Salzburg, Munich & Scotland

Hi Everyone

Well I have done so much since my last post. We travelled across Austria to Salzburg, going on a lovely cruise down the river to Melk. The scenery was spectacular, it was amazing to just sail silently along, while the most amazing scenery just floated past. Lovely old ruins, and wonderful little villages, beautiful landscapes and majestic hillsides, it was awesome.


Teh ruins of the castle that Richard the Lionheart was held Prisoner in, by (I think) King Leopold ..


One of the villages we sailed silently by. Wonderful

We then visited another monastery, it was very impressive, still inhabited by about 30 monks.


Teh front garden of the Abbey

We then went to Salzburg, the place where “The Sound of Music” was filmed all those years ago. We did the usual city tour, which was nice, but then we did a “Sound of Music” one. It was great, seeing all the places they filmed the movie and hearing the real story of the real Von Trapp family, which was way less dramatic than the film version, but both were worth hearing/seeing. My favourite location was the cemetery, where the scene where Ralph sees the family hiding and informs on them, it was really wonderful. It is the prettiest cemetery I have ever visited, and is still in use today. The place is exactly like the movie (der, it was shot there..) but you know what I mean, it was wonderful to be there, it was great.


One part of the little cemetery, it was beautiful


The vault part of the cemetery, recognise it?

We also visited the Abbey where Maria was a novice, and the real couple were married. The Gazebo has been moved, it was once in the grounds of a mansion, but tourists kept climbing the fence to photograph it, so they took it down and then when the tourists complained, they reassembled it in the grounds of another mansion that is open to the public. Gosh us tourist are a troublesome lot!!


The gate to the abbey, where the children go in the movie, to get Maria back.


The gazebo, I remembered it as being bigger...

The guide told us that the real Maria gave an interview when she was in her 80’s and when asked how the couple really got together she said that after she had been with the family for a few days, one of the small girls went to her and asked, “Do you like my father?” Maria, being polite said “Of course I do.” The child then went to her father and said, “Maria really likes you, are you going to marry her?”. That night after the children were in bed the father said to Maria, “So are we engaged or not?”. Maria didn’t know what to say, she said, “I cannot get engaged, I have to ask permission from the convent.” So the Baron said “Well go and ask, go now.” Maria went off to the convent and they told her that they had been praying for her to find her calling in life and this was probably the answer. So when she returned to the Barons mansion, he was waiting for her and all he said was “And?”. Maria told him, “They said, I have to marry you.” And that was it, not as romantic as the film, but they went on to have 3 more children together, so it must have worked out okay. The real Baron was 25 years older than Maria, not young like in the movie. In real life once Hitler had decided he wanted the Baron in his navy (the Baron was the most decorated Navy officer from WWI in all the German speaking countries) the family went to Scandinavia on a singing tour and the Baron and the boys did not return. Maria and the girls came back, packed all they could carry and travelled to Switzerland. So, no major Nazi chase like in the movie. It was interesting to hear all the true stories and visit all the locations, I really enjoyed the tour. If you go to Salzburg, you must visit the cemetery, it is a must.


Salzburg has this wonderful law, that does not allow modern signs etc for shops company's. It means they have these wonderful old fashioned signs hanging in the streets instead of all the modern bling... It looks wonderful, and even McDonalds has to comply...

I really liked Salzburg, but we were only there for 1 night/day, then off to Munich again for the end of the tour. I wasn’t sorry it was ending, it was my least favourite tour. Some of the people on the tour were great, I met some lovely people, but the tour didn’t mix like the other 2 tours did, it was not until the very last day that I actually got to speak to some of the other tour members. The guide didn’t get the group to mingle like other guides have somehow. I don’t know what it was, but it was not as friendly as other tours I have been on. The guide did not even organise a group picture, it was odd. Anyway I have the email addresses of all the folk I want to stay in contact with, so that’s the main thing I guess. We had a stinker on this tour too, luckily I did not have to put up with him, but two poor Aussie’s had to sit in front of him on the bus every day and he positively reeked... He wore the same clothes every day, for 13 days, he never changed once!! One of the ladies told me he is about to start another tour, I hope the next guide does something about his personal care, as this guide did not do one thing, even though several people complained to her about him (all the people sitting near him on the bus, from what I can tell, all spoke to her about him). He totally ruined the tour for the two young Aussies. What a selfish man, he had a suitcase with him, so goodness knows what was in it, obviously not any clean clothes!!

I caught a plane to Edinburgh the day before yesterday afternoon and arrived here early evening. Ally and Sheonagh met me at the airport, they are very kind. It was wonderful to see them both again and to be back in an English speaking country. Though when you listen to the Scots on the plane, speaking to each other, you sometimes cannot recognise that they are speaking English... I have a really hard time understanding them and mostly just can’t, to be honest. We had dinner on the way from Edinburgh to Forfar, I didn’t remember how far it was, my friends were very kind to come all that way to the airport to pick me up, it is quite a long way. I am so looking forward to just chilling out here for a day or two, before starting my next adventure, travelling through England to London to see Kearie. I am quite excited about seeing her again, I really miss my girls. I don’t know if it is because my time is coming to an end, or because I have been away so long, but I am starting to look forward to going home. I want to hear Aussie voices and eat Aussie food and look at Gum trees and just be back in Aus, I think it might be called home sickness.... I am not sure, I have never felt like this before, but it will be good to be back home. Oh and to see the SUN, that will be marvellous, I have almost forgotten what it looks like, large and yellow, if I remember rightly. Oh and warm, hhmmm warm...

Until then though, I still have places to visit and people to meet and lots of things to see. So I am looking forward to northern England too, seeing where my Ruddock family came from and all of that.
Okay, that is all from me, talk to you again soon
Cheers for now
Lones