Salzburg and Passau

5th September

Today we disembarked in Linz, Austria and headed off by bus to Salzburg with an Austrian guide who carefully selected songs from The Sound of Music to entertain us as we drove through the foggy countryside. It was a Sound of Music oriented tour but very interesting given that our guide, Roman, had met two of Maria Von Trapp's daughters and knew a lot of behind the scenes stories.

 This is Mozart Lake, one of four lakes that we drove past during our 2 hour ride.

It really was a beautiful trip to Salzburg, especially when the fog lifted.

I would have loved to view the Mirabell 

gardens from above. The begonias were laid out in patterns in front of the palace (of ...?).

Turn 180 degrees from the above photo and this fountain is in front of you. Just a fountain, but made special by its inclusion in the movie, The Sound of Music. In the scene filmed here, Maria and the children are dancing around the fountain singing Doh a deer... Our guide told us to join him in dancing and singing and off he went, holding the lollipop sign that we had to follow above his head and singing gaily! Peter and I discretely walked to the side...yep, party poopers.

 Salzburg is also famous for being the birthplace and home of 

Wolfgang  Armadeus Mozart. This house is the one that he lived in later in life, with his wife.

 

Why can't MacDonalds signs be this subtle in every city?

This is the view down one of the main shopping streets in Saltzburg. The shop signs are beautiful; the MacDonalds sign is amongst those on the right.

And now we reach the house where Mozart was born. The open window shows the room that he was born in. The apartment is now a museum housing the belongings of Mozart and family memorabilia. It is very interesting.

Mozart himself...dressed in bronze.

Peter is standing next to the first violin that Mozart played at the age of 4. When he was 6, Mozart performed for the Empress Maria in the palace. The story is 

that, after he performed, he ran over to Maria and climbed onto her lap. She forgave him luckily.

This 'maze' was next to the Mirabell gardens 

and was also used in the movie. It's not actually a maze, but a simple pathway, but the camera can easily create the illusion, as it did in the film.

Another shot of the Mirabell gardens.

And with that, we farewelled Salzburg and returned to the bus to continue our journey across the Austrian/German border to Passau, where our ship had travelled to while we were having fun. With 25 minutes until final departure, Peter and I collected new boarding passes and power walked our way around Passau and managed to find the cathedral and a statue titled Chart Magna. We found out upon our return to the ship that a copy of the Magna Carta is held in the cathedral.