Around The World Without Flying: Two tours around Salzburg

I have so much to tell you, yet I am afraid that I have become further behind in my posts. However, this has been out of my hands.

First, I decided to go on two tours from Salzburg on Sunday 18 June, not just the one that was pre-booked for me. I will tell you about them below. Then yesterday I spent almost twelve hours on three trains, from Salzburg to Munich, then Munich to Zurich, then Zurich to Lucerne. With all my luggage, that was my weight-lifting exercise for the week! (Except it’s not, because I have to do likewise to go to Lyon tomorrow.) And I also built up my hours in a sauna - the trains had very little sign of air-conditioning and it was a very hot day. Not that any of that reduced the ever-widening ‘donut’ growing around my waistline! And I have not had an ice cream or gelato for a while now! There is no justice in this world.

Actually, many people showed great kindness and helped me get my luggage on and off the trains, as there is a big gap between the platforms and the trains, and the steps up into the trains are very steep. It is hard to manage them and three items of luggage (a large suitcase, a bag and a backpack) weighing a total of about 40-50 kg when you are vertically challenged, as I am.

Anyhow, back to Salzburg. I had been booked on a Mozart City Tour for the morning, but decided I would like to go on the ‘Original Sound of Music Tour’ in the afternoon, so I could see more of the mountains and lakes districts. If I had the time, I would have also liked to have gone on the tour of the mountains between Austria and Germany and the salt mines, as well as up to the fortress overlooking Salzburg. So many wonderful places to see in the area, so little time . . .

Early in the morning I was picked up from my hotel by a very courteous, friendly and punctual gentleman and taken to where my tour was supposed to start. It transpired that only a family group of six or seven from India and I were booked on the Mozart City tour, but they took up an entire new, jazzy maxi-taxi. A very nice young man from Texas had booked a similar tour to mine but he was going to cruise along the river, not to visit the Mozart Museum. But we were put together, and the two of us set off in our bright red maxi-taxi with our lovely young driver-guide.

First we drove around some of the picturesque streets of Salzburg, and on the way we learned about a certain very powerful Archbishop of Salzburg who, a few hundred years ago, had total control of the city and was answerable to no-one. At that time, the city was an independent state. And did he look after himself! He had fifteen (!!) children with his mistress, of whom ten survived infancy. He built a palatial residence for them as well as a small palace not far away in the countryside to go hunting and fishing and so forth with his entourage of visitors and hangers-on. It had magnificent gardens. We went and saw this palace, though all-too-briefly, as is often the case with tours. I chose to use my time to see something of the palace gardens, and I am so glad I did. They were a delight to walk through, with the scents of flowers wafting on the breeze, lakes with ducks swimming lazily about, bright green trees and grasses and the song of birds celebrating the loveliness of it all.

We also learned about the special horses that were stabled for a long time in Salzburg and saw the fountain celebrating them. (This turned out to be close behind my hotel.) We visited an artificial lake that featured in the movie ‘The Sound of Music’ and found out that the youngest of the actors in the movie almost drowned in it because Julie Andrews lost her grip on her as the boat capsized and she could not swim. And it was freezing cold. What is more, they had to repeat that scene several times! Then the poor little girl started to overeat because of the fright she got and the stress and Christopher Plummer then refused to carry her in that ‘over the mountain’ scene at the end of the film, so a stand-in had to be used! He apparently declared “I am not going to carry that fat little girl!” He also despised Julie Andrews. So I am afraid he has forever gone down in my estimation.

The last part of the tour for me, and its highlight, was my visit to the Mozart Museum, which was fascinating. I learned so much about Mozart and his family. On display were many beautiful old musical instruments that he played, and copies of letters he wrote and that his family wrote, as well as their portraits. His letters revealed a man who had much more sensitivity to others than he was ever given credit for in that ghastly (in my personal view) film ‘Amadeus’. He clearly was a very caring son and brother. The great thing about the museum was that each visitor is given one of those little devices that tell you about what you were seeing, except that in addition to interesting information, you heard the old instruments being played and much of his music being performed. It was just a simply perfect way to celebrate his genius.

After a hike back to the hotel, I just had time for some soup, when I was off again on my next tour - a 'Sound of Music' tour. This of course was a very popular ‘touristy’ tour, with about 60 of us on the huge coach. But we heard many gems about the film, such as the fact the mountain used in the film to portray the family’s flight to freedom was actually on the border between Austria and Germany. That would have worked! The truth is they simply caught a train to Italy and from there travelled into Switzerland then emigrated to the US!

As we drove around and heard many stories about how the film was really put together, and how it differs so much from the real story that was written by Maria Von Trapp, our very jovial guide also played many songs from the film and did his best to get everyone singing along. (He was English but has lived in Salzburg for many years.) We also saw the famous gazebo, though two more were built for other scenes. As well, we drove to the cathedral used for the wedding scene in the film, which was in a most beautiful spot amongst the mountains near a lake. The real cathedral could not be used because the abbey to which Maria belonged in her early days (a stunning looking edifice) is a closed order. Nuns still live there by very strict rules.

All in all, it was a great day, full of wonderful music!