There is already a post about our adventure getting out of Paris and to Salzburg, but I will say that despite everything, I really really loved Paris. It was such a culture shock to arrive in a quant mountain town after the urban environment of Paris. Salzburg was full, and I do mean FULL of people that Andy and I call fudgies. If you are indeed a fudgie, please do not be offended by this blog, as we all will become a fudgie some day. It is part of the aging process.
The term fudgie comes from the days when I worked at Kilwin’s Chocolates in Holland, MI, during Tulip Time. Hoards of older people, with their fanny packs and matching coats and baseball caps, would pour out of charter buses to invade shops looking for fudge. They treated me like a prop and even looked into the windows of my college housing as though I was Minnie Mouse in Disneyland. Salzburg, due to being the film site for a number of scenes in The Sound of Music, is full of fudgies taking the Sound of Music tours. It rained off and on all day, and we quickly learned that fudgies do not know how to use umbrellas and will poke you in the eye and throw large amounts of water on you while talking to themself.
Surprisingly, we found this highly amusing, probably due to the fact that we knew what to expect in Salzburg. We stayed outside of Salzburg in a castle, with a bathroom decorated from the 1970s. It was awesome. Our hosts were an older couple who are very, well, Austrian. I kept reminding Andy to not feel bad when they hurried us along or scolded us over something nonexistent. They just wanted us to have a good time and have it QUICKLY. It was very German of them!
We stopped in a coffeehouse in Salzburg and after our adventure getting to Salzburg at 1 am, Andy was so tired HE DRANK COFFEE.
Next to the coffeehouse was the childhood home of Mozart, so we took the tour and as usual, my audioguide didn’t work at first. I have a knack for getting ones that don’t work or that I, Master Degree holder, cannot seem to make function. Now Andy just laughs at me. The tour was fun, and it was neat to see instruments that Mozart had composed on as a young child. We then walked to the Mirabel Gardens, where we were able to get some pictures of the lovely gardens despite the fudgies descending upon it. Several scenes for “Doe, a Deer” were shot here, and I had the song stuck in my head all day after that.
We enjoyed walking around town, as it is really beautiful and some of the streets are filled with ornate signs. Andy was impressed by the gilt McDonald’s sign!
There are college students playing Mozart everywhere, which really adds to the ambience of the city. We saw the hooded figure that Andy was excited to revisit, as well as the giant chessboard. We took a tram up the hill to Hohenburg Fortress, which overlooks all of Salzburg. This was the rainiest part of the day, and it was very cold and windy up there, so we cut our time short and headed back down the hill. We rested in a coffeeshop where we ate yummy pastries and drank hot beverages. Once we were dry, we walked to a nearby restaurant where we had made earlier reservations to enjoy a Mozart Dinner Concert. We felt a little underdressed, as we were a little damp and dressed for sightseeing, but nonetheless we had a complete ball. The room was SUPER fancy and the musicians and singers dressed in period costumes. We enjoyed a three course meal with Mozart before each course, so we were glad we had pastries earlier. The singers were AMAZING and they played their parts well.
We made it back to the castle and collapsed into bed, hoping for less rain in Vienna the next day.
