The Hills Are Alive: Vienna, part 2, (sort of)

If you have ever backpacked across Europe in the manner of ambitious young travelers--Lora is hitting 8 countries

in 3 weeks--there are a few things you don't have as strong a need to pay for in the last third of the trip. For instance, paying a fee to climb up a tower, or enter a cathedral, or see another palace. These are all fantastic things, but after the 15th or 30th, they start to lose a little shine.

So you could go to the summer palace, a place consistently rated as one of the top things to see in a Vienna. And then your middle-aged aunt, sprung free of all responsibilities, shows up and casually suggests a day trip tour to Salzburg, a town she informs you was in a movie you've seen twice, "The Sound of Music," but a movie which in olden days was apparently shown on television once a year and seems to have been a national event. 

Your aunt may sound like she's making a casual suggestion, but when you look in her eyes you see a deep longing and possibly a bit of jealousy that your uncle got to do this before without her, and even possibly a hint urgency because your uncle won't want to go again. You can't say no, can you? Lora didn't.

We took a trip with a tour company that had good reviews, and Salzburg was glorious. Jam-packed, but glorious. There were about 20 of us on a small bus, and our very tan, casually dapper tour guide Robert alternated between English and Spanish as he fed us facts along the way. He told us that while much of the world knows Salzburg from the Julie Andrews film, that film was never all that popular in Austria and Germany. There was an Austrian version of the Von Trapps' story made before the Rodgers and Hammerstein version, and so they didn't pay much attention to what they thought was a cheesier, more romantic remake. 

Instead, they know the town of Salzburg as the birthplace of Mozart, and some other famous Austrians including Christian Doppler, who discovered the Doppler effect. So Salzburg gave us both Doppler radar and the excitable Storm Team 8. #thankssalzburg

We learned a lot about Mozart, The Sound of Music, and Austria's history. Unfortunately all but the lamest of pop culture facts are likely to disappear from my brain over the next week or two, which is why I'm better at bar trivia than actual information. So don't expect too much. But I do know that Mozart was not actually Austrian, because Salzburg at the time was the capital of the archbishopric of Salzburg, not Austria. 

We detoured from the highway to drive through a bit of the Lakes District, a place to which I hereby vow to live a brief portion of my life if at all possible. Preferably in the summer. Also I now know that the founder of the Red Bull beverage company has a home nearby. This I will remember, but I will forget about the struggle for power between the Catholic Church and the Protestant church, and all the geopolitical things he told us. 

I will possibly remember the bishop who had a beloved mistress who he could not marry because he was sworn to celibacy, but he built a huge residence for her and their 15 children. The pope put up with it because the bishop was helpful to him in whatever fight he was fighting. The people loved the bishop and his family. But I already forgot his name.

Moon Lake, which was in the movie, is one of 70 idyllic lakes, has a sparkling teal color, surrounded by green with a backdrop of mountains. We all tried to capture the beauty on film, but the sun was playing hide and seek, and when we were in camera position, the water turned to slate.

Then we arrived in Salzburg. Robert showed us Mirabell Gardens, the old walled city, the churches, the store where we could by the true, original Mozart chocolate (we still don't know why it's Mozart chocolate, but we bought some anyway). We saw Mozart's birthplace, but didn't take time for the tour--Robert had already warned us that, while interesting, we would not see many of his possessions because there's just not much left. 

By the end of the hour-and-a-half walking tour, we were both thoroughly charmed by Robert and laughing at the many, many times he stopped to make sure we all knew how to get back to the bus. Everything leads to the river, you cross the bridge, and go back to gardens. It's not rocket science. We had been rolling our eyes at the tour groups in Vienna just the day before, herds of sheep following a paddle with the name of the tour company on it. Now we happily followed Robert and his jauntily raised umbrella around every turn.

We were released to time on our own, so we walked through the lush, secret garden-like cemetery, which was the inspiration for the setting when the mother superior helps the Von Trapps escape. Speaking of their escape, if they had actually hiked over the mountain in the movie they would have hiked straight into Germany and the arms of the Nazis. Instead they just bought train tickets to Italy. 

After strolling the old city some more, it was past time for lunch, so we scoured the restaurants for a place we could sit down, not pay too much, but have a real meal. Breakfast had been a split croissant with cheese, a split yogurt, and an apple each because nothing was open before we had to leave. We found the Zipfer restaurant and had some fantastic food. 

When it was time to go back to the bus, we found our way to the river, then crossed the bridge. We stopped in at the Hotel Sacher for the one true sachertorte. We got a mini torte to bring back to Vienna with us. Have I mentioned that neither of us is naturally navigationally inclined? After laughing at Robert's continual repetition of the way, we found ourselves briefly unable to figure out where we had to go. Google to the rescue--we found the gardens, basically behind the building next to us. Crisis averted, and we didn't have to tell Robert.

The drive home was sunnier and it took a bit of self-restraint for Lora not to ask them to stop off when we passed the lakes so we could get real pictures. We tried to stay awake when the guide was talking, but fell asleep every time he switched to Spanish.

Back at the hotel we opened a bottle of Italian Lambrusco and carved our mini torte in two. Wine in our room's espresso cups and sachertorte on our saucers, these are a few of our favorite things.