Sorry and Salzburg!

So I apologize for being so lazy with my blog but I claim busyness as my excuse!! I won't linger for long on that point though, because I've got a lot of catching up to do!
So my weekend to Salzburg and Munich was amazing. It was a school trip, so it was well planned and stress free! We left early in the morning on Friday and enjoyed the view of the alps on the drive there as our director pointed out some sights from the Sound of Music! When we got to Salzburg we had Mass at a Franciscan Church, which of course was extremely gorgeous. We then went on a quick tour of the city where more Sound of Music sights were pointed out! Salzburg was so interesting and full of history. The Prince-ArchBishop who took over ruling in Salzburg loved Italy, so he ended up making the city look very Italian.

After our brief walking tour we had lunch at the Stein Keller. All of the people who had food allergies had to sit at one table, which made us feel like lepers… but the food was well worth the ostracization. Then we were allowed to roam free, and we bee-lined it to the chocolate shop. It's a famous little shop which hand dips special 'Mozart' chocolate. It was delicious and well worth the 1 euro. Then we walked to the Cathedral and sat in the adoration chapel, enjoying the peace of yet another surprise visit with Jesus. Our next ambition was to climb all the way up to the fort. Now, Salzburg s a really cool city. It's all very flat and nestled between the mountains and the river. However, there is a huge fort which looms over the whole city and you can see it from anywhere. So, with our sights set on the fort we began the ascent. Only about 30 minutes later were we rewarded with a breathtaking view. We explored the fort, wandered through the rooms, and enjoyed the view.

Before we headed to dinner, we made a stop at the Abbey that was where Frauline Maria (Sound of Music) was preparing to make her vows. When we entered the church, the nuns were having choir practice so we were able to enjoy their beautiful heavenly voices. Leaving we got to see the gate from the movie, and immediately recognized it as the one the Vontrap children called for Maria. Then it was off to dinner at the Augustiner, a beer garden in the shade of tons of trees. We ate some meat and potatoes, enjoying our German style meal and I filled my beer stein full of water.

To make our trip to Salzburg a true visit to Mozart's home, we went to a concert in the Marble Palace. Not only was the room beautiful, but the music was perfect.

We finished our evening by club hopping and hit up some very interesting dance clubs with a few locals not dancing and TONS of Franciscan students dancing like crazy. We walked down by the rive dipped our feet in and made our way back to our hostel.

Munich began with Mass the GIANT Cathedral. If you stand at the very front of it, the entire place looks windowless. When in reLity the windows are the tallest ones i've ever seen!

After Mass we went off to see the Sophie Scholl Platz. Sophie worked against the Nazi regime and was caught and executed, we watched a movie about her on the way to Munich and I was so moved by the story. Unfortunately the university she attended was closed for construction :( So instead we went to see the Nazi Head quarters, or rather where they used to be. Munich was cool because so much history had happened there. It was weird to imagine Nazi power being concentrated right in the city I was standing in.

We wandered through the very busy city and came across a couple of markets, lots of markets actually. Seems like Munich was very active the day we came. We climbed up to the top of a church tower to get a better look at the city, it was 408 stairs all the way up!

We ended the day sittin glistening to live music at a street fair, ate some delicious food and went to the Hofbräuhaus (some for the pretzles, and me just for the experiecne)!