After a few days in Venice enjoying its maze of passageways and diverse islands, we headed north toward greener hillsides and exchanged our pasta meals for variations of potatoes and pork. We had read wonderful reviews about taking the train from Venice to Salzburg and thought that it would be a relaxing and scenic way to get there. Our trip logistics and budget required us to wait until we got to Germany to rent our vans so the train north fit us perfectly.

If you read our previous adventure you might remember that the train ride was actually a bus/train ride combo. It consisted of a bus ride out of Venice to the Austrian village of Villach four hours away at which point we hopped on a train for the final 3 hour leg of the journey into Salzburg. It was going to be a long day of travel and in theory first class tickets relaxing on a coach watching the picturesque landscape roll by seems like it would be great. In practice, you end up stuck with a (#$*&!%#!!) fellow traveller who, before the bus even departs the terminal, draws a line in the sand with respect to acceptable noise expectations and in no uncertain terms tells us not to cross it. Well, you might guess how that went over with four travel weary moms. Keeping in mind that our party occupied 12 out of the 16 seats in the cabin, we really did try to keep the noise level down. We did, I swear. It was to the point where we thought that the man was going to start yelling at us to keep our “Shhhs!” and “Guys keep it down!” down. Once we realized that our reasonable and his reasonable were just not the same, we had to give up. We let him “tssk” and harrumph and shake his head at our children the rest of the ride. By comparison the subsequent train ride was 100% better. Of course it could have been the bottle of bubbly we cracked open for that leg.

This statue sits atop a small hill outside the Catholic church at the end of the Mirabelle gardens. The boys loved rolling down the hills (which required some more washing of clothes in sinks!). They also had a great old tree at the bottom that was a daily photo op as we wandered back to the hotel. Eight monkeys in a tree.

Mirabelle Gardens

One of the big things we did in Salzburg was take the Sound of Music Tour. The tour whisks you all over Salzburg giving you information on how the movie was made and taking you to filming locations. We got to peek behind the curtain of movie magic. Can you believe that it is the 50th anniversary of the film this year?  The first stop on the Sound of Music tour, the Von Trapp family home in the movie. You can see the Salzburg Fortress on the hill to the left.

As we started to climb into the hills they started the group sing-a-longs to the soundtrack. It was a lot of fun, even if the kids say otherwise (and I have the video of them all belting out the tunes!) Here we are in the hills above Mondsee where they filmed “The hills are alive”.

St. Peter’s Basilica in Mondsee where the Captain and Maria were married.

Back in Salzburg proper and ready for a rainy wander. At least we won’t lose any of them with all the orange umbrellas.

Crossing the Salzach river. The Salzburg Fortress is at the top of the hill.

We loved the artistic signs in front of every store.

After two lovely days in Salzburg we headed across the border to pick up our rental vans, and made our way to Munich via Reit im Winkl. Our hotel concierge assured us it was a great stopping point and not to miss. He was certainly right. The kids loved the running around the hills and exploring the Baerfuss park. This kind of park was totally new to all of us. There were “barefoot” parks in most of the towns we visited in southern Germany too.  They are built with natural materials (stone, cold spring water, wood chips) and meant to be a sensory experience.

May pole in Reit im Winkl

Jump for joy at the barefoot park!