Salzburg

We discovered in Vienna that a lot of Austrians have not heard of, or do not particularly care for, the Sound of Music. I on the other hand, do.

The coach tour was our main reason for visiting Salzburg. Stuart was delighted that for about 3 weeks preceding this visit I had insisted on listening to the CD in the car on loop so I could be fully prepared for the singalong!

We found out on the tour that the film was actually a flop in Austria and Germany. The Sound of Music is based loosely on the life of the real Von Trapp family who fled Austria in not so dramatic a fashion before the Second World War. There had been a previous German language film made based on the story and therefore people there were not flocking to see the Hollywood remake. So much so that it was pulled from cinemas due to lack of sales.

This was our first coach tour and the lack of the enthusiasm from the other tour passengers (except the Canadian mother daughter duo next to us) meant it was a little underwhelming. You do however learn a lot about the film on the tour and visit the church in a lakeside town called Mondsee where Maria and the Captain were married in the Hollywood film - which was beautiful - so it was worth doing.

Apart from the tour, and in between my recreating scenes Julie Andrews style, we did have time to visit some other things in Salzburg. We walked half way up to the fortress overlooking the city. Only half way as that was as far as my knees and the humidity would allow. We also visited the Cathedral and heard a choir sing in one of the churches.

We also met a chap called Mick from Milton Keynes in a bar who is a trucker travelling on his own and showed us his tattoos of the flags of the countries he has visited. He also used to frequent the pubs where Stuart grew up in Buckinghamshire, so we had a lot to talk about.

Most importantly we ate a doughnut pretzel about the size of my head... sweet sugary goodness it was great.Read more