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Salzburg and Melk

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SALZBURG

After finishing our German final, all 10 of us students hopped on the train to Salzburg!! The place where the Sound of Music was filmed!! Our trip thru the countryside was fabulous. I am in LOVE with Austria. The grass was so vibrant and green with patches of daisies, there were rolling hills everywhere with little villages and churches, we saw a gorgeous sunset... I simply cannot put it all into words. I cried as I looked out the window when we got toSalzburg. That's how sappy I am. 

We saw the Hellbrunn palace owned by some sort of bishop, and he put in all of these fun water powered mechanical things, as well as water that squirts you unexpectedly from random places, like out this deer's antlers! It was built in the 1700s and was powered by water then, and still is today! It's fascinating. 

The people in the town wore those cute hats and traditional coats, and there was a cute market, and the huge castle complex at the top of the hill that was built in 1077, and then of course Mozart was born in Salzburg, so we saw where he was born, and went to a beautiful baroque church where he played the organ! 

I finally ate some Sacher Torte from the Sacher restaurant on the part of the Danube that runs through the town.

And I bought a cute wooden music box from this adorable store atJudengasse selling hand carved wooden items! The music box playsEdeweiss. It's blue and it has some edelweiss on the top of the lid. I couldn't be happier about that purchase! 

The houses looked more "Bavarian" (think Leavenworth) and I was just so in love with the mountains in the distance, and the cows and horses. 

My only regret was that we only stayed for a day! We had to move on quickly to our next destination, Mauthausen, a concentration camp, which was miles and miles away from Salzburg in physical AND emotional distance.

I'm skipping now to Melk, a cute little town that lies further down the Danube river. 

My camera died here, so I don't have many pictures. There is a Benedictine monastery in Melk which is extremely baroque. This is the most baroque building I've ever seen. Forget Karlskirche, Peterskirche, and even the baroque church where Mozart played the organ. These people are NUTS. 

And one of the most fascinating rooms in the whole thing was the LIBRARY (click for pictures). Oh my word. There are 10 rooms housing over 100,000 books dating back 1000 years PLUS. In the room that we all loved the books are mostly from 15th and 16th century- leather bound, all in good condition- and this library is a working library where students can solicit to use the books! 

It was glorious. 

Then we took ein shiff (boat) down the Danube further to Krems. All along this area of the Danube are ruins of old castles and apricot tree farms and other such amazing things. The coolest spot was Durnstein, the place where Richard the Lionheart was kept hostage on his way back from the crusades! 

I love springtime and all of these fun things we get to do here! It was awesome. 

Nachste Dienstag gehen wir nach Italien! :D
"Next Tuesday we're going to Italy!"
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