Auhof Park St. Wolfgang

... on the first night - I woke up to a half naked dangling drunkard trying to find something to put his feet on... turns out I was the closest. He apparently decided that he didn't need to use a ladder and instead opted to lower himself over the side. Then when he came back it took him a few tries to get back up.
On our second night we found a beer garden that was like Oktoberfest.. except open all year round! The ...

... punks... and surprise, they were super cute and loved to help us... I called them Peter Pan and my Lost Boys!! We arrived at the Hotel and booked our Sound of Music tour, it left at 9 am the next morning, so we called it a night and got up early to have a super good free breakfast and go on the the tour...
The tour lady was super cute... she was just like KB, she loved to sing ...

... said the first...so we went with the kids directions. Unfortunately we should have went with the internet...but we ended up finding it no problems after we got a little help from a different hostel. We checked in and went to our room...we were sooo happy to see they actually had an elevator, so we didn't have to walk the 4 flights (8 flights in Canada) to our room! We pretty much just hung around the hotel for a few hours and ...

... they filmed The Sound of Music around this area, and let me tell you, they were not greenscreening anything, people. This place is gorgeous! I think it had even Bruges beat on being picturesque. Winding streets, blue skies, cute shops, and the Alps. Seriously, how am I going to go back to Illinois after scenery like this?

Anyway, we started off our visit by taking a funicular ride up to the fortress, which ...

Our original Austrian itinerary included a day in Graz, but we are really running out of precious time so we decided to skip it so we could see the salt mine in Hallstatt. And having missed Graz only gives me a very good excuse to come back!

We spent a lot of time on the road today trying to get to Graz. The GPS got confused once we were off the main highway. The steep and winding roads ...

Driving through Switzerland was absolutely beautiful and minus the many tunnels that the Swiss seem to be so fond of...very easy driving. We landed in the Salzkammergut region of Austria after a long eight hour drive. We found a great little apartment right on Wolfgangsee Lake (about 48km outside of Salzburg). We loved the ...

... my mom and sister really wanted to do the “Sound of Music” tour, and we all agreed it would probably be fun (more fun than shopping anyway hehehe) so we woke up early and boarded a big hokey tour bus to see the places where the movie was filmed. We see the Von Trapp house, the little gazebo from the song “sixteen going on seventeen” the church where they got married, and other scenic beautiful stuff. It was pretty amusing to ...

... more to the mines in Crakow, where whole cathedrals and statues have been carved out 130m down. I think these might be more interesting. We had a hearty dinner in the Stern Brewhouse that consisted of bright eyes (rabbit), bambi (deer) and Babe (schwein). After ze banquet of game meats, ve then retired to ze eagles nest to hatch our planz to "visit" Poland...

August 26-Monday
We left Kitzbuhel at 8:30. There was a brief stop in Berchtesgarden, in Germany, at 10:00. Up on the side of the mountain, we could see Hitler's Eagle’s Nest. It was rather chilling to see that part of history. The bunker is now a restaurant. Our rest stop overlooked a valley filled with wonderful homes. What a view! Back on the bus and on to Salzburg. Time 10:35.

... there was no way they were going to do justice to this building. When we were finished at the Cathedral, we took a walk through the shopping district, with its narrow, winding streets. It was such a rush being here. There was so much to see and do, but there just was not enough time for everything. I guess we’ll just have to come back again and see the sights we missed this time around ...