Samstag

I was able to sleep in a little this morning, but we had a tour of the festival houses at 8:30 and with the weekend morning bus schedule I had to catch my bus at 7:57. I ate a quick breakfast thinking I’d get coffee once in town as I would have a good 15 minutes to spare. Laura was up and asked if I could make her some toast. I did quickly and ran out the door. Unfortunately just as I was getting to the street the bus went by and the next one wasn’t until 8:18. I have not had luck with the weekend bus schedules. I started to walk, in the rain, to town. I got about half way when the next bus caught up with me. I knew I was going to be late, but I figured I head over on the off chance that I could catch them before it started. I arrived about 5 minutes late and as it turned out, the guy that was giving out tour was 30 minutes late.

We couldn’t go into the main theater as there was a rehearsal going on. We walked into the Karl-Bohm-Saal. This is one of the original rooms of the building. The back wall is the stone from the side of the mountain. It was one of the rooms for the Arch Bishop where horse games would take place. Now it is used for intermissions. The ceiling has a mural of the horse games.

The next theater we went into is the theater used in The Sound of Music. It is used for some concerts and operas. The arches are carved out from the side of the mountain. It was built in the 1600s and originally the arches are where the Arch Bishop and nobility sat to watch events. It was all open/ outside. Now the arches serve as a backdrop. Some go into the arches for parts of performances, but no public is allowed. The roof that is now in place is retractable.

The last theater we went into was Haus von Mozart. It is a smaller theater used for chamber concerts such as the Liederabend we are attending tonight. As we are all singers, we stood on the stage and sang a little. Not everyone did, but it was fun.

After the tour a few of us wandered around a little, got coffee, and returned to the college. We were showing each other our favorite youtube videos. We watched a few Victor Borge videos (if you haven’t seen him I suggest phonetic punctuation and page turner). I need to head home for dinner with the family at 1. I hope you wake up to a beautiful morning.