Salzburg and the The Sound of Music are synonymous. At least for most people. But not for me.
I am not bashing The Sound of Music, as it is one of my favorite musicals if I am forced to choose one. And I would have to be forced to choose one since I wouldn't say I particularly like musicals. I apologize to all the musical fans reading this, but musicals are not my thing. Perhaps I'm still traumatized from having to sit through The Phantom of the Opera like ten times. In the 1990s, various well-meaning friends and boyfriends kept buying tickets. I didn't seem to know how to say no, so instead I sat through it, over, and over, and over, suffering in silence. I read this online about its closing in 2023, " They said it would never happen, and yet, on April 16, we watched the chandelier rise and fall for the last time. The Phantom of the Opera played its final performance at the Majestic Theatre — show number 13,981, 35 years after its premiere. The reasons for the closing made complete sense. Sales had gotten soft." Really? It took 35 years for that to happen. At least I can finally rest easy knowing that I'll never have to be subjected to that experience again.
Perhaps my dislike of musicals had nothing to do with The Phantom of the Opera at all, but rather I would have disliked them regardless. Who knows? I have always believed that you are either a musical person or you are not and I am most certainly not!
So when planning our time in Salzburg, I avoided the countless Sound of Music tours I saw online, with accompanying stories of Americans breaking out in song on tour buses while their Austrian tour guides shook their heads in disbelief (and in some cases disgust). Funnily enough, the musical never caught on in Austria! There is enough shame and embarrassment around being an American tourist in Europe (you know what I'm talking about). I didn't need to pour fuel on that fire.
When visiting Salzburg there's that other musical phenomenon associated with the city, otherwise known as Mozart. When visiting you can see the house in which he was born as well as the home where he later moved and composed over 600 works, including some of the most famous and loved pieces of symphonic, chamber, operatic, and choral music. You can also find those delicious Mozartkugeln, all over Salzburg. They are a small, round sugar confection made of pistachio, marzipan, and nougat that is covered with dark chocolate. The Sound Music doesn't have a signature chocolate!
The last time I visited Salzburg was with my mother, over the summer between my first and second year of graduate school. I have fond memories of being there with her and was excited to share this quaint and special city with the children.
With three nights and two and a half days in Salzburg, we were able to see quite a bit. As usual, we packed in the activities which included, but were not limited to the following: a Salzburg town walk; a visit to the Salzburg Cathedral; a stroll down the Getreidegrasse, Salzburg's picturesque old shopping lane; a trip up to Hohensalzburg Fortress with its mountaintop castle and picuresque views; Mozart’s Birthplace; Hellbrunn Palace which for more than 400 years, has enchanted and amazed its visitors with its trick fountains (a huge fan favorite of the kids); the Salzburg Zoo; DomQuartier Museums where the kids had a ball dressing up in period costumes; Mirabell Gardens and Palace used in the filming of the Sound of Music; The Untersberg (cable car and hike) which is the northernmost massif of the Berchtesgaden Alps, straddling the border between Berchtesgaden, Germany and Salzburg, Austria; St. Peter's Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Salzburg, located at the foot of the Festungsberg and Hohensalzburg Castle; and the orignal Lanz of Salzburg store (who can forget those charming and cozy flannel nightgowns we all wore in the 1980s!) where I had the honor of meeting the current owner, Mrs. Lanz, who is the grandaugter of the founder.
We had some wonderful meals in Salzburg and especially enjoyed our picnic lunch on the banks of the gorgeous Salzbach River. We stopped in a local bakery one afternoon to escape the heat and get off our feet, where we enjoyed slices of delicious local cakes. We also sampled the Austrian Weiner Schnitzel (of course), which, unlike its German counterpart, is served with a side of perfectly tart cranberry sauce. Yummy!
Remembering Fitzy...
I love these two photos of Fitzy and Garin from different phases in their lives. The first was taken when Garin and Fitzy were both little boys, at our beloved house on Patricia. The second was taken in our current home on Lewis and Clark, in June of 2020, during the height of the pandemic. Fitzy fit in no matter what phase of life we were in. He was so perfect for us.
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