Elise's Favorites from Vienna and Salzburg

Since we haven't been able post pics for a few days, I'll play catch up on the photo highlights of Austria.

Vienna was a dream for me, a classical music lover. But look who else was lovin' Haydn's clavier...


In these composer museums, there are usually a few manuscripts. Here is a photo of part of Haydn's manuscript of the famous "Austrian Hymn" which most of us sing in hymnals today. It was also the fight song of the high school where I taught, so I am intimately familiar with it.


Brahms will also be an integral part of the Zombie Apocalypse. (He was my favorite composer resting at the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna). If you're only familiar with his Lullaby, you must listen to the 4th and 5th movements of his Requiem. Some of the most beautiful music EVER.


Ahhh...to be "16, going on 17..." This is the gazebo used in the Sound of Music, though at a different location than it was for filming in 1964.


Here is another spot you might remember from the movie...


Salzburg is, of course, named for the salt mining around there. This wall is brick of salt! Isn't it cool? I wanted one of the salt night lights on the top shelf to Steve's left, but they were very heavy and too big for my suitcase.


Still, the best things on this trip have been free feasts for the eyes. This, for instance, I almost missed. It was the check in desk at our Hotel An Dom in Salzburg. Obviously some relic from an old church, hundreds of years old just like everything else...


Steve and I stopped in Munich today for lunch. We walked by the Rathaus and it happened to be noon and the clock was putting on an elaborate puppet show. Marionettes are a part of this culture, but I think they are freaky and scary. We kept on walking to the Hofbrauhaus. This is a city block of biergartens complete with an oom-pa band. It was fun.

Here in Baden-Baden we will not be rushing around so much. We've seen quite a bit lately. I look forward to seeing more of the backs of my eyelids, as well as doing laundry in our apartment building's washing machine.