We woke up and wrapped up our time in Vienna quickly so we could make it to Salzburg for the leg of the trip we previously skipped. On the way there we stopped at the monastery dedicated to St. Florian. It is believed by tradition to be built upon his burial site. History and honest scientific research usually prove these things to be true. It happens regularly in the Holy Land, most recently with a Church built on what they believe to be the place Jesus was entombed before His Resurrection. The Bible states that it was in a garden and archeologists recently discovered the current shrine that was built on verbal tradition, was actually a garden.

This ceiling was ahead of it’s time, the ceiling is an optical illusion. It looks higher than it is, and the center piece of the King standing triumphantly over the Ottoman Turk, along with the horse, always look like they’re facing you, no matter where you are in the room.

We enjoyed a nice tour of the monastery and I was able to take my cards to the crypt where it is believed St. Florian is buried. There are nearly 6000 sets of bones in this crypt as well of locals who wanted to be buried with Florian, the great patron of Austria. He is patron of firefighters and soapmakers as well. The irony we had the fire evacuation the night before was a sign I had to do the tour. After our disappointing wine tasting experience in Slovakia, I thought it would be wise to email the monastery in advance to ensure timing. There’s actually a limited time you can visit the crypt with no other accommodations due to the nature of the property. Initially I was just going to visit the church stubbornly. Thank God however after delays leaving Vienna with our hotel, I managed to get us there a couple minutes early for the tour. I Definitely felt a St. Florian intercession and I hope the holy cards I made for him, will now inspire others that I give them to.

Resting place of Anton Bruckner who the great organ is named after. He wanted to be buried in the crypt to hear the organ the rest of his days.

After this key moment in our travels we continued onto Salzburg, for another reluctant experience. “The Sound of Music.” For some reason growing up, you could say I hated this movie and found it boring. It’s probable that I just hated my misunderstanding of life and didn’t properly understand it much at the time. As I recently watched it with my family, I saw the joy that my daughter experienced watching it with my wife, and became a fan. On the way to Salzburg to get in the mood we played the soundtrack which my daughter enjoys singing. Upon arrival we experienced a different Catholicism that was very modern and pagan verses the traditional aspects we saw in Vienna.

The parking lot of the church we went to had a bunch of LED screens with nothing of Christianity other than a cut out cross in the middle of one of them. The rest were playing AI generated animals of sorts drinking coca cola and other weird things. This moment would be highlighted further later on as we roamed around, I tried to enter the Salzburg cathedral at 5:30, a time a church is normally opened, only to be told it’s closed for a concert and no tickets could be purchased to view the church. I asked security if I could simply go in for a quick prayer, to which I received a cold no. I was reminded of why the church is dying in many regions, like this one. While religious groups do well living to the charism in solitude often, the churches are not since they aren’t serving their primary charism, which is worship and relationship with God/Jesus Christ.

They instead are more focused on relationship to the world, which is a secondary fruit of relationship to God. If we are good with God, then we are good with neighbor since we are aligned with God’s will/design, which then provokes us to respect and love everything God created in His image. If we reflect the world, the world often leads us astray telling us to desecrate and destroy God’s creation.

Back to the joyful part of Salzburg. We were fortunate to book a last minute private tour of Salzburg, by the company that offers “The Original Sound of Music Tour”. Initially we opted out of this since it was 4 hours. My wife discovered they had other options and so we booked a 1 hour tour which was just enough. Our tour guide Johannes with Panorama Tours who are known as “The Original Sound of Music Tour” was great and well worth the investment if you are visiting in the future. It’s a flat rate for the van and you can bring up to 8 people. We were able to go where buses don’t go as well for some nice pictures. My daughter enjoyed all the moments and we finished up with a visit to the Abbey where we were able to hear the nuns chanting evening prayer. We found a nice restaurant on our way back towards the car and had a solid local meal. The service lacked, but the meal was unique and a local. I ordered the Salzburg Chicken. After dinner we took a final walk around the garden where one of the main songs was filmed and took pictures of our daughter in front of the fountains in the movie. Our journey was now entering it’s final hours as we headed to Augsburg our final destination before the airport.

Day 7 Austria/Augsburg Germany