The hills are alive!

Those who know me well may know that I love, love, LOVE The Sound of Music. In fact, if you go by how many times I’ve seen it, it’s probably my favourite movie of all time. My parents must have introduced me to it when I was very young, because I can’t actually remember a time when I wasn’t able to sing all the songs and recite half the dialogues. Even now, having seen the movie at least a couple of dozen times, I rarely pass up the chance to watch it again if I happen to catch it on TV or on a long-haul flight.

So, when my plans to come to Munich began to crystallise, one of my first resolutions was that I’d get to Salzburg before winter set in. I mean, its entire old town is a UNESCO world heritage site. And its fortress is one of the best preserved in all of Europe. And Mozart was born there. And…

Eh, who am I kidding. I just wanted to spend a weekend being Fräulein Maria.



So, let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. When you read, you begin with…

*Must. Stay. On. Track.* Ahem.

The two-hour train journey from Munich to Salzburg passed through the kind of fairy-tale countryside I’ve described in previous posts, and slowly the foothills of the Alps started to come into view. By the time we pulled into Salzburg Hauptbahnhof, we were most definitely in Julie-Andrews-twirling-in-the-alpine-meadows territory.

While dropping my bags off at the hostel, I confirmed with the receptionist that the vast majority of Austrians have no idea of the existence of The Sound of Music. They know about the Von Trapps (there was  an earlier German movie about their life), but most of them are oblivious to Miss Andrews and co. The good people of Salzburg must have their suspicions by now, though, because there are ads for Sound of Music tours all over the city.

Salzburg’s Altstadt (old town) is wedged in between the steep hills of Kapuzinerberg and Mönchsberg with the river Salzach running through the middle. I spent the first afternoon just wandering the grand squares and tiny side streets and occasionally ducking into a church or two. I also visited a couple of cemeteries, which sounds a little creepy, but the cemeteries in Salzburg are actually quite pretty – full of trees and flowers. And tourists - so how creepy could they be, really. If an old Italian lady with a gammy leg can potter around in there, I'm sure it's not going to turn into a sequence from Thriller.



One of several things that felt instantly familiar about Salzburg was the sound of the church bells. There must be a few dozen churches in the  city and they all mark the time together every fifteen minutes. When I first heard the bells ring, I instantly recognised that the gap between the different bells was exactly the same as in the movie. Just in case you needed any proof that I’ve seen it way too many times.

I also went up to the Festung Hohensalzburg, the huge fortress perched a cliff above the old town that’s almost a thousand years old. You could wander around the rooms in the castle and learn about Salzburg’s days as an independent city-state. What I loved the most about being up there, though, were the views from the battlements.



I had to do something Mozart-y in Salzburg, so after a quick dinner at a hippie Indian restaurant (I happened to be craving some home cooking), I went to see the Salzburg Marionette Theatre’s production of Die Zauberflöte (the Magic Flute), a Mozart opera. I’d never been to an opera or a ‘oi brow marionette show before, and it was bloody amazing. I couldn’t believe how much life a skilled puppeteer could put into those wooden marionettes. Each character in the opera had his or her own walking style, mannerisms, and personality – the attention to detail was incredible. Not to mention the elaborate set design and the exquisite puppets themselves…


And that was the end of my first day in Salzburg. It was action-packed, and I hadn’t even got to my corny Sound of Music tour yet! I should mention here that Salzburg is a very touristy city. In the peak season, the tourists outnumber the locals 3:1. As nice as my first day was, I really wanted to experience something of the city without navigating constant streams of standard-bearing tour guides and mobs of tourists with audio tour gadgets around their necks. Yup, I’m fully aware of the irony/hypocrisy of me saying this as a tourist myself. But still. I craved some respite from the madding crowd, to at least for a few moments experience Salzburg a little like Maria did.

So I pulled a totally Urmila move and woke up at 6am to go hiking on Kapuzinerberg, one of the hills overlooking the city. As I left my hostel the streets were completely empty except for a huddle of tipsy Austrian teenagers who were presumably prolonging their Saturday night out as long as they could.

I started to walk the steep trail up Kapuzinerberg and was soon cocooned in quiet green forest. The only person I passed up there was a monk coming down into the city who greeted me with a quiet “Grüß Gott” (there is a monastery on the hill). Apart from that it was just me and the trees and the birds singing. Through the trees I could see peekaboo views of the whole area around Salzburg. It was so peaceful and relaxing that I ended up walking for a lot longer than I intended, and exploring a lot of random side trails. I guess I did end up channelling a little of Fräulein Maria after all :)



After some breakfast I had some free time before my Sound of Music tour, so I went and hiked on the other hill (Mönchsberg) for good measure. There were quite a few more people walking around up there, but it was still very peaceful, and the views of the city were even more impressive.



To cap off the weekend, I went on a Sound of Music tour. I’m not normally a fan of tours involving those giant buses, but due to a mix-up I missed the cycling tour I was originally intending to do, and there was no way I was going back to Munich without unleashing the long-caged fangirl within. So off on the bus I went, and it ended up being quite fun. They played almost all the songs on the bus with everyone singing along, so I was obviously with some kindred spirits. Among the highlights: the Gazebo of Luuuurve…



The gardens of Mirabell Palace, around which Maria and the kids skipped extensively during the Do Re Mi sequence…



And Lake Wolfgang, where they filmed the unforgettable opening shots of the incredible Austrian countryside. The one part where even Hollywood needed no editing.