Salzburg and Innsbruck

Hello Again,

All three of us are back in Veinna safe and sound after our wonderful exploration of other parts of Austria. We arrived in Salzburg in the early afternoon and found our hotel. After settling in, we set out to for Salzburg’s Altestadt (Historical District/Old City) On our short walk, my mom had her first encounter with the Alps. There were times on the trip that I wasn’t sure if she came to Austria to see me or the mountains because she was so excited about them, and understandably so. They were stunning. The towering snowcapped peaks were awe-inspiring.

Once we reached downtown we were all pretty hungry, so we went to a sweet restaurant with outdoor seating and my dad was introduced to Tapfelspitz, a boiled beef dish that he could not stop raving about. My mom and I had beef goulache, which was also quite good.  After dinner, we walked around the area a bit more and proceeded to stumble upon the Rodeo Drive of Salzburg, needless to say… we did a lot of window shopping, but it was still fun. After that, we walked a little while longer (and got gelato of course) because the weather was simply beautiful.

On Tuesday, we took an early train to Innsbruck and arrived there around 11. Our first stop was to see the tomb of Maximillion of Hapsburg, an emperor of Austria. Let’s just say ol’ Max thought rather highly of himself considering the tomb took nearly 40 years to construct and is so large that a new church (The Hofkirche) had to be built just to house the thing. The sarcophagus itself is enormous, covering some 60 square feet with 24 panel reliefs depicting scenes from his life on the sides and a bronze statue of faithful Max praying on his knees on top. But as if that wasn’t enough, the sarcophagus is surrounded by 24 larger than life-size bronze statues of family members, buddies, former Austrian rulers, and great rulers throughout history (i.e. King Arthur). If you couldn’t tell already, I, personally, think it’s… a little much. But Max’s goal was to become immortal by demanding such an extravagant burial, so I guess he got his wish.

Later that day, we took a horsedrawn carriage ride around the city and the driver pointed out a few more important sights. After that, we checked out St. Jacob’s Cathedral, which was one of many stunning cathedrals in the Renaissance/Baroque style that we visited. We did some shopping throughout the day for souvenirs to bring back to loved ones at home. Also, mom and dad finally got to buy their own coocoo clock. I remember my mom talking about wanting one since I was little, so she was really excited about it.  Then we got back on the train and headed back to Salzburg for the night.

On Wednesday, we made our way up to the Salzburg Fortress. I’m ashamed to say that I’m still not entirely sure what it functioned as, but for our purposes it was a giant white medieval castle on top of a mountain that overlooked all of Salzburg. The views of the city and mountains were incredible.  Upon coming down from the fortress, we went into the Salzburg Cathedral and walked through the Mirabel Gardens (as see in the Do Re Mi song in The Sound of Music) which was an appropriate precursor to… The Sound of Music Tour! Salzburg would not have been complete without it.

This four hour bus ride showed us (among other things) the two houses used for the Trapp family house, the gazebo that was used for “I am Sixteen going on Seventeen” and the church that Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer were married in. The church that they used is in a town in the lakes region of Austria where they make the best Apple strudel on earth. My family and I are not necessarily Sound-of-Music-Crazy, like a lot of other people I know, but it was a great way to spend our afternoon.

On Thursday, we spent a little more time in Salzburg before heading back to Vienna. I had seen a picture of St. Peter’s cemetery in a book and really wanted to see it, I know… me and cemeteries, (my roommates laughed at me when I told them) but this one was really pretty too! Just look at the pictures. This was also the cemetery that the family hid in, in the filming of Sound of Music. Then we finished up some last minute souvenir shopping and head back on the train.

I know that was almost a week ago and I’m just posting it now… I’m sorry. I’m not allowed to upload things to the internet at my apartment so I had to wait until I got back to school today. I’ll post about the rest of our stay in Vienna in a couple of days.  My parents both send their “Hellos” to everyone reading.  We’ll write again soon.

Love,

Caitlin (Mom and Dad)