Week Eleven: Vienna and Salzburg

I am behind on my updates, so I hope I can remember everything! As I said in my last post, we arrived in Vienna early on Sunday morning (3 a.m.) and were disappointed to miss the area conference we had planned on attending, but we also enjoyed getting some much needed rest from our crazy journey! That evening, we all gathered in our hotel room and watched The Sound of Music to prepare for our time in Salzburg. It was so fun to sing along and be together.

The next morning, we headed to Mozart's home, where he lived and composed some of his best-known masterpieces. Unfortunately, the museum and home were not very well preserved or presented, which was disappointing, but we did see a few treasures, so it was worth it.

Original, handwritten music scores

Mozart's death mask - very cool

Constanze Mozart, you can read more about their unconventional love story here

Some examples of posters advertising his opera's

His home is at the very end of this alleyway - we are tired can you tell?

The streets were so orderly, the buildings so clean and graffiti-free— it felt strange to us at first!

Next, we headed to the more interactive House of Music and learned more about Beethoven, Brahm, Schmidt, and Mozart!

Musical stairs!

Franz Schmidt's hand! Here's just one sample of his beautiful music.

And Johannes Brahms reading glasses. Here's a sample of his music.

We'll end with Ludwig Van Beethoven and his life and death masks. Wow, what a hard life he had! It's incredible to me what all of these men created amidst so much struggle. Here's a wonderful example of Beethoven's work.

After the museum, we found a place to try Wiener Schnitzel. I was surprised to discover that it wasn't a sausage dish—it was like chicken fried steak. Ours was a little dry but pretty good, especially with lemon and the potato salad that came with it.

Clean, almost new-looking buildings with beautiful detail.

We saw why the streets were so clean. This guy's job is to scrape off the graffiti! We did see graffiti later in different parts of the city, but the main areas were extremely clean, quiet, and well-maintained. We had just come from loud and lively Italy so maybe we were extra aware!

I finally snapped a picture of what most of our beds looked like in the hotels. There was no need to worry about taking too many covers; we each had our own!

The next day, we spent a few hours at the Belvedere Museum/Palace before catching our train to Salzburg.

The Baroque-style facade was very impressive! We learned that it was a summer home for Prince Eugene of Savoy who was one of Austria's greatest military commanders and statesmen. He led the imperial army to several vital wins over the Ottoman Empire and in the War of Spanish Succession. The Austrian commander was also renowned for his love of art, culture, and science. After the death of Prince Eugene, Empress Maria Theresa (Marie Antionette's mom!) acquired the entire complex and transformed the Upper Belvedere into an exhibition venue for the imperial collections – making it one of the first public museums in the world.

Lost by Franz von Stuck depicts a faun who, according to Greek myth, was at home in the Mediterranean climbs but here has been cast into a barren, snow-covered region.

I loved this one by Claude Monet called Portrait of Père Paul. He painted it in Normandy while living in a hotel with a fabulous restaurant attached owned by chef Paul Antoine Graff. Monet wrote to a friend about how much he loved his crusty cakes called galettes (he even painted them later!).

The Belvedere is known for its collection of paintings by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, so we enjoyed seeing some of his most famous pieces.

We didn't even think to kiss in front of The Kiss! It was pretty cool to see this one in real life (horrible picture - sorry!)

Jeff and I discovered an Austrian painter we really loved. His name is Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller. Every painting we saw by him just stopped us in our tracks. His compositions were so light and beautiful and seemed to celebrate goodness and the love of family.

This one, Exhausted Strength was small and so beautiful. I loved the title. He was able to find and portray the extraordinary in the ordinary.

He also painted this famous one of Ludwig Van Beethoven

Here's a self-portrait. We had no idea but learned later that Waldmüller was one of Hitler's favorite artists. Under the Nazis, many artworks by him were seized from Jewish collectors, and several were channeled to Hitler's Führer Museum in Linz. You can see many more of his paintings and learn more about him in this short, well-made video.

Speaking of Hitler and Nazis, there was a whole section of art by Jewish Austrian artists that was quite moving.

Like this one called Two Survivors by Gerhart Frankl. After the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in 1938, Gerhart and his wife fled to London. His parents stayed in Vienna and were later murdered in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Frankl returned to Vienna in 1947 for sixteen months and processed his family's fate.

Klingler-Quartett by Maximilian Oppenheimer: "The string quartet founded by Karl Klingler in 1905 is still regarded today as one of the most important chamber music ensembles from the first half of the 20th century. The quartet finally disbanded in 1936 rather than cede to the pressure of the National Socialists to replace the Jewish cellist Ernst Silberstein. Max Oppenheimer, himself a passionate violinist, translated the musical interaction into a dynamic fabric of hands, scores, and instruments. After his art had been labeled 'degenerate' by the Nazis, Oppenheimer fled from Vienna in 1938 vis Switzerland to the USA."

The gardens were beautiful even on this cold, blustery day. We walked around and then hurried back to our hotel to grab our bags and get to the train station.

We got to the station and quickly grabbed some yummy sausage dogs. I ended up putting mine in my pocket so we could RUN to catch our train. Every country does things a bit differently, and we thought we were close to the right spot, but we weren't. I'm sure we all make quite a scene as we run like crazy chickens!

Smile kids! Once we got on we had a nice, short trip to Salzburg. We got to our Airbnb late that night and woke up to this beautiful view.

I'm going to paint this one day. Oh, what a charming little town we stayed in (just about a 20-minute train ride from Salzburg named Oberndorf). Our Airbnb was right on the border of Germany (this is the view from our house, so those buildings are in Laufen, Germany). It was so nice to get away from the big city and rest by the Salzac River.

A mural on one of the houses near ours.

Cool, random statue on our way to the grocery store

Pretty bridge on our way to the train station

The buildings...it was just so out of a postcard. Quiet little town - people just living their lives with this beauty all around them!

The cute train stop sign

On one of our few days there, we headed into Salzburg to...

Go on a Sound of Music tour!!

Our guide was American (from Gardnerville, NV)and was definitely living her best life! We sang along to our favorite Sound of Music tunes as we saw all of the places where it was filmed. She was a wealth of knowledge on the movie as well as the true life story of the Von Trapps.

The first stop was where all of the backyard scenes took place - the scene where Maria and the kids were in the canoes, the famous dance scene, and many more. Little tidbit: we learned that the little actress who played Gretal almost drowned in the canoe scene, which made her NOT want to do the rest of the movie. She was finally convinced to finish (they had already done half of the movie at this point, so they couldn't just trade her out for another actress) but wasn't an easy person to deal with (along with Christopher Plummer). This building is a hotel now.

Next, we got to see the original sixteen-going-on-seventeen gazebo. Jeff was a good sport and reenacted it with me. We look just like the actors, don't you think?

Wheeeeee! This is how I feel every time Jeff kisses me!

The front part of the Von Trapp movie home. Right where Maria sings "I've Got Confidence" and then knocks on the door. Most of the inside scenes were filmed in a studio in LA but all of the outside shots were done in Salzburg! The Von Trapp family home wasn't used in the movie at all, but we learned some interesting things about it. For example, soon after the Von Trapps escaped Austria, Heinrich Himmler moved in and even built an underground bunker (you can learn more here.).

Except for the Abby shots. This is the actual abby where the actual Maria lived and was training to become a nun, and it is also where the movie was filmed. Did you know that the real Maria Von Trapp was in the movie for a few seconds? She was one of the townspeople in the background while Maria was singing "I Have Confidence" throughout the town.

The hills were alive with the sight of fog but were still so beautiful!

This is the church where the wedding scene was recorded. The film took place at Mondsee Cathedral, which is about a half-hour Northwest of Salzburg’s city center.

Director Robert Wise hired roughly 600 extras for the scene and tracked the camera, which was perpendicular to the procession, up the nave to the altar as the soundtrack boomed a counterpoint version of “Maria” on the grand cathedral organ. The complicated filming took an entire day to shoot.

The little town close to the cathedral was so charming, with little shops and restaurants.

It took everything in me not to buy these little outfits. Who for? I don't know but they were so cute!

I found a really great little documentary about the Von Trapps as explained by their granddaughter. You can check it out here (go to the16 minute mark in to skip her talking and see film).

Laurel got a little goat. "Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hmm hmm"!

And we all enjoyed some yummy apple drinks

Next, we went to Mirabell Gardens in downtown Salzburg, where Do Re Mi was filmed. Here are the steps they sing on.

The kids were willing to pose for lunch.

We had a yummy quick lunch and some crisp apple strudel in honor of Maria's favorite things.

The ride back to Oberndorf was just as beautiful. We LOVED the Salzburg region!

Jeff's getting his nap in before he starts his workday. Bless this amazing man!

Here, on his "lunch break" at 7 p.m. trying to fix the dishwasher that never worked in our Airbnb. We loved the location of this Airbnb, but not that kitchen!

The next day, we walked just a few minutes to the little church where Silent Night was composed and performed for the first time.

The ‘Silent Night’ Christmas carol was first performed in the church of St Nikola in Oberndorf on Christmas Eve of 1818. Both Father Joseph Mohr, who had written the lyrics, and Franz Gruber, who had set them to music, performed the song in front of a traditional nativity scene.

It was Joseph Mohr, who was a talented guitarist, who actually accompanied the song on guitar. For many years, it was thought that this was because the organ had broken down, but now historians believe that the guitar was the original accompaniment, and the arrangement for the organ was written later.

The room that Joseph Moore stayed in while he wrote the song.

It was so cool to see these paintings of our exact view from over a hundred years ago.

What it looks like today. The Salzach loop, where the river bends, was particularly important as it served as a port for the most important trade in Salzburg in the past: salt.

Such a wonderful little spot that was so meaningful to us. We watched this movie years ago and were surprised by how accurate it was after reading and learning more at the small museum there. Here's a link to the movie trailer.

On the way back we hiked up to another monument there in the neighborhood.

View from the top

Little promises of spring everywhere.

The next day, it was time to say goodbye to Oberndorf, Austria, and Laufen, Germany.

One foot in Austria and another in Germany!

On our way to Munich! This train was our first that was extremely crowded, but it was a short trip, thankfully.

We were not prepared for how huge Munich is! There were so many people in the train station and outside. We took a quick Uber to our hotel and found some food.

The view from our 19th floor hotel room, Hello Munich!

We had a small moment to celebrate our favorite surprise, Norah! She turned 15 while we blinked. She was such a trooper that day. We celebrated her some more later, which I'll tell you about next time. Until then, alvetersain!