How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?

Urge her to marry Captain Von Trapp clearly.

Guten Tag,

It's a day of uncertain weather, so I gave myself an easier and less expensive day than the last two.  I decided to stay local and off the busses, so feeling rather like Judith Starkadder, I set off to see old churches.  Fortunately today was cooler although very humid.  I found out that 37C = 99F.  No wonder I felt wilted yesterday.

That was after a trip to the cash machine and the grocery store.  The sky began to spit at me as I got cash, and when I left the grocery, it was raining lightly.  I did not have my umbrella, but I was ok. After dumping off my food and drink and picking up my umbrella I made my way down Getriedegasse, at that hour mercifully free of tour groups.  There are a lot of tours in Salzburg with different themes.  I generally run into the Sound of Music folks.

But today I went to a couple of Sound of Music sites, one of which the tours skip.  Come along as I follow a narrow street behind the tourist zone that winds around and then up the Hohen Salzburg hill.  I was in search of Sift Nonnberg, a Benedictine convent that was founded in 714 and is the oldest continuing community of nuns  It's a fair step from the center of the city and to my mind worth it to see the lovely late Gothic Chapel--also featuring some Romanesque frescos, but this was the convent where Maria--yes, that Maria, was a postulant before being sent as a governess to the Von Trapp kids. If there are any Merovingian survivals on the site, which I doubt, they are not on display as the convent itself is not open to the public.

I wound my way back down into town to find the Sift St. Peter complex.  The missionary St. Rupert found an abandoned Late Imperial Christian Church and founded his monastery on the site in 696.  Now the church is a Romanesque foundation with glittering Baroque decoration.  It is not as large as the cathedral, but it is grander.  Attached to the church is a pretty, serene cemetery or Freidhof (place of peace?) that was also featured in the Sound of Music movie as part of the convent even though it's not, of course.

By the way these churches do not charge admission, but there is a small box for donations for the upkeep of the building.  I like to give something.  I think it's fair.

I went on to the Franciscan church.  I found this one the most interesting as a building.  It had gone through a lot of reconstruction.  The general plan was more or less Rayonnant Gothic, but the high altar was surrounded by sturdy columns.  I thought it was to support the vault, but it also lent an air of grandeur and strength.

After that since it wasn't raining I took a longish stroll along the river.  I came back via a bakery.  Today's treat is Topfenstrudel.  Topfen is a fresh cheese something like Marscapone, and it's often sweetened and found in pastry.  It's very typical of Austria.  Let's have a bite.  Ummm.  Tastes something like cheesecake wrapped in good pastry.  Green tea, which I am having is definitely not the traditional accompaniment.  For that you'd need strong coffee doctored up with whipped cream and maybe rum, but the green tea suits me on this sultry afternoon.