Day Three: Salzburg

We spent our day today in Salzburg, Austria. We began with a stroll through Mirabell Gardens, home of many of the scenes from the Sound of Music movie. We visited the dwarf garden, the little covered alley, and the stairs the kids and Maria hop up and down. We refrained from singing.

After Mirabell, we swung by two of Mozart's houses, and then took a walk down the Getreidegasse, which is a shopping corridor in the old part of the city. We wandered our way past the Residenz, and into the Dom, where we were met with a surprise after a few minutes: the arrival of the Flint Hills something-or-other Choir, with director Reg, from my grandparent's church in Manhattan, Kansas. It was a bit strange to see so many people from home so far away from home. They marched up to the front of the church, climbed on some risers, and began to sing. We didn't get a chance to say hello to Reg, but I'm sure he'll hear that we saw him there when he gets home.

We continued our touring through a couple of other churches, then stopped for a quick lunch before heading up to Hohensalzburg, the fortress above the city. We met and conversed with a cute old British fellow on our way back down the funicular afterwards. He thought Kansas was part of “the South”. We didn't feel the need to correct him. :)

We finished out the afternoon with a visit to Hellbrunn Palace and Water Garden. This place was pretty fun. We didn't tour the palace, we just took the tour of the Water Garden, which is full of trick fountains and water powered mechanical figurines. Our guide delighted in soaking everyone on the tour, usually by surprise.

On our way out of the garden, we walked past the gazebo that was featured in the Sound of Music. They didn't use this actual gazebo for filming, they recreated it in a little larger scale for the movie.

Tomorrow is car-pick-up day! It seems a bit surreal that we're getting a new car tomorrow, so I'm sure it will be an interesting day.