Above the City

Just another day.. in a Nazi bunker

Today we ate breakfast in the Von Trapp family’s old dining room. You know, the usual. After enjoying that, a few of us went outside to explore the old WWII bunkers on the property.  They were falling apart and not in the best shape, and going down under the ground was definitely creepy. It was really dark and the tunnels went a lot farther underground than I would have thought. It’s just weird to think we’re one of a very few people who have ever entered Himmler’s old bunker system. Later when we went inside, Rachel and I overhead an Austrian government official meeting with the hotel owner about what they should do in regards to the bunker. Our Australian friend told us we were witnessing “history in the making”, because the decision the government makes about the bunkers will determine if future generations can see them or know about them. The government is really wanting them to be destroyed since this Nazi-era evidence is a scar on their face.

It started raining again, but the three of us ladies took a cab to our next hotel, called the Schloss Leopoldskron. It used to be a palace, but was recently converted into a hotel. It is locally famous because the back of the property is where The Sound of Music backyard scenes were filmed. It was really cool getting to see the scene you’ve seen so many times throughout your life just sitting before you in person. Once we got settled into our room (which was absolutely freezing!), we walked around and took photos on the grounds. My Mom was just dying of happiness, you should have seen it.

I can picture the kids falling off the boat now...

View from the Fortress - One of many

We then headed back to the Mozartplatz, where we took a funicular to the large castle-like fortress that overlooks the entire city known as the Festünghohen Salzberger.  It was built in the 15^th century, and the entire city has revolved around the fortress and its safekeeping of the local “white gold” or salt (Salz in Austria)! Once we reached the top, we ate lunch at a restaurant with a spectacular view of the whole city. We then went inside of the castle and took the audio tour. It was actually pretty interesting, especially the dungeons. The tallest tower had some amazing aerial views of the city as well.  After taking photos to our heart’s content, we walked around some more aand then were terrified by this random puppet/marionette museum they had. I hated puppets to begin with and this museum re-affirmed that.  Once that was behind us, we took the funicular back downhill.

The legendary abbey gate from the movie

Since my Mom is unnaturally obsessed with the Sound of Music, she decided that we had to go find the abbey where the convent scenes in the movie take place, and where Maria was a novice in real life.  We walked up a few hilly steps, and reached the Nonnberg Abbey. We wandered around until we found the gate where in the movie the Nazis try to break in to find the runaway family, etc. We checked that off the list, and then of course we had to go inside the abbey’s church. We were the only people in the whole place, and while we were looking around we were serenaded with some beautiful operatic singing of religious hymns. I thought it was a recording they had on the whole day, but then we heard it stop and people walk away. I was shocked. Apparently the nuns sing each day at 5pm, and we coincidentally walked in to listen to our own private showing. Cue the song “Climb Every Mountain”… Oh, and also if you were curious, this is where the REAL Captain and Maria Von Trapp got married in real life back in the 30’s.

Next up: A quest for food. Since the dollar is terrible in comparison to the euro, we tried to find a cheap eat for dinner. We ended up finding a street market and bought a baguette, a slab of cheese, and some fruit. After some struggles to find a cab and watching Maryann sprint through a plaza, we were back at the hotel. We ate in the room and then Mare and I embarked on another quest to find an ATM. We walked down this road for about 20 minutes until we finally found one. It was annoying, but it ended the day with a great view of the fortress we were at all day: