Monsee
The first stop on our long day trip was to Monsee, a cute village with authentic Austrian architecture, bright shops, wonderful chocolate pastries, and the church where Maria von Trapp married in The Sound of Music. The church has incredible detail and artwork, the inside was absolutely gorgeous. Europe definitely knows how to build a church, that's for sure!
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| Church from Sound of Music |
Monsee is near the Salzkammergut Lake District, an area of beautiful mountains and valleys. The weather was perfect and there was clear view of the Alps. Our stop in Monsee was short, but worth getting up early to see. The shops weren't open for the day yet, so we stopped at a small coffee house to try the famous "Caterpillar" pastry.
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| 'Caterpillar' chocolate, a specialty from this town. |
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Downtown shops
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Monastery
After we left Monsee, we took a bus to a large Monastery, St. Florian. Here we had a guided tour throughout the building, highlighting important history events in relation to the Monastery. Our guide showed us several of the most important rooms, including a HUGE library filled with old books. Every ceiling in the building had murals painted, and walls were made of marble. There was a wedding taking place in the church right after our tour, so we listened to music rehearsals and saw the reception room. (Can you say expensive?! but beautiful!)
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| HUGE library... it takes up several rooms and is several stories high! |
Hallstatt
Hallstatt is one of several small towns within the Salzkammergut Lake District. This was probably my favorite stop of the day! After a short tour of the bone house, a portion of the church where ancient bones are preserved and painted, we were free to walk around town and explore. This is possibly the most beautiful place I have seen in Austria so far! I really wish I could live here!
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| Bone House at the Church |
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There are no "bubblers" in Austria. Just fresh mountain water
in locations like this! |
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