{"id":1700,"date":"2011-05-21T11:15:49","date_gmt":"2011-05-21T18:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayivey.com\/wordpress\/?p=1700"},"modified":"2011-05-21T11:15:49","modified_gmt":"2011-05-21T18:15:49","slug":"spring-forward-day-63","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com\/wordpress\/spring-forward-day-63\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>

Salzburg, Austria
\nMay 14, 2011\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Distance Traveled Today:\u00a0 145 miles<\/h3>\n

Distance Traveled So Far:\u00a0 10, 477<\/h3>\n

A Trip to Soundofmusicland!!<\/h4>\n
\"The<\/a>
The hills are alive!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saturday morning.\u00a0 Excited about my day trip to Salzburg, I hurredly showered and got ready.\u00a0 As I was dressing, I noticed a sound coming from the windows.\u00a0 A soft pattering sounds.\u00a0 Not an upleasing sound, yet on this particular day a decidedly unwelcome sound.\u00a0 With mounting dread, I pulled up the shade.\u00a0 Rain<\/em>!\u00a0 Bah\u203c I realized I hadn\u2019t checked the weather for today.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s just Munich, I said to myself, firing up the laptop.\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Rain in Salzburg also.\u00a0 Damnit!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Fortress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So much for my plan of wearing short and a T shirt.\u00a0 Trying to minimize my martyr-like sighs, I pulled on jeans, a shirt and my stupid, faithful, huge green trenchcoat that has served me so well on this trip.\u00a0 I made my soggy way over to the main train station.<\/p>\n

\"Do<\/a>
Do you recognize this fountain? HINT: Not a MALE deer, but a . . . .?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An observation:\u00a0 European cities don\u2019t have the 24 hour mentality that big American cities have.\u00a0 People actually close their stores on Sundays, not because of archaic Blue Laws, but because, uh, they don\u2019t want to work on Sundays.\u00a0 City streets in Europe are very very quiet on weekend mornings.\u00a0 I was practically alone in the subway on my way over to the main train station where I was to meet my tour.<\/p>\n

\"D'oh!!!<\/a>
D'oh!!! Ray: Me.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a small tour group of seven:\u00a0 A nice young Toronto straight couple in their 20s, a very friendly and uber- gay couple from Vegas, a sinfully handsome young Omani named Abdullah, a German woman who didn\u2019t say ten words the entire day except for fretting over the trail of personal belongings she lost across the city of Salzburg, and your faithful correspondent.\"alps\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our tourguide was Susan, an eight months pregnant half-German, half-English sweetheart who was moonlighting while in the middle of her three-YEAR paid maternity leave<\/em> from her regular job.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My new pal Abdullah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a lovely two-hour train ride southeast to Salzburg, city famous for salt (hence its name), Christian Doppler (yes, discover of the eponymous Effect), Mozart, and that little musical film starring who was it again?\u00a0 Oh, yes, I think it might have been Julie Andrews.\u00a0 I warned John of Toronto that, due to the campy nature of the tour, that exposure to too <\/em>many of the day\u2019s projected locations could spontaneously turn him at least temporarily<\/em> homosexual.\u00a0 He noted the warning with good humor.<\/p>\n

Stupid Rain!<\/h3>\n
\"For<\/a>
For only three Euro, you can take a couple of potshots at the town. It's all in good fun, and it keeps the population in check.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When we got there, things were pretty gloomy for the walking tour portion of our day.\u00a0 I was constantly putting my camera back into its protective plastic bag between shots.\u00a0 We began to work our way through some of the major locations in the film.\u00a0 I got a shot at what I call the \u201cDo Re Mi\u201d fountain, the plaza where Maria sings the written-for-the-movie \u201cI Have Confidence, \u201d and even a shot in the graveyard where th efamily hid from Nazis.\u00a0 Of course, in the film the graveyard was on a soundstage, but the event evidently actually occurred in this particular graveyard.<\/p>\n

\"Leisl!<\/a>
Leisl! Friedrich! Don't let the Nazis see you!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course the city has much more to offer than just Sound of Music<\/em><\/strong> porno for middle-aged Americans.\u00a0 It\u2019s a perfectly beautiful place, well worth a visit even if you were utterly indifferent to screen adaptations of Rogers and Hammerstein musicals.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This beautiful statue of Mary is part of a cool optical illusion. The cherubs who seem to be crowning her are actually on the exterior of the church about 60 yards behind this statue. You have to stand in the exact spot where this photo was taken to make it look like she's about to have the crown placed on her head. Those tricksy sculptors!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Happily, when the walking tour was done and our free time began, the sun came gloriously out and I headed up the funicular to the spectacular hilltop fortress with the other homos.\u00a0 At the top is where I managed to get my obligatory \u201cJulie spinning on a mountaintop\u201d photo.\u00a0 I then had a lovely lunch with the Mos, who are named Dave and Sing.<\/p>\n

That Wacky Darwin<\/h3>\n

After a few minutes Abdullah joined us as well.\u00a0 I\u2019m tempted to say that made us a quartet of queers, but of course I cannot be sure about Abdullah.\u00a0 For all I know he\u2019s as pure, 100% straight as Ted Haggard.\u00a0 Abdullah, if you are reading this, I promise you I have no intention to offend, and also I freely admit that my gaydar is notoriously unreliable, particularly when the data is very likely distorted by wishful thinking.\u00a0 But be that as it may.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
I have confidence in Julie!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He told me that, while still conservative, Oman isn\u2019t nearly as repressiv e as Saudi Arabia and some other Islamic states.\u00a0 Many women wear the burka, but it\u2019s entirely voluntary.<\/p>\n

Abdullah works in media in Abu Dhabi (which is more liberal than Oman), and has a college degree in, of all things, English Literature.\u00a0 I asked him who his favorite writers in English were.\u00a0 He told me he preferred American writers to British writers (booyah) and that he was particularly fond of Huckleberry Finn<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 I said, \u201cBelieve it or not, that book is still controversial in American schools, \u201d which amazed him.\u00a0 I said it was amazing how some controversial books can stay controversial for long periods of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“]”]\"[REJECTED<\/a>
REJECTED SALZBURG PHOTO LOCATION<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cTake Charles Darwin\u2019s On the Origin of Species<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 It\u2019s still very controversial in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdullah nodded emphatically.\u00a0 \u201cOh, yes, it is in my country too.\u00a0 People don\u2019t like that book.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReally?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This is what they used for the exterior of the Von Trapp villa in the film. It's smaller than I would have expected. The magic of the movies, huh?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cYes.\u00a0 We are taught that Adam and Eve were the first people, and they had a child of each color, and that\u2019s how all the races were made.\u201d<\/p>\n

I remained calm.\u00a0 I smiled.<\/p>\n

\"Yes,<\/a>
Yes, as in the Effect<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOkay\u2026 you do<\/em> realize that isn\u2019t true, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u00a0 What I told you is simply the story we are taught from the Koran.\u201d\u00a0 He clearly seemed conflicted on the issue.\u00a0 And the more he talked, the more I understood that this isn\u2019t a kid who\u2019s wants to refuse to budge from the familiar thinking he grew up with.\u00a0 He\u2019s done a lot of traveling, and is clearly curious about the world.\u00a0 We talked about other books and Dave and I insisted that he should consider trying To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em><\/strong>, a title he eagerly wrote down.\u00a0 We told him the story of Truman Capote and Harper Lee, and how many people believe Harper Lee didn\u2019t actually write the book (I am not one of them).\"main_street\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The birthplace.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This July he\u2019ll be heading to Wyoming, of all places, to do some sort of very fancy internship that he applied to more than once before getting accepted.\u00a0 He\u2019s a really good guy, and we wished him well in his continuing adventures.<\/p>\n

On the train ride back I had a nice long chat with the Toronto couple, who eventually admitted to me that they were evangelical Christians.\u00a0 This surprised me, simply because I don\u2019t think of Canadians as being that evangelical.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re a very small community in Toronto, \u201d they said.\u00a0 They were in the middle of a three week romp across Italy, Germany, France and the UK.<\/p>\n

\n
\"The<\/a>
The very McDonalds where Maria took the children in the movie. Remember how mad Christopher Plummer got? I loved the song! "Hurry, hurry, Gretl, hurry, finish eating your McFlurry...." etc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oh, Please Stop Believin\u2019<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A peek at the old city wall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking of irrational belief, when I got back to Munich and said so long to my fellow tour members, I sat down to grab a quick bite and had to endure, over the loudspeaker, one more rendition of Journey\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believin\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 I swear, this song is following me everywhere on this trip.\u00a0 It needs to stop.\u00a0 I can think of few songs which are so famous and so beloved and so enduringly popular and yet so vapid and uninteresting.\u00a0 I sincerely don\u2019t get why people are so fond of that damned song.\u00a0 I much prefer the soulful \u201cLights.\u201d\u00a0 Don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n

I was somewhat pleased with my excursion to Salzburg.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a complete success; the weather compromised my photo opportunities.\u00a0 Also, since this was just a day trip, we couldn\u2019t see some of the most important movie locations, like the gazebo and the palace used for the Von Trapp family villa.\u00a0 Also, the convent and the place where the family performed were not available for photos.\u00a0 But still, I got some fun shots, and it\u2019s a perfectly charming, beautiful place.\u00a0 I\u2019d go back in a musical-comedy heartbeat.\"the_at_the_ball_under_that_one\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Well-Beloved Boring Mediocre Pop Songs<\/h4>\n