A Little Night Music in Salzburg

Just when I thought, "I'm beginning to get a little bored," I find myself sitting in a little bar, which rests in the shadow of a medieval fortress overlooking a vista of mountains rivaling those I saw in Como. In Como the mountains were gracefully sloping, each successive peak mirroring the one that came before it in a seemingly endless genesis of no known origin. Here, there is no careful pattern, no rhyme or reason to the mountains - each is distinctive. Some are peaked, others flat, and others rounded. Their irregularity lends itself to a dramatic view. I felt I should toast it with a glass or Prosecco (which I have just spilled on my notebook. Classic.).

Salzburg is best known for its most famous son: Mozart, and the Von Trapp family immortalized in The Sound of Music. In fact, I am this very afternoon going to do something dreadfully touristy and take an official "Sound of Music Tour". If it is anything like what I imagine I will be on a bus for four hours with a lot of Americans participating in a sing-a-long.

In the meantime I have been exploring Salzburg at my own leisure. Like Bruges it is a small town appealing to high-end tourists with a number of designer stores, and overpriced restaurants. I indulged in some discount shopping at the local H&M. Happily for me, it is also a town of many churches, each with its own distinct architecture, which is surprising for such a small place. They do all share a common feature however: bells. You may recall that Nina and I were cursed with a bell ringing church in Atrani. These bells are less annoying and more humorous. They ring on the hour, however, when exactly the hour strikes seems to be a point of contention among them. The bells begin to ring around the hour mark (according to my watch) and go on for about seven minutes. One aggressively independent church chimes at 20 minutes past the hour, which jarred me out of sleep last night.

My room is in a 14th century Pension, which sits at the foot of the mountain with the fortress, and is an official papal residency for when anyone from Rome comes to town. Frau Anna who runs it could not be nicer. Today she gave me some stamps she thought I might be able to use. Here's the best thing of all: last night as I was reading a choir started rehearsing and I fell asleep to the sound of their singing.

Sigh.