Schwarzes Rossl Salzburg

... misty valleys and along sides of mountains, looking down on tiny towns below. The little houses in Austria are like chalets and look a lot like the homes in Switzerland. There is already a bit of snow in some of the villages that are a bit higher up.
Salzburg was a cute city and bigger than I thought it was going to be. It was nice to see anothertown in Austria, other than the capital city. We didn't have to ...

... 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 ...

... it was off to bed!

In the morning we got up early went down to buy our tickets for the Sound of Music Tour that started at 10am. While we waited for our ride to come, we enjoyed the continental breakfast...I think its the largest continental breakfast I have ever seen! There were eggs, bacon, yogurt, all different types of granola and nuts, cereal, toast, meats and cheeses...it was crazy!! Finally at 945 our ride for the tour ...

... 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 ...

... and are generally obnoxious, arrogant, and ignorant ALL OF THE TIME. Phew, just venting. Oh and then to travel with the ditzy girls... the ones who cheat on their partners, go out not knowing the name of their accommodation or even the town theyre staying in and then hop into some random croatian mens' car hoping theyll get you home (I kid you not, this happened... geniuses)... oh and they usually are the ones that hook up with the former Aussie ...

... older, English-speaking couple, we made it to the Stiegl brewery. We took a self-guided brewery tour, and ended up in their restaurant for our 3 free samples! We stayed for dinner, since the food was reasonably priced, and we didn't want to go back out into the pouring rain. Full of food and beer, we called it a night and decided to do everything else we could in Salzburg the next day.

Because we were supposed to ...

... we walk around the city a little bit on our way to the State Opera house for Mozart’s “Magic Flute.” Interestingly, the opera is in German and the subtitles are in Czech. So, while I guess I should have understood what was going on, my German isn’t quite good enough to understand opera yet, and the Czech isn’t much easier. However, the music is wonderful, and the opera house is very nice. I think we all felt a little ...

... the Czech Republic. The next day Austria announced it had recorded its hottest Autumn for 200 years. We escaped the sweltering city on the No 55 bus to the Schloss Hellbrunn. This popular park and summer residence was built in the 17th century by one of Salzburg´s bishops, Marcus Sitticus. The tour of the residence manor house is too brief but the gardens are great fun. Make sure it is either very hot weather or you are wearing waterproofs, because the ...