The final trip of our European vacation odyssey was to the fantastic city of Salzburg, Austria. By this time we were used to rain and cool weather, and despite being pretty tired we had an absolutely stellar time. After the 5 hour drive into the mountains of Bavaria, we checked into our hotel downtown and then walked through the Mirabell Gardens (where they filmed the Sound of Music, Do, Re, Mi fountain scene!). After, we headed across the river to Old Town.  In pretty typical European style there were festivals going on all weekend: craft fairs, beer tastings, folk music performers. If you’ve never seen an Austrian man in lederhosen playing a tuba while pausing every few bars to sip on his liter stein of beer, you really haven’t lived.

The following day we did a few tours: Bavarian Mountains, Salt Mine and the Sound of Music Tour. We slid down the miner’s slide in the dark on the Salt Mine Tour, went up to where Hitler had a house and lookout, ate a lunch of white sausages and wheat beer in Germany, and then headed back to Salzburg for the really fun and silly Sound of Music Tour where we saw all of the important movie sites, in addition to eating a terribly sinful strudel with warm vanilla sauce.

And of course, we didn’t shy away from the beer and schnitzel with cranberry sauce (or as my dad calls it, snitzel). Seriously, God bless Austria.

Click on the picture below to start the Flickr slideshow of our Austrian adventure!