Something Good

Mondsee is a pretty small town, very picturesque, and is where they filmed the wedding scene of the Sound of Music.

The church is supposed to be at Nonnberg, but I think it was too small and they couldn't get all the lights and cameras, etc, in the right places. The Basilica in Mondsee is beautiful, a lovely yellow colour and the inside is so impressive. Mum was particularly pleased to see it again as the previous year there had been scaffolding all over the inside of the church, and you couldn't see much of it properly.

Unfortunately, it was still tipping it down with rain (the guy on our tour who was just wearing a t-shirt was REALLY moaning by this point), and pretty much everyone scuttled straight into the church straight away.

In hindsight, we should have gone for a cake and coffee first, then into the church and it'd have been much quieter and easier to take photos but we didn't, so there's no point think what if! I also broke mum's umbrella as I stuffed it into the umbrella stand at the entrance to the church so she was in a bad mood for a good 20 minutes!

The baroque church itself (officially called the Hl. Michael Basilica [St Michael]) is stunning...the altar (designed by Guggenbichler) had an old skeleton on it, dressed in religious robes, and holding a staff. I understand it's St Konrad/ Abbott Konrad the II's actual remains; he was the Abbot of Mondsee from 1127 - 1145, and his body was placed on the high altar 600 years after he was murdered. I've actually only just found this out by Googling 'Mondsee altar skeleton'!

After touring round the church and buying a little triptych for Mark's Granny (she's really into religious icons and artefacts), we went into a lovely candle shop next to the cathedral which had everything from fruit shaped candles to Bible shaped and Virgin Mary shaped (see photo!) After making a couple of purchases (not Mary!) we went to a fabulous bakery/ coffee house/ patisserie on the main street on Mondsee and had a lovely hot chocolate and a cheese and ham toasted sandwich to keep us going.

We also bought some of the lovely sweets and cakes the shop made, and I almost bought Mark a chocolate boot, filled with sweets, but it weighed a ton and I was worried it would get broken on the way home. They are made because on the night of the 5th of December, children leave an empty shoe or sock outside, and in the morning, if they've been good all year, St Nicholas will have filled it with sweets and small gifts. If they've been bad...they get a piece of coal! The 6th of December is St Nick's Day...to these children, St Nick is a helper of Santa, although in some countries I know St Nicholas is Sinter Klaus or Santa.

Anyway...we were back on the bus, and as we drove back to Salzburg, we watched some of the 40th Edition DVD of the Sound of Music, which has bonus features including Charmian Carr, who played Liesl, coming back to Salzburg and doing the Panorama Tour!! I was also thinking of lunch - I was a hungry bunny!