Salzburg, Austria ... July 28 - 29, 2006

On Friday morning we packed up all of our things from our apartment at Hotel Corinthia and had it stored there while we went on a quick trip to Salzburg… because when we got back we were going to be able to move into our house.
We arrived very late on Friday and checked into the Renaissance and went right to sleep. The next morning when we looked out the window we realized we were going to have our first rainy day. We’d been lucky all summer and had experienced great weather for all of our trips, but today we were not so lucky! We bought umbrellas for the girls on the way to the bus...the quality was fabulous, as they were broken and served better as weapons with the wires protruding in every direction within an hour after we purchased them. The Salzburg Festival was still going on, although we didn’t buy tickets to anything because it would have been too difficult with the girls. The bus let us off right outside Mozart’s house (not his birth place), where we went on a self-guided tour with head phones and walked through every room. We saw some of his old pianos and other personal effects, and learned more about his life and family. The rain had let up a little and was only a little drizzly at this point, so we walked across the bridge to the old town and explored the streets and shops there. High on a cliff above the old town was a castle, and on the other side at the base of a cliff, was a large church. We also found Mozart’s birthplace and took a tour through this house, which, like his other house that he lived in as an adult, is now a museum. For obvious reasons, Mozart is everywhere in this town, and Katie loved to yell, “Mozart!” every time we saw a picture of him (and still does). We had some of the chocolates with pistachio centers named for him, Mozartkugeln, and also grabbed some hot dogs on our way out of town. Salzburg was a beautiful town, and the rain didn’t deter us from having a great day there. We would love to go back and go on a Sound of Music tour, when the kids are a little older and could handle tours better. Until then, we’re happy doing our own thing. And Katie continues to point out "Mozart!" whenever she sees a picture or a statue of someone with a powedered whig and 17th century royal clothing, whether it is actually Mozart or not!