Day Four: The Hills are alive with the sounds of Salzburg

Guten nacht!!!

It is just about 11pm and I am finally sitting down to write another blog post.  We have had an extremely busy day filled with a wide variety of activities.  Let's start at the very beginning, because it is a very good place to start.

We woke this morning and congregated for breakfast.  The hotel's spread is pretty good.  There is a mix of cold cuts, pastries, and some hot items. The kids have been raving about the hot chocolate, but they are not really fans of the spreadable sausage stuff.  I am seeing many of them eating heartily and today that was a good thing.

We boarded our bus and began our journey to Salzburg, Austria.  It is was my first time to Austria and so I was experiencing it alongside the kids.  It was about halfway there when someone told me that the Sound of Music was filmed in Salzburg.  I guess I had blocked that movie out of my mind since I was made to watch it as a young boy.  I had no idea that it was a popular with the kids today as it was.  Even before we arrived, they began practicing some of their favorite songs...including Some of their favorite things.  We left the bus and were welcomed with a beautiful day in Austria.  It was very warm and even as I type this I can still feel some of the heat upon my skin.  I don't think I'll develop a sunburn, but I might get a slight tan.  There was a Garden right in front of us and it was spectacular.

In the garden, we met our local tour guide.  She was an expert on Salzburg and on all things associated with the Sound of Music.  She mixed her tour with information about both and I think the kids liked it.  At one point, they all seemed to randomly skip down a vine covered path singing a song from the film...it might look familiar.

We made our way across the river and into the older section of the city.  A few us stopped for some pictures across from a church.

It also was Melissa's birthday.  We tried to surprise her with a cake.  This is the second year in a row that Melissa has shared her birthday with us on tour, but I feel like she will remember this celebration.  Ele, our Tour Director, purchased a traditional Austrian cake and we celebrated outside of the modern art museum.

Melissa having another birthday in Europe!!!

 After her birthday party, we walked around and found the birthplace of a musician named Mozart.  His house is the yellow one in the pictured below.  With that, our tour had ended and we had a chance for some free time.  Some of us ran to the local Starbucks and paid a pretty penny for a cup of Joe.  Some of us went back into Old Salzburg to buy souvenirs for family members back home.  Some of the stores sold toy Mozarts and some had these lovely chocolates named Mozartkugelns.  They are chocolate covered pistachio balls.  They melt in your mouth and are music to your taste buds.  I sampled one.  I also had a strange sandwich for lunch.  It was a double hot dog and it was all wrapped in bacon.  I had mine with spicy Dijon mustard.

We met by Mozart's house before departing Salzburg and the birthday girl asked to borrow my camera.  I included a sampling of her photos below.  As you can tell, Melissa has a knack for picture taking and Gianna seems to have one for modeling.

We left Salzburg and headed back into Germany to visit a Documentation Center.  As far as I can tell, the Documentation Centers are places where the German government has documented World War II activity.  Today's stop was on Obersalzburg.  A mountain about 12 miles away from the beautiful city we had just visited.  The mountain top hosts a bunker known as the Eagle's Nest.  Many people believe this was Hitler's summer home, but we found out that he actually preferred a house lower on the mountain called the Berghof.  Hitler was afraid of heights and was claustrophobic.  Both of these issues would make frequent visits to the Eagle's Nest unlikely.  The Berghof, however, was his mailing address for nearly all of the years he was in power.  The Berghof was destroyed by an Allied bombing mission on April 25, 2945.  Most of the mountain was hit.  The view Hitler had from the Berghof was of a mountain in Austria.

A view of the Eagle's Nest...the road up is still impassable.

Our hike down the mountain to the Berghof remains.

Remnants of the Berghof.

Hitler's view of Salzburg from the Berghof.

We then entered some of the nearly 400 miles of Bunkers built inside the mountain by the NAZIs. This was really interesting stuff.  I cannot post pictures here because they've asked for us not take them.  Apparently, white supremacist groups have been using them for some purpose.  We were inside the place that would have been Hitler's last command center inside the mountain when we heard the "closing in 15 minutes" announcement.  We rushed out to see that our beautiful day had turned into a rainy one.

On board our coach bus, we began our descent from the mountain and our return to Munich.  We hit some really terrible traffic.  It delayed us by over an hour.  To help pass the time, Ele played the Sound of Music on the TVs in the bus.  It held the attention of most of us for about an hour, but we soon heard laughter and noise coming from the back of the bus.  Those wishing to watch the film had to strain to listen during the most important parts, but I think we all understood that the weather and the traffic added to some frustration.

Well behind schedule, we arrived at our restaurant.  It was designed in a typical Beer Hall style.  We all sat at large picnic tables and began to dig into our dinner.  It was German meatloaf.  I really liked it, but then again, I have like most everything I've tried here.  Our vegetarians received a spicy dough ball.  I was able to try it and I liked it too.  We were running so late that we grabbed our dessert and headed to the hotel.  Here is where we are now. Tomorrow, we depart for Prague and the Czech Republic.  Our trip to Munich is nearly complete and I think the kids had a phenomenal time.  We've tried new foods, practiced our German, and became acclimated to exchanging Euros in our head...That all starts overt tomorrow!!!

I am wrapping up tonight's blog and then heading out to do room checks.  It is now 11:40pm and we have a 7am wake up call.

Mr. Lavoie currently packing up his suitcase for tomorrow's short 6 hour drive to the Czech Republic.