The Hills are Alive!

Pictures not in order - click to enlarge - these are my feet on the way up the hill in the tiny luge sled to take the summer luge ride downhill with Ross controlling the brakes - guide called it a "trip to heaven" - knowing we would not literally die.

To start the day while Ross went to churches, I walked up to this fortress - pretty steep but I was proud of myself and the view was wonderful. Thought I could take the funicular down but would have had to pay the fee to see Hohensalzburg so I walked back down:)

This is where I started to visit Convent Nonnburg and the fortress- lots of steps - at the top is the real church where Maria Von Trapp was married to the Captain NOT THE ONE IN THE MOVIE - The Mother Superior would not allow filming there.

Familiar street scene here in Salzburg - happened on a wedding and indeed everyone in traditional dress....it was lovely.

Took a Sound Of Music tour from BST (ask me if you are interested) - not using this site for advertising. - when I asked our guide why everything, every house, every flower was so perfect he said it is tourist driven and people are "encouraged" to have their homes look perfect - even to having a competition for balcony flowers which housewives want to win!!! - money I guess. Farming is also subsidized to keep young people interested - all organic, all fresh, perfect milk, cheese, produce, meat! This is a view from the bridge very near our apartment over the River Salzach - it is quite shallow.

Our little rest stop on the tour - plum kuchen - nice afternoon break.

What else but the palace with the terrace where much of the action from the movie took place - gazebo was to the left but since this facility is now owned by Harvard no more tourists allowed - only people like Hilary Clinton, Gorbachev etc for lectures and education. The gazebo was moved.

The lane where Maria was running with her little suitcase leaving the convent!

What else but the gazebo where Rolf and Lisl had their famous rendezvous - this is our guide who was wonderful - gazebo now locked as an "elderly person" wanted to try running on the benches, fell and sued! Dang old people.

View from the plum kuchen restaurant over Lake Mondsee - is it not just beautiful??

Bottom line: Austrians do not like the Sound of Music as the details are NOT true - it was not the real church - they did not really escape over the Alps but instead the family went to Italy then the USA, it was very "Germanized" as Rodgers and Hammerstein and the film people thought that would sell better as everyone knew about WWII and the Nazis. Maria von Trap died in 1987 in Stowe, Vermont. But tourism is the main industry of the country and we are more than well treated everywhere we go.

As an aside, I felt we were going quite fast down the highway but the speed limit was 130 km/hr but not enforced until about 150 unlike the German autobahn which has no limit - eeeeekkkkk!