The Hills Are Alive...

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Due to train scheduling issues, we had to write Prague out of our travel agenda, but on the upside we are spending an extra day in Austria so we got the chance to visit Salzburg!

On the train over to Salzburg we read about "The Official Sound of Music Tour" and we happened to be arriving at about the time it started, so we decided to try it out (plus it meant we get to sit on a bus all day rather than following a map to find our way around!). The movie, "The Sound of Music", was filmed mainly in Salzburg so the tour went all around Salzburg and also visited some towns outside of Salzburg. We saw the house that was supposedly the Von Trapp family house (Leopoldskron Castle), took pictures with the pavillion where "I am Sixteen" was performed (at the Hellbrunn Castle), visited the Do-Re-Mi gardens (Mirabell Gardens), saw the Abbey where Maria was a nun (Nonnberg Abbey... which is also the place where the real Baron and Maria were married), the church where the movie Baron and Maria got married (Wedding Church in Mondsee), and more! The tour guide told the history of the story that is based on the real life of Maria and the von Trapp family, and she told of the discrepencies between the movie and the real story. It was interesting that although the movie is set in Austria, most Austrians and Germans have never seen the movie (and many haven´t even heard of it) because it wasn´t released in German until the year 2000!

After the tour, we returned to Salzburg and visited the Old Town area where we had a nice dinner before heading back to the train station to return to Linz.

Friday we plan to spend a few of our last hours in Austria touring Linz, then we´re off for over 24 hours of train riding! We´ll be leaving Linz going on to Vienna, then to Hamburg, then to Copenhagen, then to Malmo (Sweden), then on to Stockholm where we´ll meet up with Ben Hale and Jill Fosness for the remainder of the trip! Jürgen and Eva have been such wonderful hosts, tour-guides, and conversationalists through our time in Linz! Thank you guys!

Keith and I with Maribell Gardens and the Fortress of Salzburg behind us:

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Comments

[Mama K]

Sooooo good to see you!!
You are all (3) looking so good! Awe! What a wonderful trip you will treasure your whole lives! Will be anxious to talk to you when you get home.. continue having a wonderful time! Thanks so much for sharing your activities and thoughts with us! Love you..

[Linda Lee]

You are looking
Great photo. Keith still has that "I got the girl" look about him.

[Arielle]

Praha
I am so sad you had to write Praha out of your schedule. It's one of my favorite cities in Europe! I loved Salzburg though. We ate at a great restaurant called Das Shalmooser. I can see you are both having a great time! Hugs