The Mirabelle Gardens at the Mirabelle Palace are not the most ornate or beautiful gardens that we've seen on our trip to Austria, however, the palace is significant in the history of Salzburg.   It was built by Wolf Deitrich von Reitenau for his mistress, Solomae, whom he loved dearly.  von Reitenau was a powerful man whose fortune was made with the salt mines that we visited Wednesday.  The Gardens are still beautiful although simple, and we worth visiting.  Several areas in the Mirabelle Gardens were used in the filming of The Sound Of Music movie.  There is an upper garden with 13 statues of dwarves. No one is certain as to the significance of the statues, but they are cute anyway.

 

Two of the students who were on the Study Abroad with us last year, Sylvia Timothy and Meredith Morris joined us at the Gardens as well as our friend Christian Weisbacher who is from a little town on the border of Germany and Austria but attended and graduated from SUU.  We had a good time seeing them and they spent the rest of the day with us.

 

After touring the Gardens, we went across the river to the inner city, the Innenstadt, and had lunch.  After lunch we went back to the other side of the river and into a hotel where we took the elevator to the top of the building for a magnificent view of the city as well as delicious desserts.

 

Colton left us after lunch to go the Salzburg airport to pick up his father who had come to join him.  They will travel to Germany and back to Vienna together before going back to the states.

 

On Friday, it was a pretty relaxed day.  Kim, Jim and I took one of the Sound of Music bus tours.   We were taken to many of the sites that were used in the filming of the movie such as the house by the lake, the real house of the von Trapp family, the Nonberg Abby that is still in use and the St. Michael's church where Maria and the Captain were married (in the movie).   The gazebo was built just for the movie and then donated to the city of Salzburg.  It was open to the public and while the publice can still look at it from the outside, they have locked it so that visitors cannot go in.  The reason?  An 82 year old woman was trying to jump from bench to bench like Liesle and Rolf did in the movie when she slipped and broke her hip.  Now the gazebo is locked up tight.

 

Friday night we all got together for a farewell dinner at the Kirchenwirt Gasthaus where we are staying in Puch.  The food was delicious and Jim and I bought dessert for everyone; two traditional and original Salzberger Nockerals.  A nockeral is a very large souffle with a current berry sauce that is very good that is famous here in Salzburg.  Sylvia, Meredith and Christian joined us for dessert and almost everyone liked the nockeral.

 

Tomorrow Kim, Katrina and Sara will all leave Salzburg for home and other destinations. Jim and I will leave Salzburg on Sunday afternoon and Colton and his father will leave on Monday for the next part of their trip.

 

Thanks for joining us on our 2009 Study Abroad.  We had great experience this year and hope you enjoyed reading about it.