the bus for the return trip to Salzburg and got a glimpse of Mondsee Lake.
Here is the entrance to the Hotel Sacher. We retrieved our car and luggage and were off.
The drive to Munich from Salzburg took an hour and a half, but we only took this photo of the German border during the drive.
We checked into the Munich Novotel, ...
... where we knew pretty much exactly what the room would look like, ...
... except for the view. This room overlooked a plain courtyard.
The hotel was in walking distance of the main sights of Munich, ...
... so we set off quickly toward old town Munich.
We headed to the Hofbräuhaus to have a quick beer before the Glockenspiel performance at 5:00, but after a while, it became clear that we wouldn't get waited on in time. (It's okay, because we enjoyed a visit to Hofbräuhaus Pittsburgh the next year.)
So we walked a few more blocks to Marienplatz and looked around. Elaborate town hall -- check.
Big monument in the center -- check.
Pedestrian square with outdoor cafes -- check.

The panorama application on Debbie's iPhone struggled a bit with this one.

We patiently waited for the glockenspiel performance at 5:00 along with hundreds of other people in the square.
It started and we watched for a few minutes, but then we pronounced it boring and headed for a restaurant before the throngs of people beat us to it.
We had chosen to eat at the Ratskeller for the true Munich tourist experience. It is in the basement of the city hall, so we only had to walk about 50 yards.
The place is huge and could have easily seated everyone watching the glockenspiel.
We were ready for some German beer and ended up with a couple of Lowenbraus.
We ordered from the Ratskeller's picture-based English menu. We started with potato soup and an amazing pancake soup.
Dinner was bratwursts between German potato pancakes and pork shank. There were so many things we wanted to try that we could have eaten there every meal for a week.
Dessert was apple strudel with vanilla sauce, of course, with a side of flash overexposure.
Here's our table on the left next to the giant wooden thing.
After a little shopping at an Yves Rocher store, we walked back to our hotel, past the river, ...
... and past the river part two, ...

... and past the yellow building with the big clock tower.

Day 7 >


Europe 2010: [Day 1 - Luxembourg] [Day 2 - Germany] [Day 3 - Switzerland] [Day 4 - Liechtenstein] [Day 5 - Austria] [Day 6 - Germany] [Day 7 - Czech Republic] [Day 8 - Poland] [Day 9 - Netherlands] [Day 10 - Belgium] [Day 11 - England]

Bundlings.com: [Main] [Contact Us] [Events] [Family] [Fun] [Garden] [Misc.] [Photos] [Search] [Site Index] [Travel]

Copyright © Deborah Schilling/Thomas Bundy