Mozart and More

We spent Saturday in Salzburg. We only had one day, so we had to choose between checking out Salzburg itself, or doing the Sound of Music tour. Since I'd only seen the movie once, and it was only a few months ago, I thought that maybe I'd save that for next time, (cause I am being hopefull that there will ALWAYS be a next time) so that maybe I'd actually recognize some of the scenes from the movie.

So, we wandered around town,

checked out fountains and statuary,

walked through palace gardens,

and a pretty cool cemetery, supposedly gravesites are not bought, they are rented, and they bill gets sent out about every ten years. If no one cares enough to pay the bill, they chuck out the old bones and put someone else in. -which explains why the graves are so well tended.

listened to street musicians,

took a funicular up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. (really wasn't that impressed -I've liked all the castles and fortresses on the German side of the border better- plus it was stifling hot)

Saw both the birthplace and the house where Mozart grew up, did some shopping,

and finally the highlight of the day (even though John wanted to go home early because it was supposed to be a late night, with a 2 hour drive back to the hotel in a rainstorm, and then get up early in the morning) was a Mozart concert back up at the Hohensalzburg Fortress.

It was supposed to be outside under the stars, but the weather was not permitting. (Rain- good for cooling off the weather, just not so good for musicians and their instruments)

It came with a "romantic dinner" which, in my opinion, the dessert was the best part. The appetizer was pretty gross. It was part chopped up meat (afraid to ask which parts) and (I think) meat flavored jello. It was cold. I wish I had taken a picture.

But the concert was pretty awesome. My favorite parts were the guy with the Alpen Horn- (the really long horns the sheepherders use to communicate with each other on the mountain tops)- it was pretty cool- sorry the picture isn't that great, but you can see that the guy is holding what looks like a stick that's twice as tall as he is- that's actually the Alpen horn. And then there was this really awesome opera singer. He was AMAZING. Seriously, I was sorry when he was done. His voice, his facial expressions, highly entertaining. I didn't understand a word, but I loved it. A long story short, John was glad I insisted we stay.

Then we ran through torrential rain to our car, and drove home. Luckily the rain was enough to make sure we wouldn't fall asleep and drive off a mountain on the long car ride back to the hotel.