London, Vienna and Salzburg

I managed to mention my Austria trip in both a monthly favourites and yearly highlights post, so it is very clear that I was overdue to post something about it.

Back at the end of October/beginning of November, Heidi and Natalie came to visit me! When we started planning back in the summer, there were a few ideas thrown out there. Greece was on the list, Amsterdam was on the list, but we went with Austria.

The real point of the trip was to see all of The Sound of Music sights, and we certainly accomplished that. I have to admit that since it was so long ago and I wasn’t journaling very well at the time (one of the main reasons it has been placed on my January goals list), I can’t remember what we did on specific days. I’ve organised this post into cities to make it easier for everyone.

London

We started the trip by meeting in London. We took some time to settle and catch up in the hostel and went for a little walk around for food.

The next morning, we headed out early to see the Changing of The Guard at Buckingham Palace. I had seen it once before, but I wasn’t nearly close enough to enjoy it that time. This time, I was determined to get a good spot. We grabbed coffee around the corner and camped ourselves out by the gates very early.

The band was incredible. I cannot stress this enough. I am SUCH a band geek, and I almost cried. They played Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Adele’s Skyfall, and I excitedly sent it to my family as soon as I could.

After that, we made our way to Westminster Abbey area to see a very under-construction Big Ben and take the usual tourist picture.

I loved doing The London Eye both times I’ve been in London before, so I suggested we do that. It was a beautiful, clear day for that. However, when we started to walk home, it started HAILING! It was so cold.

I really enjoyed London this time around. We just wandered around and took pictures when we wanted to take pictures. We walked a lot and used the tube, and that’s honestly the way to go. It’s so much better as a form of transportation.

Vienna

We flew into Vienna and stayed for a day and a half. I found out there was a Hop On Hop Off bus tour, so we bought tickets for that to get the most out of our short time in Vienna.

Schonnbrunn Palace was our first big stop in the morning. We did an audio tour of the massive palace. My favourite room was the ballroom. I could imagine all the fancy women with their big dresses swooshing around, waltzing around the room. It was incredible. Pictures are not allowed in the building, which is a shame.

We spent quite a lot of time taking pictures on the magnificent steps.

There are also expansive gardens in the back. This picture simply does not do it justice at all. It was so beautiful and went on for a long time. I wish we could have explored the buildings a little more, but we had a bus to catch!

The evening was stunning. We took the bus all the way back to our hostel and learned a lot about Vienna as we went along.

The next morning, we started at the Vienna Opera house. If I ever go back (and I intend to), I want to try and get in to see an opera. It would be amazing to be a part of that.

Our main goal of the day was one thing: wine village. The bus took us to the top of mountains that overlooked Vienna. It was a gorgeous view and also one of the windiest days I’ve ever experienced! I could feel the wind moving my backpack.

The small wine village of Grinzing is adorable. There are coloured houses everywhere you look. Even the ride down is stunning. We all stopped for a glass of the local wine and got quite tipsy on our empty stomachs. To be honest, getting tipsy in Grinzing was one of the highlights of the tour because we were so giggly and had so much fun on the bus back.

Vienna was a blast. Our hostel was one of the best I’ve stayed in. I’ve been in hotel rooms smaller than the room we stayed in. I would highly suggest a visit there. If I were to go back, I would want to see Mozart’s house and go to the opera.

Salzburg

Getting to Salzburg was a chore. We took the train, and the ladies at the counter were incredibly rude to us. We lost some money to a train company trying to book a train to Salzburg. It was a mess. My advice is to do more research into how to travel in between countries.

Salzburg was the shining diamond of the trip. This is where we really wanted to come. Our hostel had bikes we could rent, so we went for it! It’s the best way to get around, in my opinion. I’m not particularly fit at all, but I managed an entire day of biking.

The cathedral was beautiful. We stopped in quite a few cathedrals on this trip. They’re one of my favourites places to tour because they’re a great example of architecture.

The first Sound of Music stop was Mirabell Gardens where Maria does this same pose at the end of Do Re Me. How incredible is this?

We took an elevator to the fortress on the top of Salzburg. The view was stunning. Again, we lucked out with the blue skies. We did the audio tour in the fortress. It was not the most interesting, but the trip up is worth it for the views. We were surrounded by mountains and could not stop taking pictures.

After this, we stopped by Schloss Frohnburg which was the face of the Von Trapp family home in the film. The gates were the ones that Maria opened when she sings I Have Confidence.

The final stop of the tour was the I am Sixteen going on Seventeen pavilion located on the grounds of Hellbrunn Palace. I take pictures with any pavilion I come across because I love them so much, but this one was the best. It has been on my bucket list forever. A picture of me and this pavilion ended up on the annual family calendar that gets sent around to other family members.

We spent a while wandering around the gardens. We sat near a pond and had a serious talk about parents, our futures, and how unsure everything is in our early 20s. It’s the exact kind of talk I needed with my best friends.

Salzburg officially has my heart. Biking is certainly the way to get around. We had so much fun and saw everything we wanted to. There’s so much I didn’t even write about like the gnome garden and the gorgeous buildings.

This was the most amazing trip. I’m so happy to have done it with my best friends. We ate a lot of chocolate croissants, drank a lot of coffee, and had a lot of wine (we got drunk in our hostel room once). I do hope we get to have another trip together in the future.

Have you ever been to these places? What is the best friends trip you’ve been on? Leave me a comment below!

-Daniella