Salzburg (/sahls-buhg/) Girls Trip

Oh, we had a grand time in Salzburg! JaNae came to Prague for the first leg of her 3-leg trip (continuing on to Paris and London) with David. Georgie, Pearlie, JaNae and I set out on the 7-hour train trip for lovely Salzburg. The trip was short and fast--with a hitch or two--but we all loved it.

We left at about 7 am from  Hlavi Nadrazi--the train station near our apartment at Namesti Miru. We were on a classic (translation: older)  Czech train. I love the color. We had a booth for six and brought sandwiches, drinks, CHOCOLATE, yogurt, etc. so didn't have to buy it on the train. All four of us got a pretty good nap. And JaNae especially needed it since this was less than 24 hours after her 20-hour flight to Prague!

We're looking pretty good at the beginning of the journey. :)

 Getriedegasse: the girls were delighted to discover this shopping street, which Salzburg is famous for. (Who knew?) We bought some European boots for them (5 euro each) and found a 1 Euro store (the equivalent to a $1 Dollar Store in the US.) They were excited to buy a mini stuffed animal there. And begged every day to go back for more...

 The first real stop of the Sound of Music Tour. (Of course, we had to take the tour--we talked about dad the whole way. He would have loved it!) This is where the boat tips over and Gretl falls in.

 The famous gazebo. Funny though, that they have moved it to a remote location so that the hordes of Pilgrims didn't disrupt the regal grounds where it was originally built. The girls are wearing their prized boots--not the light slippers necessary for the 16 going on 17 dancing...but we did skip a little.

 We drove in a minibus to the little village where the opening scene is filmed. You can't see it too well, but up on top of the mountain in the back is a little building. A train goes up there--wasn't open this early in the year, so we couldn't take it :(  From there is where Maria twirls and sings "The Hills are Alive!

 The sidewalk in front of the church where the wedding was filmed: it was in the next village up of the "Lake District." Turns out the lake's for sale but none of the land around it comes with it. Seriously, this village is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been!

 Where it all begins...near Mirabelle where the Do Re Mi steps are. It was closed for remodeling though--we should have gotten a discount.

 Entryway to the shopping district.

 From above the city near the Fortress. Salzburg is bigger than I expected. It's a busy place but easy to navigate. It looked like Provo/Midway with similar mountains in every direction :)

 The girls messing around near the Fortress/Monastery. They loved being able to romp and play in Salzburg. We saw more parks/natural area than they've seen in 3 months. Although visitng Eurpoean cities has its perks too, in my opinion.

On the way home. we didn't get off where we needed to change trains to for one to Prague. So, we ended up on a train going BACK to Salzburg. The conductor was very amused by this and laughed and laughed. The extra 4 hours on the train were not so amusing to us...But we were able to ride back to this stop in the middle of nowhere (Czech? Austrian? Who knows?) and after a wait, catch one back to Prague. The kind conductor did make sure the station manager knew what train we needed and would get us on it. At least I think that's what he was saying...These guys somehow speak no English!