Salzburg, the Home of the Sound of Music (and Mozart)

OK, it was a week ago so I have taken a bit of time to catch up but here goes...

I didn't think I could visit Austria and not go to Salzburg so last Wednesday I drove up there and had a little look round. It is a beautiful city. The old winding streets that are now jammed with tourists and designer shops such as Louis Vuitton and the like. Oh and a McDonalds, of course.

But they have made them all tow the line and the shop signs are much more tasteful that most other places. See these signs for McD's and Zara.










Salzburg is most famous as the birthplace of Mozart and you can visit the house where he was born, the house where he lived, the house where his wife lived with his children, you get the picture. But having said all that most of it is not as tacky as you might imagine.

They have a statue of him in one of the little squares but as befits our modern society they were in the process of erecting some modern sculpture right next to it so that it intrudes into any photos you are trying to take. Except mine.

The city is overlooked by the castle, an imposing building, which is I suppose the purpose of castles.

But all in all Salzburg gets the thumbs up. Especially as no one here has heard of the Sound of Music. You would expect gift shops everywhere trying to sell you clothes made out of old curtains, but no, although you can do a guided tour of the sights from the film. That is all well and good but when they expect you to walk to Switzerland it is all a bit much. (On a historical note the family actually got on a train to Italy to escape the Nazis, but that probably wouldn't have made such a good ending. Julie Andrews wandering through a train singing 'The Pullman's Alive with the Sound of Music'.)

Now only just over two weeks to go until I get back to the UK, which will be really nice, although the weather here is gorgeous. Bright sunshine and warm, but that is not so good for skiing. The resort is starting to wind down from this weekend, the ski school goes down to just five instructors and one of the Apres bars is closing.

Roll on the 9th. Of April not Beethoven's, but that would be Roll Over... seeing as we started on a musical theme we can surely end on one.