Okay, so the hills may have been alive with the sound of music, but Mark and I did not necessarily partake in the "traditional" Sound of Music tour. To be honest, neither of us fully remember the movie or have strong feelings toward it, and we previously opted to go white water rafting instead. The fact that we didn't go on the tour is something I love about us though; we do what we enjoy and not just what the "trip advisor" tells us to do. Don't get me wrong, we look to that for ideas, but do not necessarily "do it all" as we want to get in the thing(s) we enjoy. Also, I'm sure that tour is amazing as I remember Sarah doing it a couple of years ago, but I'm not sure Mark and I would have enjoyed it as much.
Anyways, the beauty in Salzburg was exquisite, and the overall feel of the city was better than Vienna. Now, we all are different and some may enjoy Vienna more than us, but overall, we thought it was okay. Salzburg had a nice touristy town center and the beautiful Alps that extend into western Austria, otherwise I'm not sure what else the city had to offer. Mark and I thoroughly enjoyed the white water rafting and spent an entire day doing that including transportation and such. Overall, I enjoyed our time there, but honestly I am not sure I would go back.
Pretty view from the top of the Hohensalzburg Fortress
Original chapel
Taking in the views...Mark was in Heaven with seeing the Alps, I can only imagine how he'll be when we reach Lucerne, Switzerland to see the Swiss Alps.
This is the castle now, last renovated in 1653
1653 view of the castle
The beginnings of the castle in 180
Castle in 180, its amazing how much it has built up over the years
My man and I with the gorgeous background :)
Some of the peaks protruded through the clouds
Believe it or not snow could be seen towards the peaks of some of the mountains. Mark is looking for places in the distance to build a house along with a place to do some winter snowboarding one day. I have to sometimes pinch him to bring him back to reality. He's my dreamer, and I love him for it as there is never a dull moment.
I am bummed I didn't get a better picture of the castle from further away, but this will give you an idea of what it looked like. We climbed up a bit in the rain to reach it and were glad to see the gorgeous views.
So, Mark and I saw how our hotel in Budapest had laundry service and previously decided that that would be how we would get our laundry done halfway through our trip. Well that idea was crushed when we saw it was $5 USD for one t-shirt...SERIOUSLY INSANE! So, we had to wait until Salzburg and found a laundromat about 15 or so minutes by public transit. We finally found the place, and this was the only machine available...so we had to swallow the 13 Euros ($18) for laundry, take our wet laundry back and air dry it in our room. I only have a couple pictures below of our laundry, but our room looked quite funny. We were luckily able to do some laundry in Krakow at our hostel, but we couldn't wait any longer at this point in the trip.
So, we went to a nearby bar while waiting for our laundry and met a very "interesting" woman who was quite intoxicated and kept asking/telling us the same things over and over again. My favorite was she asked me if I loved Mark when he went to pay our bill, and naturally told her yes, and that he was my husband. Mark sat down and she asked him if he married me, and he told her yes and then she asked me if I married Mark and said yes. We should have just started messing with her at this point, but we wanted to get out of there, so finished our drinks and went back to the laundromat where we met a nice family from Australia.
Just an example of what part of our room looked like with our clothes all over the place. Needless to say, we saved on time and money for not having to use the dryer at the laundromat. Since we've been across the pond, we've only used a dryer 3 times. I truly miss having a dryer, and it being free.
We had to wake up around 6 a.m. to begin the public transit journey to white water rafting, and I was quite exhausted from going to bed late. Our schedules are all out of whack here, as 6 a.m. is a pretty normal time for me to get up during the school year and on weekends...I know, pretty sad. So, this is me waiting at the bus stop, and I am a bit upset that BP wasn't open at 7 a.m. to get some of my favorite gas station coffee. I know it sounds weird, but I like gas station coffee better than most places.
Giving you an idea of the views we saw on our rafting trip
Well, after 2 hours on public transit we finally made it to the rafting place...it was well worth the trip! We don't have a GoPro/Waterproof camera, so obviously didn't take the camera with us rafting, but the views were gorgeous! This was my first time rafting and was a bit nervous at times, but overall it was an amazing experience. I was extremely thankful for the wetsuits, as the water was about 50 degrees F.
The views from our rafting trip through the Salzburg Alps
Back from our rafting trip and now touring the city
Debbie, is this the stuff you drink when you get sick? Kombucha? We think it sounds similar to what you have sometimes. This is a fruit juice of sorts with extra vitamins, not exactly sure but it is supposed to be good for you.
Sarah, this is for you. I was excited to see a Roncalli shoutout in Salzburg, but don't think you guys are having a Circus anytime soon (that is what the sign is promoting). Regardless, I had to get a pic for you.:)
So, overall the trip in Salzburg was nice and was glad it was just a day and a half. I know we could have found more to do in our time, but our time was limited. The city has beautiful scenery, but the city part was just okay. I was surprised about how quiet it was on Sunday, as most of the town shuts down. In all honesty, that was kind of nice to know they allow their workers their day of rest and to just have more peace and quiet for a change. On the other side, it made it a bit more challenging to find places to eat, but oh well.
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