Salzburg

Last weekend was a long weekend (May 1^st is like Labor Day in Europe) so Anna, the kids and I went to Salzburg, Austria.

On Friday we toured Old Town Salzburg including a visit to the Salzburg Fortress (Festung Hohensalzburg).

On top one of the towers of the fortress.

There were A LOT of steps on the Fortress tour.

On Saturday we took the Sound of Music tour, visiting many of the places where the movie was filmed.

Including the Gazebo:

In Mondsee (a town close to Salzburg where the church where the wedding of Maria to the Captain was filmed is located) we took a break for some delicious Apple Strudel.

The highlight of the tour were the Mirabell Gardens where many of the scenes from Do-Re-Me were filmed. We had a great time exploring the gardens despite a brief rain shower.

One of the many stone dwarfs in the Gardens. This guy appeared in the movie during the Do-Re-Mi song.

The kids wanted their pictures taken on the stone unicorn, then insisted that Anna and I take a turn too. Anna declined.

After a late lunch of hotdogs and ice cream...

...and beer, of course...

took a cruise on the Salzach river that runs through Salzburg.

Anna scored two seats up front that were just made for the kids so they took turns "steering" the boat.

We had a great time in Salzburg. It was well worth the long drive, but our adventure was not over yet.


Fucking, Austria

We left Sunday morning and despite facing a 5 1/2 - 6 hour drive home I convinced Anna that we really needed to detour about 30 minutes north of Salzburg. Just so I could get this picture:
Yes, there is actually a town in Austria called Fucking. It's a tiny, "blink and you drive through it," type of town. Apparently since becoming "famous" via the internet they have had trouble with people stealing the sign that welcomes them to the town.

Anna was so embarrassed as she took my picture, in her words "feeling like a 12 year old" I had to promise to speak in a British accent if anyone said hello to us so as not to reflect poorly on America.

In whole the detour took about 90 minutes (it was a little off the main highways and ot well marked until we got to it) but I say that was 90 minutes well spent.