Vienna and Salzburg

This past weekend we took the overnight train to Vienna. It was an interesting night. At first, we had the train time confused and arrived two hours early. But better early than late. When the train finally came, we found our compartment and were happy that the five of us were together, with only one stranger in the compartment. I took my Tylenol PM and quickly fell asleep to the rock on the train.

We arrived at 8:30 in the morning to Vienna. After a confusing time of figuring out the transportation, we finally arrived in the town center. The Hofburg Palace was closed until 11:30, so we decided to go to the Kunsthistoriches Museum until then. On our way, we ran into some Christmas markets. We decided that we would come back for lunch. The museum was a really neat experience. Inside, there were paintings by Bruegel, Parmigianino, Velazquez, Hans Holbein, Raphael, Giogione, and many more. It was such a neat experience to see these important artworks that we had gone over and memorized so many details about in our Humanities class.

After visiting the museum, we made our way out to the Christmas markets for lunch. Aubrey, Melody, and Matt ate hot dogs while Kayla and I ate crepes filled with a vanilla sauce. Looking at the time, we decided that we should head over to the museum so Melody could see the Lipizzaner Stallions. The museum of the palace was very interesting. It told the story of Queen Elizabeth and how becoming the wife of the emperor changed her life drastically.

We found Melody again and headed over to the Christmas markets. Kayla and I went around to all of them and found good deals on ornaments, chocolates, and more. It was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit, as Christmas songs were playing and everyone was bustling about looking for the perfect Christmas presents. We headed over towards what we thought was a cathedral, but it ended up being building that was hosting arts and crafts for children (we never found out what the building really was). So instead we went around the Christmas markets there, happy with our new purchases and learning different things about how the Austrians celebrate Christmas.

That night we left by train up to Salzburg. When we arrived at our hostel, we were very confused to see a couple of guys half dressed up in furry costumes (they had taken off the upper parts to cool off). The next day we found out that it was from night of the demons. It is an Austrian tradition where St. Nicholas comes to reward the good children and the demons punish or take away the bad children.

The next morning, we were up early for our tour of the Sound of Music. We had an adorable guide named Peter. We were happy because our tour was only with eight people total, so we had a lot more time at the different locations and were able to get to know our guide. He took us to many different locations, like the lake where the children fell in the water, the famous gazebo, the meadow where the children had their picnic with Maria, and the gardens that they run through when they are learning to sing, and many more. It was a great way to see the city and the Alpine country.

That evening, Kayla, Matt, and I went to a Mozart dinner concert. It was all decorated for Christmas. The four course meal was delicious, and the singers were wonderful. We enjoyed understanding some of the lyrics that we knew from understanding Italian and we had just recently learned about Mozart and the Rococo Age in Humanities.