Salzburg Day 1- The Sound of Music!

For our first day in Austria, we went on a Sound of Music Tour and tried to see as many of the sights from the movie as we could. We checked the movie out from the library and let the kids watch it beforehand so that it would be fresh in their minds and be more exciting for them. They are just about the perfect ages to see that movie for the first time. It was really fun to watch them enjoying all of the music and we had a few very watered-down, impromptu lessons on WWII.

We caught an afternoon tour and enjoyed it very much. Tori was less enthusiastic about the adventure, but she endured it pretty well! Matt was our photographer and so there are very few pics of him, which makes me a little sad, so we'll try to do better. My ability to work the camera is much less polished than his, so I usually just let him take the pics.

See if you can recognize some of these beautiful scenes!

This is the footbridge Maria and the children walked across while singing Do Re Mi: The back of the Von Trap home (in the movie):

This is Daphne's favorite spot (whe and I twirled around singing I am Sixteen Going on Seventeen together), the gazebo. We were so excited to go inside but apparently a few years ago an 80 year old lady fell down trying to leap across the benches. There's always a few that have to go and ruin all the fun for the rest of us!:

We took a lot of video of the other sites because the camera battery died, so although you think you are being subjected to an obscene amount of pictures, we would have so much more. We do have a lot of home video of some of the gorgeous lakes from the opening sequence as well as the church from the wedding scene and some other key sites. After the "official tour was over" we headed across the street to Mirabell Gardens, which has many of the sites from the Do Re Mi song. I loved this part- it was one of my favorite parts of Salzburg:

Here are Isaac and Daphne in front of the Pegasus Fountain:

Love this shot!

The family in the Mirabell Gardens. Beautiful!

Once again, our photography cannot really do justice to this scene. Even the postcards I have seen don't fully exhibit the beauty of this scene. You could stand in this entryway to the gardens and see the most glorious view of Salzburg!

We wanted to find the little stone, funky looking dwarfs that you see in the Do Re Mi song, so we headed over to the other side of the garden:

Here is the dwarf that all the Von Trap children bopped on the head:

Just next to the Mirabell Gardens is another one of those German playgrounds: Super fun, but a little lacking in the safety-first category! Here they are on the rock climbing wall:

I don't know if you can tell how insanely tall this slide is, but let us say there is no way you would see this on an American playground! The kids loved it and squealed with delight as they came down the slide. Much needed respite from all the sightseeing- we took some video here also!

Our Austria trip was wonderful- we have lots more pics and stories to come. Stay Tuned!