On the first night, we visited the Augustiner Bräu. The Augustinian Monks began brewing beer in Salzburg in 1621, after resettling from Bavaria. A monastery continues to hold majority ownership of the brewery, and of course, they brew their beers according to the Purity Law of 1516. As I'm not a fan of beer, I had a Coke made with real sugar instead, and let me tell you, it was so good. Simple pleasures, man.
For food, different vendors had stands along the outside perimeter of the beer hall. As is tradition, silverware was optional. We had delicious pork and chicken, and several types of salads: carrot salad, Greek salad, and a Bologna/Extrawurst and onion salad. If you come to Austria, be prepared to increase your vinegar consumption. Most salads like these are full of it, and you either love the flavor or hate it.
My cousin in all of her feasting glory.
Beautiful picture of mother and daughter - it was so nice to see familiar faces!
I love the person holding all of the mugs over Ben's shoulder.
The next day, we decided to do the Hop On, Hop Off bus tour. We were given terribly uncomfortable ear buds, a map, and we were off! As a teacher, I appreciated the differentiation available on the bus; if you wanted to hear about the historical sites around town, tune to Station 2 for audio in English, and if you want to learn about the connection of the sites to The Sound of Music, tune to Station 10. Several other languages were offered, making it very tourist-friendly. We were all able to get what we wanted out of the audio, and it was interesting to compare what the audio said in German to what was said in English, suggesting that what German-speakers found important was sightly different than English-speakers.
As this is Salzburg, many of our stops included Sound of Music shooting locations. And now for an embarrassing story: when we found out that we were coming to Salzburg, people's reactions were either:
1. Oh, moving to Germany is really exciting! Enjoy the beer and bratwurst!
2. Where?
3. Oh my God, Sound of Music, Maria Van Trapp, xoxoxoxo!
Although many, many people love The Sound of Music, Ben and I are just not fans. I didn't grow up on it, like many people. My musical of choice was, and has always been, The Music Man. If we went to the real River City, Iowa, I would be a picture-snapping freak (is the movie based on a real place, by the way?), dancing in the library, looking into the billiard hall and hiding things in the corn crib, and singing about women with questionable morals while a little girl looks on and laughs (if you don't understand, please see the movie). I understand the hysteria, but mine is directed elsewhere.
Anyway, we tried watching the movie last spring, and after the "I Have Confidence in Me" number, Ben gave up. We have since watched half of the movie (thank you, intermission), and admittedly, it was exciting to see places around town in the movie. Here are some of those places.
This is Leopoldskron, the fictional residence of the Captain and his children. The tour guide said it was closed to the public, but that link there shows that you can visit! You can hold your wedding there or come for New Year's Eve. I can speculate at the cost of renting the place. On a thriftier note, seeing the palace from across the lake takes about a five minute bus ride from our apartment.
And the famous glass gazebo, now located at Hellbrunn. (It was moved from its original location at Leopoldskron.) This is a few miles from our apartment too, and we can't wait to see the trick fountains in the spring.
So, you know in the movie when Liesl jumps from bench to bench while singing about being sixteen going on seventeen? Oh course you do! Well, some tourist decided that he or she was nimble enough to jump as if he or she was sixteen, and broke his or her hip. They have since locked up the gazebo, but Ben tried anyway.
Thank you, dear family, for visiting us in Salzburg! Seeing family so far away from home was indeed magical!
Magical for us too!!! Can't wait for you to visit us next!!!
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