A lot of Saturday

I was sorely tempted to wait on this until tomorrow too, but I didn't want to do that again.  Bad habits and whatnot.  It was a long day today, piggybacking off of the extremely long day yesterday.  I did get up a bit later than I wanted to this morning, the morning of the Nachsmarkt flea market.  It really does start around 6:30am, I was hoping to get there around an hour after that. 

Yeahhhhhhhhhh...nope.  Woke up around 9 as my body was just tired off getting 6 hours of sleep a night.  I decided to skip breakfast and have it there (including coffee).  Got there about an hour later only to find a madhouse!

It was also colder than the last couple of days, which you would think would keep people in their own warm homes.  Austrians are made of sterner stuff.  I did walk around to all the tables and actually bought a couple of small pieces of jewelry and Hungarian cookies (like Oma used to make).

I had lunch, then headed back to the room to unload and freshen up.  I decided to go to the Christmas market at Stephansdom. To get there, I had to walk through the main shopping district of Kaertnerstrasse.  Everything is decorated to the hilt with different types of lights above every section of street.  

Finally turned the corner to see the Cathedral (one of my favorites) and the market alongside it.

The booths are all cute little cookie cutter cabins with rope light designs above them.  However, the vendors weren't too different from St. Theresen Place.  I wandered around a bit, checking out both booths and shops.

I did get there kind of later, so the Cathedral wasn't open anymore.  Kind of a bummer, it's really cool inside.  There are some photos on my blog post from my last visit in 2012

It did look really pretty at night, which I had not seen previously.

Of course, the horses were there on the other side of the Cathedral and were pretty picturesque for this time of the year.  

I ended up having a giant potato pancake with applesauce and jam (after noticing an elderly lady order it).  Having food in my tummy, I had my first gluhwein of the day.   I then decided to wander around the shopping district and found another Christmas Market by accident. 

It was a tiny, cute little market called the KUK Weihnachtsmarkt at Michaelerplatz.  There weren't a lot of booths, but they were cute and decorated in a very formal old Viennese manner.   

Another market means another gluhwein!  This cute little market was not nearly so crowded and crazy, so I was easily able to find a park bench to sit on for a bit.  After finishing my drink, I was back to the shopping district to do some real and window shopping.

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Only in Vienna would you find the streets decorated with enormous crystal chandeliers.   This is the posh part of the area where you find designer shops like Fendi, Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton...in other words, nothing I can afford.

I did find a couple of shops on a different street where I bought some necessities (running out of bath wash!) and makeup...because...duh!

Found this little Krampus during my window shopping the many, many confectioners.

At this point I was dead tired and a bit buzzed from the wine (yes, I am a lightweight), so I decided to head back.

Found an entire store wrapped up in a bow!

I got back, had a snack of bread, cheese, olives, and smoked duck (I really need to get some wine).  Did laundry and edited my photos.   Now, here we are. 

I think I'll try to do the REALLY big market tomorrow and get it out of the way.  But I am gonna sleep late.   Just sayin'

Separate Post for Mozart and the Rest of Salzburg

There's more than the Sound of Music y'know...

So, the speed limit on the Autobahn here in Austria is like 95 mph.   So, this...

This is the exterior of the church used for the interiors for the wedding in The Sound of Music.  

The town of Mondsee is very lovely and charming.   Even if it was raining...

View from the windy road down on Mondsee (the lake, but a different town).

This is looking over the river Salzac toward the Altstadt and Hohensaltzburg fortress.

Another view across the river.  That ugly building is the modern art museum.

The narrowest house in Salzburg, similar to the narrowest house in London...I think this one is even smaller.   Didn't go in, so I'm not sure.

A bit of the Getreidegasse, the main shopping district of Altstadt.  Some of the hanging signs are extremely old...some are not so much.

This is the grave of Mozart's sister, in the monastery cemetery.    Since his grave in Vienna remains a mystery, this is the next best thing for many.

Horse drawn carriages are a tourist attraction that make Altstadt even more charming.

Everywhere you go, it's just so pretty...

So the solid color pink-ish house on the left is Mozart's residence after his family grew and they could no longer fit in the apartment he was born in.  the tan and white building is the birthplace of  Christian Doppler, the Austrian mathematician and physicist who discovered the Doppler Effect. 

This is Mozart's birthplace.   It is now a museum...which our tour guide did not recommend as there is not much there.  I took her word for it. 

The Mozart birthplace was the last stop on the tour.  We had two hours to kill before we met our ride home.   So...Christmas Market!!!  Awesome tree.

The market filled up the entire main square and spilled over to a smaller square to the side of it. 

Luckily, we were there after dark to get the full effect.  I had a late lunch of a crepe with tomatoes and arugula, followed by gluwein.

Proof I was there...post gluwein. 

This is Mozart Square, connected to the main square and the location of the skating rink. 

Much fun was had and our ride was a bit late due to a traffic accident.  Didn't mind much, because I had this to look at.

Salzburg and the Sound of Music tour

The last time I was in Austria, I took a day trip to Hungary, which showed me the eastern part of Austria.  This time, we went west, toward the mountains.  No wind farms here, just the regular kind of farms.

This is Mondsee, or (in English) Moon Lake.  This is where many of the scenes were shot that took place in water (boating and whatnot with the kids).  

It's also a big vacation spot in Austria, along with many other Alpine lakes.

Since the weather was pretty terrible (wet and chilly) not much was going on, especially off season.

This location might look a bit familiar as the church from the wedding scene in the movie.  There was a children's choir performing at the time, so we didn't get to wander around too much.  It was very atmospheric though.

This is the Basilica of St. Michael in the town of Mondsee.   Since the film didn't have a permit to shoot in the chapel at the abbey in Salzburg, they shot the church interiors here.

This is the gazebo featured in the movie with the song "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" which was constructed for the movie and moved from it's original location.  It's now in a public park at Schloss Helbrun.  Originally, it was on the grounds of Schloss Leopoldskron but the new owners of the property (now a hotel) wanted it gone.  Too many tourist disruptions.  Here I am being a tourist.

This is Schloss Leopoldskron, which was used for the exteriors of the back of the Von Trapp family castle.  The front and interiors were a different castle.  The fortress of Salzburg can be seen in the distance.  That's how close it is t Salzburg.

A little bit closer here.   We did drive past the location used for the front and interiors, but it's a private home and there is no way to stop.  I know that photos from a moving car, don't work for me.  Sorry.

This is the Pegasus fountain in Mirabel Garden, where part of the "Do Re Mi" song was filmed.   Since it's winter, no fountains were running.

Also part of that song, here are the steps near that fountain.

And lastly, the large fountain in the Mirabel Garden, part of that same song sequence.  

This is the Horse Bath, which is seen near the end of "My Favorite Things."  Yes, it is where horses were bathed...kind of Medieval car wash.

This is the cemetery at the monastery where the family hid while fleeing Salzburg. 

This is a different view that illustrates better what was seen during the movie.  There was some movie magic here, as the cemetery was made to look a lot bigger than it actually was.

This is the entrance to the Rock Riding School, better known as the theater where the Von Trapp family participated in the singing competition.

This appears near the entrance to the abbey on the walk up the hill.

The view over the Bavarian Alps from the Abbey.

This is the entrance to the Abbey, which we did see several times in the film.  

Unfortunately, the chapel at the Abbey was closed (our tour guide was surprised by this), so here is a view of the entrance/cemetery of the Abbey.

Lastly, the fountain that Maria danced around while singing "I Have Confidence."

After the tour, we had two hours on our own.  I spent it at the Christmas Market (of course) and got myself another gluwein mug!