On day 3 of our stay in Munich, we took a day trip to Salzburg, Austria.  As was frequently the case in Europe, it was a fairly easy to navigate train trip away.  Trains ran every hour or so and two-ish hours of riding through German countryside is fine by me.

As is our way, we arrived early, giving us plenty of time to walk from the train station to the more historic part of the city.  We went by two Mozart sites, his birthplace and one of his family homes. We didn’t go inside either, though I believe that’s an option for both.  Then we walked down to the river and got some excellent pictures of the city and the Hohensalzburg Castle.  Heading back into the historic part of town, we navigated our way past more Irish Pubs than you could shake a stick at to find Gasthaus Zwettlers, a traditional Austrian restaurant.

With schnitzel and such digesting, we headed to the meeting point for Panorama Tours for the Original Sound of Music Tour.  Apparently, they were the first company to start doing tours of the various locations used in “The Sound of Music,” and they’ve got a pretty good thing going.  Our tour guide, Dave, was charming British man who’d moved to Austria years ago with his wife. He knew his stuff, and he knew the songs, playing many in the van on our travels, and getting us all to sing along.  The location visits were great, and the views were lovely, but I really enjoyed the trips in between, getting fantastic views of the countryside and towns along the way. Dave had some great information, the kind of thing movie buffs watch all of a DVD’s special features in hopes of gleaning.  I’d seen the movie, but couldn’t count myself as a mega-fan, by any stretch. Yet, the movie nerd and the history nerd in me were both very happy. We stopped in Mondsee to see the church used in part of the film, and went in for a cheese strudel with ice cream at Cafe Braun (apparently in a building built in the 1560s!).  That was quite good.

As it got dark and we got back to Salzburg again, said our goodbyes, and hopped back on a train for Munich.  I think that might have been the night I grabbed a slice of pizza in the Munich train station, and it was quite good.  Rebecca had some doner kebob, which was also quite good. You can find doner kebob almost everywhere I’ve been in Europe, and it’s a pretty good, quick, fairly cheap thing to grab on the go.

Austria is definitely somewhere I’d like to return to one day.  Maybe check out Vienna. I definitely want to spend more time in or around the Alps.

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