The Hills Are Alive

We were slummin' it in Salzburg, as we were booked into a hostel, but the hostel wasn't too bad and its  always nice to have access to a kitchen. We arrived July 29 and got settled. It was raining so we weren't tempted to go outside.

July 30, it was still raining, pouring actually, but we decided to brave the weather for a few hours for a quick tour of the city.

Salzburg is very beautiful... even in the rain.

We were just wandering around and we came across this:

Anybody recognize it? If you don't, you need to watch the Sound of Music again. It is the fountain and gates that they dance around when Fraulein Maria takes the Von Trapp kids into the city. 

As we were visiting these gardens we saw a group of girls singing 'Do, Re, Mi' from the Sound of Music and dancing around a fountain. When I saw 2 members (a mother and daughter) from the song and dance crew a few minutes later I complimented them on their song and dance and they informed us that they were a team in a race (kind of like the Amazing Race but low key) and that they gathered all the other people to dance and sing with them for part of their competition, but did it around the wrong fountain, so they needed more volunteers to sing and dance around the proper Sound of Music fountain. They asked Andrew and I and we couldn't say no (trust me, I tried) so we sang and danced around the Pegasus Fountain. Unfortunately... the video has been posted on youtube... Andrew looks like he is pregnant because the camera bag is underneath his jacket, and I am mostly hidden behind the dancing daughter (thank god).

Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/momdot2310#p/u/4/4uURiXsRvYQ

I think Andrew might be retarded.

We didn't get to see too much of the city because it was really pouring out. We decided to head back to the hostel after a few hours.

July 31 we decided we were going to go to Hellbrunn (just outside of Salzburg) to see the Hellbrunn Castle. This castle is known for its 'trick fountains'. I think it is better known for having the glass pavilion (where Liesl and Rolfe sing 'Sixteen Going On Seventeen') from the Sound of Music in its gardens. 

Getting to the Castle was a huge event. We decided that since it was a beautiful day and because we hate waiting for buses, we were going to walk. It was quite a walk, at least 6 km to get to the Castle, but we were always surrounded by beautiful scenery. 

Here is the famous glass pavilion. It was locked so I couldn't run around on the benches like Liesl did.

Here is a 'trick fountain'. At this one, the owner of the castle would invite guests over and eat dinner at this table. Sometime during or after the meal he would turn the fountain on and a stream of water would be squirted up the middle of all of the seats except his, which is at the head of the table.

August 1, we went to Werfen to see the largest ice caves in the world. 

We were really tired of walking from the day before so we opted to use public transit to get from the train station to the top of the mountain. THANK GOD!! It would have taken months for us to make it up to the top. This picture was taken from our gondola.

The hole is the entrance to the ice cave.

View from the inside of the cave.

The ice cave was amazing. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the cave but they were beautiful. We learned a lot of very interesting facts, most of which we have forgotten or will soon forget. The temperature inside the cave was close to 0, it was really nice to feel cold again. A lot of people got really cold during the 70 minute tour, include a little girl who was maybe 4 and crying before we even got into the caves because she was so cold. We were fine in our spring jackets.

On our way back to the hostel from the train station we walked through the Mirabell Gardens again (the Sound of Music Gardens). This time, it wasn't raining.

We had a busy couple of days in Salzburg but we are now in Vienna (and in a hotel again!) and although there aren't any Sound of Music sites I'm sure we will keep busy.

Munich - Parks, Lederhosen & Castles

Munich is our favourite Germany city. We have had a great time here.

July 25, we started off the day by walking through a park on our way to city center. We saw a playground and decided to have a seat and watch kids play. I know it sounds a little creepy and maybe it is, but we can't help it. Kids are so funny and so interesting to watch. We saw something we have never seen before at the playground. It was all Dads playing with their kids, no Moms in sight. It was really nice to see. At one point a little girl called to her father, "dah dah, dah dah!", to which he shouted, 'JaAaa'. We found our favourite Father/Son, and they were so cute Andrew took a couple of pictures of them. Here is Alex playing with his Dad.

After being creepy people watching kids at a playground we went to the main square called Marienplatz and to the royal palace called Residenz. The 'Culture Cup' was on, where a bunch of different sports (mainly fussball) were played along with other games and activities. Andrew and I had our picture taken by the local radio station. I think this makes us local celebrities now. Right?

We managed to catch the new Twilight movie. We have been going through a movie theater drought as we haven't seen a movie in a theater since the B Team was here almost 2 months ago. It was a great movie, but now we have to wait for the next one to be released.

July 26 was dedicated to exploring the Englischer Garden, one of the biggest city parks in all of Europe. Munich knows how to do gardens! We walked into one of the park entrances and saw a guy surfing in the river.

Then we had lunch overlooking a beautiful waterfall in the park.

Then we decided to go to the beer garden for a beer. Bavarian beer garden are very special; they serve beer by the litre. Below is what will forever be remembered as 'A Big Mistake'.

As we were drinking our beer, we looked over and to see group of men roll up on bicycles dressed in lederhosen. I thought that people who dressed in lederhosen were a myth. At one point, when they were finishing up their litre beers, they all 'moo'd' into their glasses very loudly. It was hilarious, and to my embarrassment, we laughed out loud so hard that they all looked over at us and started laughing with us. One of them even gave me a loud 'moo' when I took my next drink, just for a laugh. We managed to strike up a conversation with them as they were leaving. They're a group of carpenters from Austria. I'm still not sure why they were dressed up in lederhosen, although we tried to figure it out through the language barrier.

Round two of 'A Big Mistake'... with our moo'ing friends in the background.

July 28 we went to Fussen to see some castles. It was a gorgeous area. Here is a picture of the first castle, 'Schloss Hohenschwangau'.

The Disneyland castle is supposedly modeled after this castle, 'Schloss Neuschwanstein'.

We are sad to be leaving Germany and will definitely miss Munich, but tomorrow we are off to Austria. I can't wait for the Sound of Music Tour and of course Andrew can't either...