Thursday, April 30, 2009

Salzburg

I could smell burning rubber as the minivan careened down the mountainside. Its driver, our tour guide, nimbly steered the bulky white van, following a perilously narrow road that snaked through the mountains and surrounding countryside. Clutching my rolling stomach, I leaned toward the side window, my eyes never leaving the grandeur of the scenery before me.

Salzburg, Austria was the second stop on my mini-Eurotrip.

I got into Salzburg at around 10:30 p.m. on Monday, March 13. Not wanting to try to figure out the bus system, I hailed a cab to take me to the hostel where I was to meet up with two of my classmates, Alyssa and Rebbekah and Rebbekah’s sister, Naomi.

Over the next two days, Alyssa, Rebbekah, Naomi and I explored the city, stopping at museums, taking tours and walking around the town square. Together we toured Hohensalzburg Fortress, explored St. Peter’s monastery and cemetery and also Hellbrunn Palace with its trick water fountains.

For me, the highlight of Salzburg was when we took a tour into the Bavarian Alps. We booked the tour at our hostel and was picked up in a minivan and taken back across the border into Germany. We drove for hours on winding little roads, listening to facts and stories shared by our tour guide. When we came upon a particularly picturesque spot, the guide would stop the van and we could get out and take pictures. I enjoyed this because not only was the scenery breath taking, but I was also quite car sick and these breaks gave me a chance to recover.

The guide was a middle aged, knowledgeable Austrian fellow who was more than happy to answer our questions, encourage us to speak to him in German (though the tour was in English) and even played some selections from “The Sound of Music” soundtrack on the way back to the hostel. In fact, he timed perfectly so “So Long, Farewell” was playing as he dropped us off and drove away.

“The Sound of Music” was an ever present force in Salzburg. In fact, the city was the setting for the 1965 musical, making tours of the various filming locations popular for tourists. Though we declined on participating in such a tour, we did end up seeing the gazebo where the number “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” was filmed. The musical was also playing in the lobby of our hostel one night

What is interesting about our tour guide playing the soundtrack was that he, like most of the citizens of Salzburg, has never seen the Hollywood production. The musical, while being very successful and a cultural phenomenon in the United States, is largely ignored by the population whose backyard it was filmed in. The tour guide even knew random facts about the film and its cast members, which surprised me even more. It should not have though, considering that the guide was part of the tourism industry, which seemed to be content to milk every penny it could from the musical enthusiasts.

Everywhere we went in Salzburg, there also seemed to be some commemoration of Mozart, who was born and lived in the city. Mozart Kugles, little chocolate ball-shaped candies sporting Mozart on the wrapper, Mozart marionettes, music boxes playing minuets written by the composer and various t-shirts were sold in the countless little stores in the city center. We visited the house where Mozart lived, which had been turned into a museum, and walked past the house where he was born.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Salzburg and would recommend the city not only to those who enjoy musicals and classical music, but also to those who want to take a family vacation in Europe. The locals were very friendly and willing to answer questions and at no time did I feel unsafe as a tourist during my stay.

For more information about Salzburg, visit the city’s official tourism Web site at http://www.salzburg.com/tourismus_e/index.html. Another good Web site is http://www.visit-salzburg.net which is run by Austrian locals.

To see my pictures from the trip, click this link http://picasaweb.google.com/nemecse/Salzburg?feat=directlink

S.N.