Salzburg, Austria

I have been quite remiss in posting but when jet-setters like us are forced to squeeze in a trip to Paris last weekend, well some things must suffer {sigh}.
It is an absolutely gorgeous morning with the bluest sky here today in Olde England. This was not the case in Salzburg a few weeks ago. The only sun we saw was while we were on a train and then lying in bed recuperating on the the afternoon of our arrival in Salzburg. However, it wasn't too bad of a rain and we made the most of it.
We spent the next day relaxing on The Sound of Music tour. Awesome, awesomely hokey, but awesome nonetheless. I am a huge fan of the movie and now, so are the kids. We borrowed the DVD from our hotel upon our return that afternoon and we were all like, "We've been there! I saw that!" We are such a bunch of cheeseballs. Our tour guide was hysterical and didn't mind telling the kids idiotic jokes the entire morning. (For example: What is yellow and smells like bananas? Monkey vomit.) About 90% of everyone on the bus was American which I found interesting. Here are some snaps from the tour:

The von Trapp house from the movie - not their real house. The inside of the house in the movie was an exact replica of this house on a Hollywood set. The only scenes shot here were the exterior, especially the back patio.

This is the house that Maria enters on her first day on the job and the driveway/road where the kids are hanging from trees in their play clothes.

The infamous gazebo. I so wanted to be Liesl.

This is the church where Maria and Captain Georg von Trapp were married. It is in Mondsee which is a nice town near a large lake that translates as "moon lake". (Aside: Don't you think it is funny that Maria is just Maria before she is married but Georg is all that? She must have given up her real last name along with all of her possessions when she entered the abbey.)
And then we did a small bit of sightseeing in the Mirabelle Gardens that afternoon because Owen was in full meltdown mode AKA "a right strop" in Brit lingo.

The von Trapp children pat this gnome on the head while running through the park singing "Do Re Mi".

Do re re, mi so so, re fa fa, la ti ti

Evan is pretending he doesn't know us!

Very pretty gardens

While walking back to the hotel, Craig took the kids to get settled while I wandered into a magnificent cemetery that abutted the back of our hotel.

The cloisters which surrounded the cemetery

Some graves were scary

or just bizarre
(Yes, Jesus is in a birdcage...)

or traditional


or artistic

or just sweet.

Many of the graves were covered in growing ivy. I sort of liked that idea to have something living covering the dead. Nice symbolism indeed.
This is Owen post-strop and post-movie. He is modeling the curtain fabric. Luckily, I brought enough "play clothes" for the children as this color wouldn't suit any of their complexions. Plus, I am not sure that I have the pattern for lederhosen.

There are a lot of metal signs indicating the name of each shop. They were pretty fancy.



Upon my return and after we had watched TSOM, Owen regretted not paying attention during his meltdown and wanted to go back to the Mirabelle Gardens. I thought we were in store for another blow up but he was happy looking at the photos we had taken while he was pouting. Craig wandered up and around the city solo while we were watching the movie and here are some of his finds.





We had a great dinner at a pub around the corner (The Old Fox)

and got our first really good night's sleep in a few days. We awoke bright and cheerful to a sunny morning. However, we were going to spend it traveling on a train. On a sunny day. Spent on a train. See a pattern?
I want to get back to Salzburg for a proper visit. I feel cheated on this one.
Off to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany via Munich.
Auf wiedersehen, Austria!