The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Carnivals, Flat Tires, & Mozart

I want to start by sending a slight disclaimer with this blog, that it is ALL over the place. Literally. I'm trying to stay up to date on everything and we are leaving in a few hours to go camping in Bavaria and to see the famous Neuschwanstein Castle that the Disneyland Castle was modled after. So, I decided to pack a lot of photos in this one. Promise yourself that you will scroll down and read all the way through because you will NOT want to miss Salzburg, Austria!

Like I had mentioned in a previous post, the night life is never resting in Rosolina Mare. We walked into the town and headed towards the carnival. It was familiar but very different as well. Instead of winning stuffed animals when you throw baseballs or shoot basketballs, here it all about football (soccer). Lots of games were focused on how hard you get the ball, if you could get it in the goal, etc. No carmel apples though. I guess life can go on.

They also had these boxing stands everywhere and Berti challenged us all to a punch.

The events that led up to these next series of photos eventually turned out to be only a slight glitch in our travel plans. It did prevent us from going to Verona, but we were able to make it back to Heidelberg via Austria which was a huge blessing.

Our tire blew out in Italy on their Holiday. We sat on the side of the road forever. Sonila and Mike are members of ADAC (Europe's AAA) so we called them in Germany and waited for the call back. It never came, so we called back and finally got through to Italy. Sonila speaks Italian, thank goodness, and was able to describe where we were. Hours passed and eventually a nice guy in a tow truck came to our rescue. Now, many of you may be wondering why we didn't just throw on the donut? Well, the place they got the car from just threw some random tire in the back of the car, with rims that don't fit this car. We had nothing. Soni and I road in the front with Mr. Tow Truck Man and Mike had to sit in the car back on top of the truck.
Huge blessing that this DID NOT happen while I was flying down the Autobanh at around 120 mph!

To kick off the their vacation Italians celebrate 'Ferragosto' which basically means, according to Soni, that they become lazier than they already are. A tribute, if you will, to laziness. To kick this off, people go swimming at midnight and have to dive 3 times into the coming waves. So, we all came together and headed towards the beach just after midnight and passed people walking like zombies towards the sea. I loved the idea of swimming at night under the stars, so I was the skipping zombie.
READY... SET... GO!!!

After picking up our car with 4 new tires, we headed north towards Austria. The drive was beautiful up through the mountains. We stopped in this small mountain town just before the border and split a pizza and gelato... duh!

Now it's time for Salzbug, Austria. It might be safe to say it's my favorite city so far! Home of the Sound of Music and the birthplace of Mozart. Follow me.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born in 1756 in Salzburg.

Below the above statue were lots of letters, wreaths, and art work offered to this amazing artist and composer. The following photos: The place where he was born and then where he was raised.

The feeling around this city was best described as Elegance. From the people, how they carry themselves, to their clothing, and the cleanliness of the city. Musicians and artists were all over the city and wherever you were you could hear the music of Mozart bouncing off the brick buildings. The river, the large castle that looks over the city, the amazing Cathedral (my favorite so far), and of course scenes from the Sound of Music.

Welcome to Mirabell Gardens. The location of the very famous song "Do Re Mi".

This statue of the Pegasus is incredbly famous, for a reason that no one was able to tell me, but I loved this view with the castle in the background.

Of course I have to include the food we snacked on. It doesn't look so incredible in the photo... but believe me. Fresh sausage, bread, and mustard. Hmm!

Now onto the Cathedral. Dom zu Salzburg first consecrated in 774, was demolished and rebuilt in 1628. An aerial bomb detroyed the dome and was rebuilt in 1959. Everything was so light, and colorful. A nice contrast to all the dark cathedrals we have seen.