Salzburg, Austria

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC AH AH AH AH

I was so excited to be in the city where the most cherished American musical was filmed. Henry and I arrived in the afternoon, so we headed out to the Hellbrunn Palace and Gardens for a bit of fun. We toured the palace, which was okay, but it was the garden tour I was really looking forward to. The dude who designed the place definitely had a sense of humor and loved water! As the guide led us through the gardens, surprise fountains would go off and get everyone wet along the way. I was entering a little building and all the sudden I looked down to find that there were small fountains of water drenching my shoes. The coolest part was a big picnic table the prince or duke or whoever it was that lived in the palace used for entertaining guests in the garden. All he had to do was give a signal and water would shoot out of the benches the guests were sitting on and it was forbidden to stand in the presence of sitting royalty, so the guests had to endure their soaking bottoms! Water also shot out from all directions around the table drenching everyone. The only seat that stayed completely dry was of course that of the duke or prince or whatever his title is at the head of the table. Besides being really fun and full of surprises, the gardens were really beautiful.

In the evening we went to the oldest restaurant in Europe called the Stiftskeller St. Peter. We had a wonderful dinner and also enjoyed a concert. The music was all composed by Mozart because Salzburg is the birthplace of dear Wolfgang. On the way to dinner we even saw Mozart's birthplace and his adult home when he was living in Salzburg. The concert was really fun. A string quintet played beautifully and male and female soloists sang and entertained us all. It was absolutely wonderful! Henry and I sat next to a lovely couple on their honeymoon and really enjoyed chatting with them all night. (Hello to Nicole and Ben if you're reading!)

The next morning brought the reason I decided to come to Salzburg: The Sound of Music Tour! I said "so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good-bye" to Henry (he has never seen the movie if you can believe it!) and skipped down the street to the big red bus waiting to show me all the wonderful sights from the film. If you want to know all that I saw you'll have to come to my sing-a-long Sound of Music party and I will gladly show you as we watch and sing. :-) But it was certainly delightful and I took a lot of pictures. They played the soundtrack on the bus and I sang along loud and proud!

Salzburg is a beautiful city with a lot to see and do. I loved all the old and beautiful buildings and fun things to see. I also had a Mozart kugle (sp?) A chocolate ball with a cookie-like inside that was just delicious. Henry was adament that I must try one while I was in the composers birthplace and I'm glad I did!