May 30, 2012 – Backtrack to Salzburg, Austria - May 12 -14, 2013

Bill and I went to Salzburg with great purpose.  We were there together in 2002 for our 19^th wedding anniversary.  We stayed at the Hotel Mozart and went to the Mozart Concert at St. Peter’s Restaurant.  This year, we are celebrating our 30^th wedding anniversary, and we again stayed at the Hotel Mozart and attended the St. Peters Restaurant Mozart Concert.  The concert is in a beautiful Baroque Hall done in white and gold.  A five piece orchestra accompanies opera singers between authentic Austrian courses.  We were seated with two couples from Ohio – one was wrapping up a tour through Hungary and Austria; the other was leaving for a bike tour of Italy the next day.  Two ladies from England were also at our table and they shared a cab with us on the way back to the hotel.

We really love Salzburg.  It is such a pretty city; definitely in our all time top 5.  One of my favorite views of Europe is of the Pegasus Fountain in the Mirabell Gardens with the church and the castle rising in the background.  We were a little early for the gardens.  Normally there are begonias everywhere, but it looked like they had just been planted and weren’t in full flower.  When we went with our friends the Wiechecs in June of  2010, there were flowers and brides everywhere.  But we still loved it this time.  In retrospect, I wish I had given us another day or two. We were only there two nights and one full day. We would still love to visit Berchtesgaden and the salt mines.  I guess that means we will return to Salzburg at another time. 

On our one full day, we took what I call the Hokey American Sound of Music Tour.  We got on a bus with scenes from the movie splashed on the sides and went to all the areas in Salzburg where the movie was filmed while the soundtrack played and some of us sang. 

Note our picture by the gazebo.  Another, larger gazebo was created in Hollywood, but some of the scenes were filmed in this one.  Our guide left us after a 4-hour tour to go back again for another tour.  We asked him if he ever got tired of it.  He said not really but when he wakes up in the middle of the night, Julie Andrews is often standing in the corner of his bedroom. 

Bill and Sound of Music Guide.  No, Bill hasn't shrunk.  Our guide was very tall. 

Bill found a friend in Monchburg, Austria, where the Sound of Music wedding church is located,
We also had Apfel Strudel and Coffee here.  If you know Bill well, you will know that he once had a
Saint Bernard named Heidi. 

Mozart Concert in St. Peter's Restaurant in Salzburg. 

Our Favorite View from the Mirabell Gardens

Sound of Music is mostly ignored by Austrians, but our hotel played it every night on the hotel channel at 8 p.m.

View Across the Lake from the House in Sound of Music.
We're wearing our new German Jackets - purchased in Rudesheim.

View from Our Hotel Room in Salzburg