Last night’s sleep was much better. Sleep came easier and even when we woke up, we were able to fall back asleep pretty easily. The only problem was the heat, it was so stinking hot in our room. We opened the windows, but didn’t want to sleep too much with the screen-less windows open to the courtyard. We ended up with some good sleep and hopefully, crossing our fingers, we have finally adjusted to the time change and overcome jet lag.
We really picked the right hotels for breakfast though! The dining room that we ate breakfast in was beautifully decorated with a full breakfast buffet with some of the freshest fruit, creamiest creams, and tiny shot glasses for juice. Thanks Rick Steves for the hotel recommendations!
Then came the big moment, one of the things that both of us were really looking forward to, our first big tour! The Sound of Music Tour!! Our tour bus, or our tour minivan really, was waiting for us outside our hotel a little early which made me think that there were going to be a ton of other people we were going to have to pick up. NOPE, that was not the case, there was no one else to pick up! It was going to be our very own private tour because no one else had signed up! Two thumbs up for shoulder season travel! I was expecting this to be a fun tour where we saw some cool sights from the Sound of Music, and we did. We stopped at the house where they did the outside shots and of course the gazebo! But that wasn’t even close to the best part of the tour.
The BEST part was the Austrian scenery. It is an incredibly beautiful country, in fact I don’t know if I have been anywhere else in the world that is as spectacular. My breath was taken away on countless occasions, from the mountains to the incredibly green rolling hills of the country side and the spectacular mountain lakes. I don’t think there will be anything as amazing on the rest of our trip and that makes me a little sad, wish we had booked more time to spend in Austria. I guess there is a good excuse to come back! It was amazing and we got so much more than we bargained for.
There was one stop on our tour that really got me thinking. It was the church in Sound of Music where Maria and Captain Von Trapp get married. The church, or technically it is a Basilica, is basically set up for tourist and is even includes a gift shop as you enter. The church itself is covered in lots of very impressive sculptures and paintings. But I came to a realization that the church decided to spend money on making itself look good, instead of more important things. This led us to some really good discussion with our driver/tour guide about why Martin Luther left the catholic church, leaving mainly because he felt they weren’t focusing enough on the teaching of Jesus. Don’t get me wrong, the church is beautiful, but it felt strange.
That was the end of our official tour, but we got plenty of more great scenery as we drove back into Salzburg. Just one more note, on our tour guide. He was what I would classify as stereotypical Austrian and I don’t remember his name, but he did a great job (only been doing the tour guide stuff for 2 weeks) even if he did smell like cheese. He even tried to turn on Sound of Music songs to get us to sing along, but quickly turned it off when he realized we were enjoying the scenery and conversation with him about Austria too much to sing along. It really was a great tour! Maybe even the highlight of the entire trip! Now we can’t wait to go back to spectacular Austria!
Travel Tales From BB-8 