Yesterday was a glorious Autumn day. Bella, Liam and I set off on the Sound of Music Tour. I really wanted to do the bike one, but they shut down in September. I sent them an optimistic email but they didn't get back to me. So bus it was. We opted for Grayline - www.grayline.com if you are interested - as they ticket was 5 euro cheaper per head and included free local transport for the rest of the day after the tour. We had a mini bus as numbers are down due to the season - there were 7 of us, all Aussies, and our Pommie driver. I really enjoyed it but Bella and Liam were not so keen, especially as we were the only ones singing along to the sound track as we drove. It turns out I don't know as many of the words as I thought I did, but I didn't let that stop me! The scenery was fabulous, and with a blue sky, it was quite perfect.
We met up with Greg (who had been working on that bloody never ending report) at the Mirabelle Gardens, and wandered through the city to the Fortress up on the hill. There was some suggestions from the younger members of our party that we should take the funicular up the hill, but it was very pricey and as we all have strong legs, us oldies encouraged them onward and upward. It was steep!! More good quad workouts. I need all the exercise I can get with the amount I'm eating and drinking - both of which I'm enjoying very much!
Fantastic views from the top of the fortress, and the price included an interesting tour of the rooms and towers. It was very cold when we left to walk back down to the city. We were super excited to find out that the 21st of November was the first day of the Christmas markets in Salzburg! Yes!
Before we could hit the markets though Liam had to go back on the ice skating rink at Mozartplatz. He'd had a go the night before with Bella. He was hugely confident in his ice skating abilities after his excursion to Canberra in July, and assured Bella he could teach her. It turns out that it took a while for the memory to come back, and meanwhile, poor Bella was left on her own to discover how bloody hard ice skating (and the ice on your crashing bottom) is. I opted to take photos and sip warming gluhwein (regular blog readers will note that my fondness for gluhwein comes up on a regular basis - I just love it!) while they crashed and splattered their way around the rink. Day two, Liam had improved quite a bit, but still had a long way to go to look as comfortable as the natives. Greg urged him to watch "the guy in the red jumper" just as red jumper guy settled into a long session of tonsil hockey with his partner, we all found that quite hilarious. Exactly WHAT did Greg want Liam to learn from the guy with the red jumper?? He encouraged us to wait.... and wait...eventually Liam just had to get back there on his own :-) The Christmas markets were great fun. Full of colour, FABULOUS Christmas decorations (I so want to buy a box full and send them home - but I'm trying very hard not to buy anything other than little gifts for the grandbaby!), food and drink. Greg, as I have mentioned a few times before, is crazy about sausages. So he tries every different type of wurst available, leading to lots of bad wurst jokes along the line of "Dad is going to wurst heaven" - as you can see from the pic below he was very happy with his double wurst roll.
While I was having a roadie gluhwein, Liam decided to check out some nearby stalls. We saw him chatting with one of the stall holders. After a good 20 minutes I thought I should give her ears a break, so we wandered over. She was just lovely - in fact with her strawberry blonde hair she reminded us a lot of our friend Jude! - who seemed to have genuinely enjoyed all the information Liam had managed to impart (which seemed like quite a lot of family detail, and a fair bit about crocodiles!!), but I felt we should buy something from her stand, which is how we ended up with the salt! Today we are off to Venice. Talk to you all soon!
Oh, and by the way, Greg and I are holding audio thingys on our ears if you are wondering!
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