Salzburg

Love this charming old town with narrow alleys and cobblestone paths.  Street performers play classical music and many people dress in traditional outfits as they head to concerts in the evening.  A fortress high up on a hill looks cool at night and provides great views of the city (because it is such a large fortress you can see many different parts of the city). You can just imagine the community in the fortress as it has rooms on the walls on the outside, a central clearing with a well on the inside, chapel, even torture chamber!  Fun to walk around and explore this ancient city.

We also went on the Sound of Music tour, bien sur.  We had already walked around some of Salzburg and saw where some of the scenes were filmed such as the Do Re Mi song (fountain, statues, etc).  Then we headed off on a cheezy bus tour to the hills.  I was so excited to see the lake setting as shown in the movie along with several other sites.  We also viewed the lake district and wandered around Mondsee, a cozy town with a stunning cathedral.  This is where Maria's wedding was filmed.  The small towns in the Alps are so quaint.  We also learned the true story about Maria and the Trapp family and how it differs in the movie.  Apparently at one point she was upset that the movie did not exactly tell the real story and they had to pay her off with nearly a million bucks.  The kids enjoyed the tour guide and all of his corny jokes.

Next we went on a fascinating and fun tour of the salt mines in Germany.  They take you on cable cars, slides, and an educational tour all 600 feet below the surface in an old mine tunnel.  We even got to taste the salty walls!  We learned it takes many years to harvest the salt.

We finished the day with apfelestrudel that comes with ice cream and sits in vanilla pudding.  It was delicious.

Auf Wiedersehen.  Tomorrow we are off to Switzerland.

(Pictures to be posted later.)