Hello Austria. On this next leg of the trip we took a short, two hour night train from Munich to Salzburg. We arrived close to midnight and the best part was that the hotel I found us for the night is pretty much connected to the train station. You walk out, turn the corner and right there in front is the beautiful Ramada Hotel. This hotel was one of the most beautiful and most modern of our stay. Best of all, the glass walls are built noise-proof so you don't have to worry about the sound of the incoming and outgoing trains all night. We were only at this hotel for ~12 hours but we loved it. Blame it on our exhaustion maybe, but nothing felt better than climbing into freshly washed sheets and taking part in an amazing Austrian breakfast buffet first thing in the morning. After breakfast, we checked out and headed to yet another Hop On, Hop Off double decker tour bus ride. These bus rides are seriously the best way to see a city in Europe. Especially if you only have a day or two in each city these buses take you all over the major landmarks of the city, as well as provide an in depth explanation of everything under the sun as you're driving around. We spent the first half of the day seeing the landmarks -- highlight for me and my mom was seeing Mozart's house and walking where he walked. It's crazy to think about. For those looking for which tour to use, I highly suggest Panorama Tours . Being the review nerd that I am, I researched a ton via TripAdvisor for the best tour. Panorama is the way to go! For more resources and offerings, check out their website.
Around 1pm we got off that bus that walked around their Old Town for a bit. It was perfect timing since our next tour started right at 2pm. Ok, I can't hold it in any longer -- our next tour was the SOUND OF MUSIC tour!! If you know me and my family well, you'd know that this is our absolute favorite movie (right up there with Father of the Bride and Home Alone), I think we've seen it over 70 times at least. I think that's what made Salzburg so special for both of us was going on this tour -- private, may I add! Blame it on the low tourist season; it was just me and her on a private tour with our amazing tour guide, Rosemary. She was so sweet and knowledgable. Our entire 4 hour tour she was spitting out fire facts about the film and behind the set. Leave it to me and my competitive nature to try and one up her the entire time. Let it be known that even I was schooled when it comes to Sound of Music trivia! Rosemary's lived in Salzburg for 40 years and has met over half the actual Von Trapp family in person so ok, I guess she wins. Haha. We went everywhere. The church that Maria gets married in, the terrace and backyard of the home where the kids fall out of the boat when their dad comes home, the yellow wall Maria runs by while singing "Confidence" in the very beginning (see video below for us trying to reenact it), and even the fountain and gardens where they sing Do Re Mi. It was magic. Oh and of course, the iconic gazebo! Thanks so much to Bob's Special Tours for making this so memorable for us.
Finally, we had an hour of downtime before the end of the tour where Rosemary drove us an hour outside the town to the outskirts. We devoured some delicious toasted ham and cheese sandwiches (only 4 euros - what?!) and a few (ok, 4) pastries between the two of us. #treatyoself.
This day is really one that stands out to me because of how special it was to act like true groupies from one of our favorite films, but also because of how short and sweet it was! We took the 7pm train that night to head to Vienna so we really only had one full day. And to be honest I think that's all you need! We both love walking and being on the go so we were able to get a ton done. I highly suggest both tours if you ever go! Enjoy the photos :)
