The Hills are alive?!

Today started off pretty simply.  Jen and I had booked the Sound of Music tour and were waiting for them to come pick us up at the hostel.  We were picked up in a van to take us to the  bus, and ended up sharing it with a couple from Vancouver, BC.  I had a lot of fun chatting with them the whole way.  There were another couple ladies in the back seat who were on their way to Vancouver next week for the first time.  One told us she had been to Seattle numerous times in all different seasons and had never seen it rain once.  The rest of us just looked at her in disbelief and told her she was lucky.  Particularly in the spring.

We got on our bus, which had a painting on the side of Maria and the kids singing, but as our tour guide informed us, Maria just looks like she's sneezing.   Then we started going to all our destinations.  We couldn't have had a better, or funnier guide.  On our way to the gazebo, he stopped, posed, and sang a high pitched note.  Then he told us to just imagine we had just had our first kiss...by a Nazi postman!  We were then informed that Ralph was a hollywood creation and had not existed in real life.  He regularly referred to him as the Nazi postman who didn't really exist.

Some of his other great lines were:
'Green means go, red means no.'
'You Americans should be proud. We have a statue of Lincoln riding a horse and reading a book.  Not everyone can do that, but Lincoln sure could!'
'This restaurant is better, and not just because they give me a free lunch.'
'Is that a dog tag you are wearing?'
'Please do not eat on this bus.  But you can drink.  In fact, I have a bar up here, anyone want a beer?'
'The mountain Maria was on in the beginning is quite far away, and she ran down it in only three minutes!  What an athlete!'

So I saw the beautiful Lake District, while drinking a beer.  The bus driver informed me that the beer was first brewed in 1492, just like when my country was discovered by Columbus, so I should like it because they are alike.  From then on, I could only think of it as Columbus beer.

We had apple strudel in front of the church where they were married in the movie.  When we went inside, it was incredibly beautiful.  I found it particularly interesting that they had five bodies set above the alter, dressed in incredibly regal attire, and fully visible.  I was hoping there would be something written, explaining who they had been, but there was nothing there.  I also want to go back to Dragon point sometime and climb to the top of it.  You could see a bridge in between two of the points, so you know there must be a way up somehow.  I guess it is called that, because when it reflects on the lake below, the two images look exactly like a dragon.

On our way back in, we heard, what may be the best and worst Sound of Music joke ever.  We laughed for a really long time it was so bad.

A family named the Hills were driving around Salzburg when their car ran out of gas.  It was late at night, but the father saw a light up on the hill, and ran up to see if he could use the phone.  When he knocked, who answered the door but Dracula!  Dracula said he didn't have a phone, but that they were welcome to stay the night, and in the morning he would help them get home.  Well, in the middle of the night Dracula went and drank all their blood at that was that.  Feeling full of energy from all the blood, he went and started playing the piano.  He heard a noise behind him and when he turned around was startled to find the whole Hill family standing there.  'But I know I left you all dead in your beds! How did this happen?' he asked them.  Mr. Hill responded, 'The Hills are alive, with the sound of music!'

It is even better if you could hear our tour guide saying it.  He had the greatest, most expressive voice, and it just made us laugh that much harder to hear it.

After the tour was over, we were dropped off at the Mirabell Gardens, which is where the Do-Re-Mi song was filmed.    As we went in, I found two huge statues of unicorns right on the edge of the stairs.  Of course I had to have a photo with them to send to Morgan for our unicorn collection.   We took pictures of the pegasus fountain, and the tunnel they ran down.  Then we went to the gnome garden.  In the movie, they all pat the head of the one sticking out its tongue, but I was more enamored of two others.  One looked like he was dancing, so of course I needed photos dancing with him.  Another looked like he was pointing accusingly at something.  So I went and had a showdown with him.  Quite a lot of fun in the gardens.

Once we got back to old town, we decided we wanted to try the Salzburg Nockerl.  We had no idea what it was, but its pictures looked delicious and there were postings for it all over the city.  Turns out it is not as good as it looked.  It was huge, and tasted of eggs.  We looked it up later and it is said to be made of eggs and air.  Gross.  Then there was a very thin layer of berries on the bottom, almost a cranberry flavor of sorts.  While this part was good, it could not mask the flavor or scent of egg that was coming off of it.  I do not recommend trying this dish.

We also roamed up on the hill above the city.  It had some great view points and lead us to the castle and the Nonnberg Nunnery, which is where Maria was from. Slowly we wound our way back down again, and decided to go to the Golden Ende again, since it had been so delicious.  We were not disappointed!  This time I had the Wiener Schnitzel, but I had them give me another dumpling instead of the potatoes.  Jen kept it to soup and salad, and she is still feeling a little under the weather.  Everything was wonderful though, and we headed back to the hostel just in time for the rain.  It sprinkled on us a little while we walked, but it was fairly negligible, and it felt really good outside.  So we sat under the umbrella sitting area and read into the evening before calling it a night.