The hills are alive... With the sound of Salzburg

I have a confession to make, and I fear I'm gonna make any musical movie tragic very upset... I had never seen The Sound of Music... Never... That was until today. I have finally been subjected to this film and I have to say it wasn't complete torture like I thought it would be.

Anyone who knows mum and I knows that mum loves music and musicals, anything to do with music... I do also but my appreciation for movies which are musicals does not stretch to any level which would surpass mums love for them.

The only musicals I have seen are the Rocky Horror Show, Mary Poppins and the Lion King, so my musical repertoire is a little lackluster I must admit. Never the less I saw the movie, I knew all the songs and it wasn't bad at all. I'm sure some of my friends are thoroughly enjoying reading this as they knew there was a musical tragic hidden under this tough exterior somewhere...

The reason you had to read all that crap about musicals is because we arrived in Salzburg today, home of the Sound of Music movie and the Von Trapp family.

We are by no means travel experts but there is not much else to Salzburg other than this movie for most people, however mum and I found this little city to be quite enchanting and just lovely to be in. The people are relaxed and the atmosphere is calm, compared to say Rome or Paris anyway!

We saw lots of people with little clothing on today, as Europe is having quite a heat wave... We actually got sunburnt in Germany-Austria as it was 32degrees today! I saw snow on the mountain peaks, and i still get burnt - go figure!

There was a market on today and we saw lots of street stalls and people dressed in traditional garb. It seemed to us tho that they wore what they did because they wanted to, not for work, but for fun. Weird Germans lol. We saw Mozart's birthplace too which was very busy; people taking pics left, right and centre! We also saw a busker who looked as if they we're perched in mid air and it was great. I won't tell you how they do it, you can figure it our for yourselves!

We walked over a bridge which had lots of padlocks on it and it was strange but weirdly funky at the same time. We found out that lovers take their padlocks to this bridge and place it locked on the bridge together and then throw the keys into the river as a promise that their love will remain strong like the padlock for all time and can never be broken as the river has the keys now. How lovely!

We only spent a couple of hours at Salzburg tho as we were headed for Munich today. We arrived in Munich around 5:00pm, but as mum and I saw a little too much sun today, we decided to stay in the room of the hotel- the Hilton Munich hotel I might add (fancy!) - and sleep the afternoon/night away.

We are headed to lichtenstein and Switzerland tomorrow so we will need our rest.

P.S. check out the road sign , ausfahrt (yes a word that sounds like fart amuses us, but we're simple people lol) apparently means way out or exit out, we thought it was hilarious and hope to see more weird signs in Germany as we have heard there are some way worse than this one. Apparently goodfahrt means "good journey" so do what you wish with that one xxx

The Viennese waltz and fine dining, fine shopping too!

Today was a big day in Vienna city as we did a city tour and we went out afterwards for a night we will never forget.

We started off with a tour of hoffburg palace which is where the royals of Vienna resided. As we were a special tour group (that's code for paid more $$ so get first preference) we got the place to ourselves for around half an hour before any other tourists were allowed in. This made a huge difference as the crowds can really spoil an experience for you.

We saw so many lovely things in this palace, but my favorite was the gardens. Beautifully manicured and cared for, something I aspire to do but know I don't have the patience or organization skills to pull that off!

We then saw the sights of the city. Vienna is so much more relaxed than the other cities we have visited and this was a nice change for us, not to have to diligently watch who was near us trying to steal our bags or get into our pockets. We really began to enjoy being there rather than always having one eye on someone else.

Later that evening we were treated to a Viennese orchestral recital where we had a small orchestra playing gorgeous music from Strauss and Mozart and there were opera singers and ballet dancers also. This was great and something mum thoroughly enjoyed. I also enjoyed it as I love classical music but I had a tall person in front of me so seeing much became difficult so I used my ears instead. It was beautiful to listen to also.

We were treated to fine dining for this also, and dined on a 3 course meal of fancy dishes like beef terrine, salmon on pea risotto and strawberry tart. Yummo!

Tomorrow we head to Salzburg and Munich. I feel a viewing of a movie I swore I would never see in my life time coming up! Tune in for more on this tomorrow!

Vienna, an eclectic place

We entered Vienna this afternoon and once we got settled into our room, we were off to a special dinner just on the out skirts of town.

We drove to a place called where we were delighted to see millions of antiques the family had collected over the years in each of the rooms, beautifully decorated. The place where this restaurant was is a house, and it is huge so thee are a lot of rooms to hoard all these antiques and knick nacks in.

Many famous people have dined in this place, such as Tom cruise, placido Domingo, Audrey Hepburn and Pavarotti! Just to name a few.

The food was in huge portions - we have grown used to this during our time here - so of course we could not finish it all, but it was delicious anyway.

We are doing a city tour of Vienna tomorrow with a local guide so we are looking forward to seeing more of this beautiful city.

Venice, the floating city!

We arrived in Venice today after a little bit of a long drive, something like 6hrs today. Lots of driving on a bus tour but it's the only way to get to places other than bullet train or plane.

Venice is little islands surrounded by small stretches of water and you get around by boats. The first thing we did was get a boat from the mainland to the main island of Venice. Then we were treated to a gondola ride first up.

Our gondola rower was not as authentic as some, as he chatted on his mobile phone, smoked constantly and looked like he belonged in the back streets of skinhead lane. He did attempt to sing to us tho, but we wished he hadn't at times lol.

It was a nice gondola ride tho, as it was quiet and serene and gave us an insight into how people live in venice and not just the touristy parts. We went under lots of little bridges but perhaps one of the more memorable ones was the bridge of sighs. This bridge was the last light of day prisoners saw when they were being escorted into the prison on the other side of the bridge and it is said that whenever a prisoner was taken there, they would have one last look out the windows to the free world and sigh as it was possibly the last they would see of it in their life time. Very sad but a beautiful bridge.

Afterwards we wee treated to a drink in St. marks square, which is the central square of Venice where all the people come and congregate. I had a peach Bellini and mum had a hot chocolate you could stand your spoon up in! If we had have paid for these ourselves, we would have been up for $25 or more, as they also charge for you to sit down on their seats! We watched the world go by for about an hour. We had a sneaky gelati in there too!

We walked to our boat which was taking us to our own island where our hotel is, called lido island. On the way to the boat however we saw the bridge of sighs again. It's a haunting place but nice to see from the outside rather than what those prisoners saw instead.

Once we got to the island of lido, we settled into our hotel which is covered on the outside with mosaic tiles and it is very artsy fartsy and pretty inside.. We were treated to dinner at the hotel, as we have an early start in the morning for a trip to murano island where they make the famous murano glass and we also go to some other smaller islands to mooch around. A good day to do not much for mum and I as it will be Anzac day here.


Thought I would tack on the next day we had in Venice onto this post. We went to murano island and watched a glass blowing demonstration. This was great as we got to see how each sculpture was made and how intricate and delicate work it is, but how proud and talented the people who do it are about their work. It brought a tear to my eye to watch a man work on his craft with such pride.

We went and had lunch on an island called burano. This lunch was huge and jam packed full of seafood. As we had such a big lunch, mum and I decided we didn't need dinner so we hit the hay early and got some rest for the next day. We are off to Vienna tomorrow!

Historical Rome, and a bit of Rome-ance too

Today was a big day for us, we were to see so many things and try to take so much in that we really needed a video camera with us as the memories of all that happened will unfortunately one day fail. Let's start with the boring history stuff first tho.

So, we met our local guide Susannah and she took us to the Sistine chapel first thing within the Vatican city. She gave us a big lead up though, as she wanted us to see it for more than what we may have if we were your everyday tourists. After her explanation of all it entailed, we definitely saw it in a different light.

Inside the Sistine chapel, it smells kind of damp from all the people that have walked that floor, and also there is no electric light in there so only the sunlight has a chance to air the room out.

The Vatican city had some gorgeous gardens and we strolled through them first and looked at some more modern sculptures and art pieces. The big gold globe was one of them, and this was huge - like 10 feet tall, but our guide was naughty and went into the roped off barrier and turned the globe with one hand and it began spinning like it weighed nothing. It was amazing to see and we would have never seen that without her.

The Sistine chapel itself is a small room with the ceiling and the walls painted by Michelangelo. The popes bedroom backs onto this chapel so it was kinda surreal being there and seeing it all; sometimes it doesn't feel like we are really there and we need to slap ourselves to realize "yes we are here".

The work on the ceiling is amazing and the detail and the time it would have taken is something you truly appreciate once you have seen it. Also the pain the artist must have felt when doing it, as we both had sore necks after just 20mins of looking up at it! The ceiling is the story of the creation of Adam and Eve, really the creation of life by God, and the back wall is the last judgement by Jesus, which is yet to come. Regardless of whether you are overly religious or not, this place gives you an appreciation for the work and why it was created in the first place.

We then went to St. peters basilica which is where the pope gives his mass blessing every Sunday lunchtime and all of his public addresses from here also. The basilica has the remains of the last Pope there and the one before him also. The interior was stunning and there were lots of mosaics and sculptures and it was very gaudy and embellished inside, but nice to see also.

We then headed off to the colosseum where the gladiator battles took place and a lot of history was behind those walls. The colosseum is a huge place, with many layers to it; it isn't just one layer of bricks in a round shape, it's 3 layers of bricks thick, except most of it has fallen away after standing for almost 2000 years, so we forgive it!

It was great to stand inside and see what the general public and also great emperors like Caesar saw. We saw the gallows where slaves were held until they went to battle and we also saw where they kept the animals like lions and elephants, etc to be slayed or to slay the gladiator.

After this we went to the trevi fountain, where it's tradition to throw 3 coins into the fountain; 1 for a wish to be granted, 1 for luck, and the last one for your return to Rome. I hope they work for both of us, even though we were stingy and used our left over English pence and copper coins! The fountain itself was lovely, but it was so busy that the atmosphere could not be enjoyed, but we made the most of it in the 10mins we were there. When we arrived tho, we saw another tour bus which had broken down and was being pushed by its tourist group... I guess they forgot to throw their coins in and as a dose of bad luck, they are probably still pushing the bus toward the alps by now!

If you thought that was a lot to pack into one day, there's more!

We went to dinner to a place called mangrovia and this place has been a regular on our tour guides list for 21 years so we knew we were in for a treat. When we arrived, we were greeted by some very handsome young Italian waiters. They were very attentive and very good at their job, which entailed more than we bargained for.

First course was a caprese salad with cheese, tomato and cured meats, then we had 2 - yes 2 courses of pasta, ravioli and rigatoni. When the 2nd pasta dish was served, I was not given a plate and wondered why at first. Four other girls were not given plates either and when the waiter banged a big metal spoon on the table really loudly and announced there were special dishes to be served I knew something was up. Each girl that did not get a dish at first were given special dishes, but to eat them, we first had to be kissed by the waiter.

It was lots of fun and they gave roses out to you and then kissed you on your neck and from your hand to your neck until they felt you were satisfied! It was lots of fun and the women were all screaming. I think they were jealous as only some ladies received this treatment - I was only glad I was one of them - sorry Steve!!

Tomorrow we head to Venice, where there's a lot of romance for lovers being serenaded on a gondola ride. Maybe we should take one of the waiters with us!