Salzburg- the hills are alive

I arrive just in time for the hostel happy hour so I sit with the other hostellers who are all, bar two, Australian, and we drink and eat pizza :)

The next day the hills are alive for it is time for my Sound of Music tour. I am soo excited. Our tourguide, Paul, picks me up from the hostel and immediately I assume he is homosexual. He has an American sing song musical tone and is in love with the musical, but... he has a wife. ?? Apart from one other Aussie girl from my hostel, the carload is over sixty but they are fun. Paul drives us around Salzburg pointing out the the best walks and sites before driving up into the hills. Along the way he identifies the church where Maria was married, the hills where the opening song was sung, the wall the children march along, the river they fall into, the trees they climb- "and the this is where the scene was filmed where the children were in the trees and the captain drives past!" We visit the glass gazebo where Leisel and Ralph danced and pranced around singing "I am sixteen..." It is monumented in the park with a plaque and all but disappointingly small (one of Europe's disappointments for sure, up there with Munich's bloody glockenspiel). On the way home we listen and sing along to the soundtrack- Paul singing the loudest and occasionally turning the volume down to relay a terrible joke to us...

That afternoon I meander Salzburg. It is a beautiful sunny day - a coat is not necessary. I walk through the beautiful palace gardens, through grand piazas lined with horse drawn carts and up a big hill to the castle on top. From there you can walk all the way along the top of the hill spoiled with a fantastic view of the whole city on one side and the countryside on the other. Then you come down on the opposite end of town. I visit a hidden cemetery- which is actually very pretty, it is a little strange but the graves are quite beautiful. And by the end of the day I feel I have walked an entire country and my legs are about to drop off- time for some goulash and a movie.