Day 29

The hills are alive with the sound of....music! We're in Salzburg, Austria right now. It was an interesting day today. We checked the weather last night to see what we would be up against. The forecast predicted that it would be slightly colder than it had been in Vienna, but clear skies and no rain. Well, it was right about 2 of the 3. It was cold!! by 10 am it had barely reached 8 degrees Celsius. And there was no rain, even though it felt like it was going to. But, the skies were anything but clear. When we left the hostel at 7:30 there was a nice layer of fog hanging over us. We hoped that it would clear in a few hours because we were planning on climbing up to the castle today, but no suck luck came our way. We started the morning off by walking to the Mirabell Palace Gardens. The gardens were very unique because each section had a different color scheme. There was an entire patch dedicated to Orange, and another area with a bunch of red roses. There were fountains and statues everywhere. And if the sky had been clear we would have been able to see all of the way to the castle. We left the gardens and continued walking to the city, stopping in several cathedrals, partly because they were beautiful and partly to stay warm. We spent some time in the Franziskanerkirche which was nice and warm. It also had a beautiful painted ceiling and marble structures everywhere. We left the church and continued walking around the city. We finally found ourselves at the Salzburg Cathedral, one of the more recognized structures of the city. It was in this church that Mozart's parents were married in. The inside was huge! We spent a good bit of time in there to ward off the cold and to take pictures. After the church we went by the tourist's office to pick up our Salzburg Card, something that would get us into every major attraction for free. Granted, we did have to pay 33 euros for it, but don't worry, it's worth it. It was only 9 am, so we had plenty of time on our hands. We went to the Mozart Gebursthaus (Mozart Birth House) first. This is the house where Mozart was born in, as well as his older sister. The family lived here for several years before moving to another nearby house in Salzburg. The room was full of information about Mozart and his travels, his family and his career. He was born in a circular room on the third floor of this house (which we got to go in!) It was very interesting learning about this because if you remember, in Vienna we went to the Mozarthaus and learned about his adult life. We left the Gebursthaus and went searching for his other residence, the Mozartwohnung (Mozart Living House?) I didn't know how well off the family was before we went inside, but apparently middle class was pretty fancy back in the day. The house had 8 very large rooms and was filled with original mementos, furniture and instruments from the Mozart family. We saw Mozart's first piano and first viola. There were also locks of his hair!! (That one was a little weird to me, but oh well) We spent some time in the house listening to some of his many compositions and learning about his extensive travels as a boy. Mozart spent over 1/3 of his life traveling, approximately 10 years! That's a lot in my book. We left the house and went to search for the entrance to the Mirabell Palace. However, we were informed once we arrived that the Palace was a government palace and there was no entry allowed, despite what the website claimed. Disappointed, we went on our way to find the Salzburg Residenz. When we arrived, we were informed that the state rooms, basically, the rooms of the palace, were closed until Saturday. There was a gallery upstairs that we could visit, but that was it. That was a bummer because it was something that we were both looking forward to. Maybe we'll have some extra time on Saturday to see it, but I don't know. We left the Residenz and went to find our bus stop. Because it was so cloudy, we decided to push back the castle until tomorrow which meant that we could go to Hellbrunn Palace today. After a quick bus ride we arrived at the palace and waited for our tour to start. The interesting thing about Hellbrunn Palace is its water trick fountains. They warn you before you go on the tour that you might get wet, but I didn't think much of it. We got a ton of information about the palace and the emperors who lived there. We were then informed that there were 3 "surprises" along the way. While we were in one of the grottos our tour guide got a sneaky look on his face and pressed a button. Suddenly a bunch of fountains started squirting water everywhere. Luckily I was not in the crossfire and I stayed dry. We continued walking through the gardens and were told to stand on a bunch of steps. We were given some information about the wooden miniature theater that was in front of us. It was made of over 200 pieces and 120 of them were movable. It was completely water powered. We got a demonstration of it. But, I had let my guard down and thought I was safe. The next thing I know, the back of my pants were soaked and I was running away from the squirting water. Everyone had a good laugh. We continued walking and found ourselves in another cave like structure. When it was time to exit, however, the guide turned on some water fountains. He told us that if we walked straight under it, we wouldn't get wet. And I believed him. Adam and I walked under the water and stayed pretty dry. But just when we though we were out of the woods, the guide turned on another set of fountains that squirted us right in the face. And just remember how cold I told you it was today... We left the water fountains feeling cold, but amused. We were able to go inside the palace afterward and see many of the rooms. It was a little small and not too impressive, but I guess that fountains make up for it. We let the palace and were able to catch a quick bus back into the city. Since it was way past lunch time, we decided to pop inside the Billa (grocery store chain) and grab something to cook up at the hostel. I saw a nice package of fresh pineapple, kiwi, and strawberries, and knew that was going to be part of my lunch. My next craving was for a Pb&J. Thankfully, the store had all three ingredients that I needed. We left the store and headed back to the hostel to make our lunch. The bread was a little hard/dry, but the PB&J was absolutely delicious. It was almost 5 by the time we finished and Adam wanted to go out again. I knew I was too tired and that we had a busy couple of days ahead of us, so I opted to stay at the hostel, and relax/take a nap. And it was good. So now we're down in the lounge getting ready to watch Chuck. I had another PB&J for dinner so I should be good for the rest of the night!