Austria's Countryside: A Fairytale

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Day four of our tour comprised quite a lot of driving, but that driving involved some of the most beautiful country. This morning's original plan was to visit the Silent Night Chapel and go on to a Sound of Music tour. I think some of our SoM tour might have been cut out because it was a grey, drizzly day, but what we did see was lovely and quaint!

First the Silent Night Chapel in Oberndorf, Austria. Laufen in the Salzburg archbishopric was one town split by the Salzach River; in 1816 it was decided that the River would be the Bavaria-Austria dividing line. Laufen stayed Laufen on the Bavarian side, but became Oberndorf on the Austrian side, disrupting a lot of daily life - this hub of salt trading became two sleepy border villages. On Christmas Eve 1818, "Silent Night" was performed for the first time in St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf. After floods and general disrepair, the church was torn down. A memorial chapel was completed about 30 years later to commemorate Josef Moore and Franz Gruber, author and composer of the carol. We sang "Silent Night" in English and (pretty good) German in the chapel :D

Silent Night Chapel exterior

The Salzach River from the Austrian side

Wood carving inside the Silent Night Chapel

We then moved on to St. Gilgen, the ~5,000-person village where Mozart's mother was born and where his sister lived. It's right on Wolfgangsee (lake) and seems to thrive on summer tourism. While wandering the village I was sure I had stepped into a fairy ring by accident...the pictures say more than I can.

Young Mozart, in fountain form

Organ in the local church dedicated to St. Giles

Church cemetery - we've noticed that people here like to turn their graves into little flowerbeds, which makes for a beautiful space

Is this place even real?

Is it just a dream??

Mondsee was our next stop! Again, think lovely small Alpine village and you're in the right mindset. Mondsee is home to an historic medieval abbey, whose basilica (St. Michael's Basilica) was used in filming the wedding in the Sound of Music. We also had a little impromptu singing in the church, which went pretty well considering we didn't have any sheet music!

Our tour group approaches the basilica

The black and gold decorations in here symbolize death and life

Actual skeletons reside in these decorations! 

Finally we arrived in Vienna, where we will stay for the rest of our tour. I will have plenty more to say after our city tours and day trips, but for now all I have to say is that I went to the Vienna Opera, and it was incredible. I'm normally not a huge opera fan but I really enjoyed the performance of Der Freischütz!
We dressed up!

The lovely state opera house, or Wiener Staatsoper

So fancy.

St. Stephen Cathedral by night...tomorrow we tour it!

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