Today we leave Prague for a bit of a Bec indulgence – the city of Salzburg. For those of you who don’t know, Salzburg is the city around which most of the Sound of Music movie was filmed. We actually changed the trip a little so that Bec could do some nerdy movie fan sightseeing as well.
On the way, we stopped in at an ancient little town in Czech Republic called Cesky Krumlov. It is a UNESCO listed town and it was built in the 13th Century. After seeing it, we would have to say that if you only had time to see two cities in Czech Republic, Prague and Cesky Krumlov should be the ones.
There is a castle that is the centre piece of the town that has its own bear pit! The views from the castle are awesome and the town looks like something that belongs on a model train set. The two bears in the bear pit didn’t have that much room to move around, but they were quite old and seemed to be well looked after.
It seemed that as soon as we crossed the border in Austria, the landscape changed dramatically. It was almost as if the hills were alive….
Salzburg is quite a large town and very popular with tourists. It was a beautiful day with rainclouds threatening in the afternoon, but it didn’t stop thousands of tourists flooding the streets.
The first stop was Mirabell Place and Gardens – perfectly manicured gardens with the castle in the background. (The fountain was seen in the Do-Re-Mi song in Sound of Music)
The Salzberg Cathedral was actually built on the ruins of the original Roman Empire city built in 15 BC. It’s huge and the architecture is amazing!
Mozart Platz is one of the main town squares and celebrates the fact that Mozart was actually born in Salzburg. The Horse pond is in the middle of one of the squares and is in front of the Old Town Hall – The Sound of Music features the horse pond in one of the songs.
The castle overlooking the city is called Fortress Hohensalzburg and can be reached by a Furnicular Railway. Bec was scared the whole way up, but it went so quickly that it was over before she realised. The castle itself is amazing and has spectacular views of the city.
Another location in the Sound of Music is the Nonnberg Abbey, where Maria Von Trapp spent some time. The abbey is actually beautiful in its simplicity and has some extremely old artwork within its walls. The gate of the abbey (pictured below) also featured in the movie.
The Glockenspiel in the Town Hall plays a chime melody three times a day. We were lucky enough to be able to hear it – everyone in the square clapped when it had finished!
Salzburg itself has some great buildings and sights – here are some of the photos we took wandering around the city.
We ended the day with dinner at a restaurant called Elefant and then grabbed a taxi back to the hotel exhausted.
Cool Stuff We Did 
Haha- well done. It’s almost as if the hills were alive… With the sound of music!