We made it to Salzburg and to our old apartment. It is amazing that the apartment hasn’t changed a bit. Everything we had left from the summer of 2008 like our fan, magazines and books were still in place. We had even left a photograph on our last visit which is still in its place. To thank the owner for accommodating us, we have left him another photograph from our last visit to Salzburg. It sure is good to be here again. It feels like our second home.
After settling in our apartment, we went directly to the Internet café with the hope of updating our blog but as we walked up our friend Nadeem was placing a closed sign on the door. He was leaving for London with his family and won’t be back until we are in Budapest. We were able to take a quick picture before we left. We are sad that we did not get to visit with him but sure are glad we got to see him before he left.
After walking around to see the city once again, we visited one of our favorite places, Afro Café, to have a little lunch and a great Die Wiesse beer! We may just have to ship some of these home… For lunch, we had a chicken wrap with fries and pineapple ketchup. Last time, it was mango but the pineapple was even better!!
I guess our lunch went a little long because as we were just a few seconds too late to catch the historic train that runs to Oberndorf to see the Silent Night chapel performance. We were still able to get to the tiny village by the local bahn and look around. We decided to go in the chapel and sit at one of the pews to soak in the atmosphere when suddenly we heard someone speaking German loudly. We didn’t know what he said but it was apparent it meant time to go. Apparently the village had surrounded the chapel, all of the performers were in place on the steps and the show was ready to begin except for the Texans in the chapel. I was able to snap this picture on our way out.
The Silent night performance is pretty amazing. This village and chapel is the place where Silent Night was written and first performed in 1818. This tiny village all comes out to the square to have a fun time socializing before the show with lots of schnapps and gluwein. There is a brass band that plays a few traditional Austrian songs after which the history of the song is described by an announcer. After the history, all of the lights are turned out in the village except for the chapel and approximately 1000 people all sing Stille Nacht (Silent Night) many of which holding candles under the stars.
After the performance we found our way to the train station to find the historic train we had missed on the way in so we decided to ride it back to Salzburg.
Back in Salzburg we had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Pizza Il Sole. It was nice to see the owner who greeted us with a friendly handshake and big smile. He was happy to see us again as he mentioned to Kelly that part of her heart was in Salzburg. Nothing seems to change here in this lovely city! The owner is Italian and has really authentically good Italian food. During a nice long dinner we met a nice couple from Minnesota who told us of a performance that night in one of the old Chapels. We ended up running into the couple after dinner. They were lost so we lead the way to the chapel and decided to stay and watch some of the performance.
Afterwards, we finally made it to the main Cathedral in anticipation of the midnight mass. A huge crowd gathers before they even open the doors and as soon as they open people rushed for the best seats. We are not Catholic and our German is not so good so we weren’t too sure what was being said but it was a nice experience to be sitting in such an incredible cathedral surrounded by local residents. The mass included several songs accompanied by a full choir, symphony and pipe organ. At the end they capped the mass in local style by turning off all of the lights in the cathedral and having a single acoustic guitarist perform Silent night with the choir accompanying.
Christmas Eve ended up being just as big of a day as we had hoped but we finally turned in for the night. We never stay up this late so we are tired!
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