where's wolmut?: ancient austria

the hills are alive with the sound of music

schloss mirabell gardens in salzburg

salzburg (aka laurel's happy place)

fairy tale town

how much pedaling did laurel really do?

laurel says:

austria. what can i say about you? you are old. your heyday was in the 19th century. your only claim to fame since mozart's time is 'the sound of music'. and based on the number of people roaming around vienna dressed up as mozart, you are still desperately trying to cling to the past. they say here 'if it isn't baroque, why fix it' but the fixation on the past without an ode to the future just makes for a boring, sleepy country. that said, salzburg was the highlight and dragging emil onto the sound of music themed 'frauline maria bicycle tour' was the ultimate guilty pleasure for a girl who grew up singing 'doe, a deer a female deer' ad nauseum. i loved living out my family von trapp fantasy as we pedaled our tandem bike thru the sound of music highlight reel. our next stop was vienna, which is home to the grandiose habsburg palaces and some stupendous music, but beyond that it is a snooze fest. so i say to austria: so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good bye.

reliving a sound of music moment

albertina museum vienna

emil says:

all the history that makes germany a fantastically interesting place to see, makes austria just a bumbling mess. vienna is to cities what sanskrit is to languages...dead. vienna is trapped in time and trapped in celebrating a history that maybe to some is interesting but not for this guy. the glorious castles of franz josef and the habsburgs' make for a decent visit from the outside, incredibly manicured gardens and such, but from the inside it's room after room of banal cutlery, candelabras, and china which is simply painful. i get the sense that austria was just on the wrong team for both world wars and as a result is stuck embracing its former glory which ended at the start of world war 1. the baroque architecture throughout vienna is awesome and a sight to see but the main thoroughfares are plastered with mcdonalds, starbucks, and h&m's with little originality. walking around vienna one gets attacked by guys in mozart halloween costumes pushing the benefits of operas that run throughout the city on a daily basis (i cannot attest to the quality of the performances but how many luciano pavorottis can really be performing on a nightly basis at numerous concert halls at the same time?. mozart, a touristy-feel, baroque architecture, old vienniese gardens...if thats what you want to hear and see there is plenty of it in vienna. we also hung out in the town of salzburg, location for the famous movie "the sound of music". a cute little town and i did get dragged along by laurel on a rather sweet bike tour of all the movie's famous locations (which made laurel so happy it's scary). but without the movie this town would have little to celebrate and the small quaint towns of germany are far more interesting. austria is a one and done visit for me.