Blogs from Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria, Europe - page 5

We docked in Linz, Austria and then took a two hour coach ride to Salzburg. We had a guided tour in Salzburg, Mozart's birthplace. We've had such incredible tour guides so far on our trip, and the one today was fine, but I'm afraid we're spoiled! She was more than adequate, but not tip top! I didn't take very good notes today, so again I'll muddle along with what I remember and the paper from our cruise ship. I may quote some of Rick Steve's "Vienna, Salzburg and Tirol." If I do, I'll be sure to give him credit. I'll start in Linz. We didn't spend any time here, but it is Hitler's hometown. He was born near here and spent his early school years here. Our cruise director reminded us about Austrians, they're pretty smart ... read more

It was raining today, pouring at times. It was a good day to visit the indoor museums. We took the kids to Mozart’s birthplace. That seemed to be a good place to start. This is a small, 1 bedroom house. There are few original furnishings however, there is a collection of personal items. After the birth house we went to the house Mozart grew up in. The house he grew up in has the audio tour, it is much larger and contains many items from Mozart’s personal contents. There are also letters to and from his sister, some original and original works of music. Christabel was interested in seeing where some of the “Sound of Music” was filmed so we had to visit the Mirabel Gardens. Sidestepping mud puddles, dodging umbrellas, we found the sites of ... read more

Had breakfast in the Schloss main dining room, which is actually the ballroom and after that we wandered the castle and gardens for a while, still raining and very cold but never mind we made our way into the old town for a look around, not much really to the town, very expensive but the main feature is the Fortress Hohensalzburg. We decided against the 900m walk and chose the funicular or cable car in our terms for the trip to the top. The fortress is massive and covers around 5-6 acres and the keep and tower is a further 4 levels higher than the main castle. The fortress history dates back possible to 180ad where there was possibly a small church on the top of the hill however the first real evidence dates to around ... read more

Phase 3 Deb and Dan arrive in Salzburg Tuesday May 6 On Saturday I had mentioned to Ross that we should go to the airport and escort Deb and Dan back to the hotel. Then I thought maybe we’d just wait for them at the hotel around 3 pm. Two things changed my mind. 1. The bus route to the airport is one 20 minute bus ride on the #2 bus right from our hotel and we had the week bus pass but the clincher was reason 2. While I was on a wrong bus a kid had a Desigual bag and I mentioned how whenever we came to Europe I would try to find something by them. Well his mom said I should just take the number 2 bus to the outlet mall and check ... read more

Today Mel wanted to see some of the locations from The Sound of Music movie as it was filmed in and around Salzburg. We figured out the buses and got our tickets from hotel (and they weren’t even marked up!) We caught the bus to the city centre and took a guess at the right stop. Why would any city have electric busses? They blot out the sky with a bird’s nest of messy wires and they are still just busses not trams! Ok rant over... First stop was Mirabell gardens and palace where the song Doh, Ray, Me is performed in the movie. The first thing we came to was a playground which Em did NOT want to leave, then we walked through the gardens which are beautiful. We found the fountain and steps from ... read more