On a few of my favorite things

Salzburg!

Alright... it's only fair that I warn you now. If you are one of those people who has always given me crap whenever I happen to burst into random song or ramble forth a river of musical trivia, I advise you to skip this post.

Because, well... if the word Salzburg didn't imediately make you think of one very particular thing... I'm sad for you.

All I have to say for myself, and my current giddy state which carried me singing and yes, twirling, through every hilltop and garden and riverside of this lovely little town is, well... The Sound Of Music!

Let me just say that I adored this town. I loved it when the sky was smokey and brooding, I loved it when it danced through the dainty little trees which line the river, I loved watching the rainstorm loom through the alps. I really and truely loved this little town. And I think I've come to a kind of sad realization. I really love pretty things. Ok, so that sounds a little odd, but what I mean is that as much as I've loved each of the places I've been wandering over the past few weeks, it hasn't been since France that I've really and truly loved a place. And really, if there is one thing which Salzburg and Versaille have in common it is a kind of dainty, tidy, prissy kind of prettiness. And I'm just a sucker for it.

Honestly, I wish I wasn't. I mean, all the cool travellers are the ones who can't get their fill of back alley markets and grimy ruins, and would much rather be on the back of a truck with a bunch of chickens driving into a remote African village than in a fussy little royal garden. But honestly... I am just a sap for the pomp and perfection of lovely little places, in all their forms. Not to say that I didn't enjoy winding my way through the back alleys of Czechloslovakia... but really... give me a Linzertorte and an espresso, please.

(And by the way... a word about the uh... singlemindedness of these photos. Just be glad that I didn't actually break down and pay the 30 euros for the official Sound of Music tour, which took you by bus to the villa where they set up their estate, and out to the cathedral where they filmed the wedding scene... but not out to the hills so you could go frollic and twirl, otherwize I SWEAR I would have done it in a heartbeat.)

(by the way... this view might just happen to be the one Maria walks past while she's singing out what on earth her life is going to be like now that she's being cast to the unknown. Or something.)

(And this might be the fountain she walked past as she was singing "I Have Confidence".)

And then I frolicked in the woods... which had nothing to do with The Sound Of Music, but I couldn't get out to the hills, so it was the best I could do. :)

And then there are some things which time can't ever quite heal...

This is the kind of hardy fare ones eats in Austria. And that is just fine with me.

(And this just might be where Uncle Max and the children were walking as they waited for the Captain and Maria to come back from their honeymoon.)

And then I went to what I think is absolutely THE most beautiful garden complex I have ever seen in my life. And I know me a garden.

...and the fact that I went there had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it might have been where they filmed all of the pieces of the montage of Maria and the children dancing around to "Do Re Mi". Or, ya know... so I've heard. Or Something.

(And if this covered walkway looks like where they rode their bikes through... well... don't ask me because I would have no idea. Or something.)

And so that's Salzburg. Oh my, but I could spend so much time in that city. I will stay here for some period of time, at some point, I think.

And really... those hills really are alive. I mean... come on. You've got to admit those are the alivingest hills you've ever seen. :)

PS... for the first time since I began my trip, I am completely caught up! Now that is worth celebrating with another sauchertorte.