A Visit to Salzburg to Explore Some of Our Favourite Things

"I just couldn't help myself. The gates were open and the hills were beckoning and everything was so green and fresh, and the Untersberg kept leading me higher and higher, as if it wanted me to go right through the clouds with it" Maria (dialogue from "The Sound of Music")

We have found it to be true that the road most travelled is most travelled for a good reason and so with Christmas fast approaching we made our way to one of Europe's most popular Christmas Market travel destinations, Salzburg in Austria.

Leaving Verona of course the most sensible next step would have been Innsbruck, but I had such trouble booking Christmas in Salzburg so late in the year and yet we had no trouble booking five days in mid December, and so next stop Salzburg. The journey was beautiful and for once I was too busy looking out the window to remember to take photographs but luckily I snapped this one as we passed near to Brenner.

The kids were so excited to see our first glimpses of snow on the mountains and we had our fingers firmly crossed for a white Christmas on our return journey to a village above Innsbruck the next week. After an easy change in Innsbruck we continued on to Salzburg and then changed again onto the Lokalbahn to finally arrive in Anthering.

In Anthering, only seven kilometres north of Salzburg, we found the perfect base for five days of relaxing on the farm as well visits to magnificent Salzburg and beyond. The farm (www.Neuwirtgut.at) was absolutely perfect, providing us with all the space we could ask for including two bedrooms, a huge kitchen, separate lounge, wonderful bathroom and a huge balcony looking in the direction of Salzburg. The local train was a short walk away and allowed us to be quickly in Salzburg but without the Salzburg price tag. Also for us the benefit of the kids having lots of room to play both inside and outside was wonderful. It was so lovely to sit on the sunny balcony crocheting Christmas presents while watching Emma and Julian feed the horses a carrot or two while hares bounding through the field. 

In fact the kids loved the farm so much they were loath to visit Salzburg at all. The promise of Christmas markets did nothing for them until I had a brainwave and suggested we could buy a little Christmas tree and buy some decorations from the markets to decorate it. And so we were off to Salzburg to see visit the markets on a cold and rainy day, and I must say that I am very glad to have seen Salzburg before many year ago in summer to really see it in all its glory.

Even on a rainy day Salzburg is a very beautiful city and we started with pastries and hot chocolate to sustain us for our walk through the old town. We soon came to the Mozart Geburtshaus and Emma was thrilled to discover that this was the birthplace of Mozart, whom she has learned about in music classes at school.

We wandered further on and came to the Christmas markets, located under the Dom and in Residenz Palace. These markets are as good as they are reputed to be, making them once of the most popular Christmas markets in Europe. There were wonderful Christmas tree decorations and everything needed for creating your Christmas "krippen", or crib as these nativity scenes, so popular in Austria.

After having lovely typical Austrian lunch we wandered over the tourist office to make a booking I was very excited about. After twelve month the kids are tired, pretty much warn out with sightseeing but rather than stay home for the rest of our stay we offered them the option of going on the Sound of Music bus tour and they were very keen to go. It is really very funny as Julian has never seen TV or movies but knows half the songs from this famous musical and so we booked it in for the next day. He's never been interested in organised tours but this one promised to be fun and so we were all excited.

We woke the next morning thanking our lucky stars that the weather was delightful and we made our way into Salzburg again to join our early morning tour. We were glad there was room on the morning tour as we image that the afternoon group have half their tour in the dark during winter.

Our tour guide was terrific, she was very keen to get everyone singing along and though it took awhile for people to warm up she had us yodeling and singing along as we visited all the key sites from the filming of the movie. We began close to Salzburg with a drive past of Nonnberg Abbey, where the real Frauline Maria had been a postulant.

Apparently the film studios had approached Abbey for permission to film inside but they allowed only external scenes to be filmed here, so if you look closely at this photo you may recall a scene where the children came to fetch Maria back and the gate they approached is in the arched entry in the middle. We also had the most wonderful views of the Hohensalzburg fortress which dominates the Salzburg skyline.

Our next stop was the lake in front of the Von Trapp family home in the film, which is a different house to the one they actually lived in and is also different from the house used in the film. Confused? Good, I glad I'm not the only one. We received a excellent insight into the magic created by Hollywood. It is confusing but the real  Von Trapp house is surrounded by trees, so no good for filming and the house on the lake (Leopoldskron Palace) is too close to the water to allow for shots with the house in the background. So mindbogglingly they needed to chose a separate house not on a lake and then also film at the lake and every scene had to be shot twice and spliced together. Hope I'm not ruining the movie for you, but it was fascinating to consider and no wonder filming went months longer than planned.

Our next stop was Hellbrun Palace, however we did have a quick drive by of the house used in the movie, once you've seen it you can see how different it is to the white one they edited out of the movie.

While Hellbrun palace does not feature in the film, you might remember a guitar case carrying Julie Andrews singing her way along a pathway leading from it. She would have had a long walk indeed as we were now some way from any of the houses she could have been heading towards.

We did enjoy our peek at Hellbrun and would have liked to return for a better look and to visit the market but will have to save that for next time. Hellbrun is home to an iconic gazebo made famous in the film, originally located in the grounds of the lake house but moved here as the owners of the lake house were sick of fans jumping their fence in the night to reenact "sixteen going on seventeen" every night.

 By this stage the enthusiasm level on the bus had increased and even Rob and the kids were belting out their "Do-A-Deer's" with the best of the them. But now we head into the Salzkammergut and so in the beautiful alpine region yodeling was in order and also we were given a lesson as we passed by the mountain the family escaped over.

We didn't get to visit the field where Maria spins around at the beginning, and then makes her miraculous journey many miles back to Salzburg in time to be a little late for mass. Apparently the owner of the field has been known to pop out with his shot gun when visitors arrive to welcome them in colourful German.

Our next stop was for a stunning view of Sankt Gilgen on the Wolfgangsee, and had I our time over again I would have stayed here instead as it was possibly the most beautiful place that we saw in Austria, which is of course saying something. Dare I say it I would have even skipped Salzburg to spend some relaxing time in this glorious place.

Leaving Wolfgansee we journeyed to Mondsee, on Lake Mondsee, to visit another iconic location from the film. I have mentioned that the Nonnberg Abbey did not allow filming inside, and indeed the interior scenes from the Abbey were in fact shot on a back lot in Hollywood.

The one exception where a authentic location was deemed necessary however was the glorious wedding scene. This scene was filmed in St Michael's Church in Mondsee, some fifteen miles from Salzburg.

After leaving the church we had a leisurely thirty minute trip back to Salzburg and, as we suspected they  might, they turned on the television and showed a documentary made by Charmaine Carr the actress playing Leisl much to Julian's delight for whom this was a first.

 The tour ends back where it starts near the Mirabelle Gardens where we were left to explore on our own after being walked to the Pegasus Fountain. We had fun finding and recognising the various scenes from the filming of the song "Do-Re-Mi" and then really hamming it up recreating the various poses.

And it is there that we leave Salzburg, having had a lovely relaxed five nights and looking forward to Christmas in a few days time. The kids were definitely dreaming of a white Christmas and mum and dad were certainly hoping that Mother Nature would deliver for us.

Beautiful Verona: A Weekend Stopover That Resulted in a New Love

"Pleasant Verona! With its beautiful old palaces, and charming country in the distance, seen from terrace walks, and stately, balustraded galleries. With its Roman gates, still spanning the fair street, and casting, on the sunlight of today, the shade of fifteen hundred years ago. With its marble-fitted churches, lofty towers, rich architecture, and quaint old quiet thoroughfares, where shouts of Montagues and Capulets once resounded." - Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy

Having said goodbye to the UK and all our friends we boarded our plane to Verona and began the next leg of our journey, in search of a white Christmas. We decided on Verona as our first stop for two simple reasons, we found a cheap flight with British Airways, well in advance, that left at a respectable time in the afternoon, rather than the cheap and cheerful airline with whom we could have traveled directly to Austria at the crack of dawn for the same price. Secondly we love scenic train journeys and travelling via Verona gave us the opportunity to journey through the Alto Adage and through the spectacular Brennan Pass.

We have been so very lucky on our travels and if we have had mishaps they are few and slight and today we faced one of these. Sitting on board our plane, after substantial delays resulting from a strike in Italy, which is simply to be expected, just after pushing back from the terminal we had a friendly announcement from our pilot . Apparently just as we had been allocated a slot to take off, simultaneously to pushing back, the Flight Data Computer Server at London Air traffic control went down and runways at Gatwick and Heathrow were closed and flights grounded. 

We were told if we stayed put on the plane, which he went and parked somewhere our near the runway, we would been given priority over those parked at the gate and those poor people waiting in the terminals. We were told it could be a very long wait but we decided to make the most of our time and chatted with people nearby and we even looked after a lovely baby in the next row to give his mum a break. Luckily it was only an hour or so later that we received the good news that the computer was up and running and we would be the fifth plane to take off from Gatwick. We were thanking our lucky stars as a huge number of flights were delayed or cancelled and we were in beautiful Verona.

In keeping with this stage of our holiday I had done no research whatsoever and with two full days in Verona and a guidebook downloaded from the library onto my iPad we planned two days as follows, one day walking the streets of Verona and just soaking it all in and one day at Gardaland, Italy's answer to Disney as we thought it was about time the kids enjoy some kid time without cultural or educational value, just good fun.

We were delighted with Verona, one of those lovely quintessential art cities of Italy, perfect for strolling, with wonderful food, markets, roman ruins, churches and galleries to visit. We were very lucky to have found a fabulous apartment a few minutes walk from the Roman Arena (VRBO #512485) with plenty of room for us and a lovely kitchen. However as this was to be our last visit to Italy the kitchen didn't get any use as we wanted to take advantage of the wonderful local food. With such a handy base and no preconceived ideas about what we had to see we found Verona easy to navigate, just wander and you are sure to find wonderful sights.

We woke on Saturday morning, the feast of Santa Lucia,  and set off arriving first at the Roman Arena, with it incredible shoot star of Bethlehem. In the piazza before the Arena, Piazza Bra, the Bancheti de Santa Lusia (the traditional markets for the day of Santa Lucia) were in full swing. The kids had been thrilled that morning to find that, like the local kids, their shoes had been filled with chocolate by  Santa Lucia who brings Christmas presents during the night between the 12th and 13th of December, riding on a flying donkey.

We started out by trying the fabulous rolls stuffed with sliced meat or sausage topped with eggplant, onions, capsicums, zucchinis, mushrooms and more. And so loaded up with enough food in one roll to cover lunch as well as breakfast we enjoyed looking at at the terrific market stalls. While there was the usual tat there was also lovely leather goods, woodwork and other artisan pieces. There was also a beautiful carousel which the kids never could just admire and walk past.

Our next stop was the Arena, which Julian was very keen to visit as he was pretty much over Christmas markets by this stage, and oh boy did we have more to come in Austria. We picked up a Verona Card for Rob and I as it gave us free public transport and entry into the Arena and Juliette's House. 

 The Arena is one of those terrific places for kids, where you can both sit and talk about the history with them and also let them run wild and explore. And explore they did, walking all across the arena floor, staging mock battles, writing their names with sticks into the sand, climbing up and down the steps and finally heading right the way around the top level. This level offered us views of Verona's surroundings reminiscent of the sfumato style of painting practiced by Leonardo da Vinci, as well as a birds eye view of the market.

Not surprisingly the kids complained of being hungry after all this exercise, and so we just had to try the Fritule, expecting something like the small Dalamatian doughnuts of the same name we like so much and receiving instead huge pizza like pastries covered in sugar or smothered in Nutella.

We then followed the crowd down the via Giuseppe Mazzini, a lovely street good for strolling and window shopping and made our way to the Casa di Giulietta. 

 Every available space of wall outside "Juliette's house" has been plastered with love notes, stuck on with everything from chewing gum to band aids, which we all found hilariously gross. While the alley and courtyard, below the famed balcony, were very crowded the house itself was quiet and peaceful, and lovely refuge on a freezing cold day.

It gave us a giggle to hear many of the other visitors ask each other if this is the house that "Juliette really lived in or just similar to her house". Even Emma at age nine thought this funny as Juliette is a fictional character and never lived anywhere but it was a lovely renovated house from the period in which Shakespeare set his play.

We had a giggle at the very serious security guard who seemed to be keeping a very close eye on us, it must have had something to do with the fact that ours were the only kids to be seen. Luckily they were on their best behaviour. We even we able to go out on the balcony and embarrass the children by spouting our "Romeo Romeo wherefore art though's" much to their intense chagrin.

We next moved onto Piazza Delle Erbe which was filled with market stalls, though a sudden downpour had us seeking refuge in a cafe right at afternoon tea time. I would have really liked to see the Church of San Zeno Maggiore and with this plan in mind we set out at a fast clip as soon as the rain let up with the plan being to walk up Corso Porta Borsari and catch a bus from Corso Cavour. A great plan as it gave us the opportunity to see the Porta dei Borsari but unfortunately the bus timetables showed we would not make it to the Basilica until practically closing time.

And so we decided to catch a bus to the other side of the river as we had been told the views from the hill behind the Teatro Romano are priceless. Again our best laid plans went astray as the sun set within minutes of boarding the bus and it was so dark we couldn't even see the Teatro, let alone the amazing view of the beautiful medieval bridges. In fact we missed the bus stop and just decided to jump off and cross the first bridge we came across as Verona is so easy to navigate we were soon near to home and of course a good meal on the way.

There is so much to see in Verona, a city we have only seen a tantalising glimpse of, fallen in love with and we want to see much more of. It really goes to show that the slow travel principles we have attempted to travel by (staying at least 5-7 days in each place) are valid. What a lovely excuse for a return visit when we return again to our home in Croatia. However a promise is a promise and so off to Gardaland we went and it was a simple bus, train and shuttle bus ride from Verona.

It closes for the winter season but opens for a few weekends near Christmas at it was a very affordable and incredibly fun day out.

The kids went on everything except one roller coaster which Rob too tall to go on, Julian was too short, I was too scared and Emma didn't want to go alone. They did all go twice on one roller coaster (pic below) that went upside down a number of times, I know who the kids take after and its not me.

We loved that the kids could go on as many rides as they liked, as many times as they liked and without any sort of queue. In summer the price is higher and from what I have read the queues can be horrendous but winter in Gardaland is fantastic. 

Back home now in Australia when the children are asked by everyone we meet "where was your favourite place", a question that they find quite overwhelming, all I need to do is raise my eyebrows at them and they yell "GARDALAND" though there are many other favourites in there too.