The hills are alive with the sound of music

A very early start this morning.  I have a 30 minute walk to the centre of Vienna in order to pick up my excursion to Salzburg.  I left the flat at 6:30am and won't be back until around 8:00pm.
It's lovely small group, a couple of Canadians from Burlington, 2 older ladies from New Orleans, a man from Poland and me.  Along with our driver, Markus, is a 'trainee' named Emmanuel from Equador.
The drive to Salzburg will take roughly 4 hours to get there (some scenic stops along the way) and about 2.5 - 3 hours back (straight autobahn).
Our first stop was actually the highway services, so we could get a cup of coffee and something to eat.  I've never seen a services like it !  so clean.  You can order freshly made waffles or crepes, sandwiches, breakfast items or there was a selection of pastries that was way too tempting.  The New Orleans ladies and I sat at the counter and chatted while sipping Viennesse coffee and eating apple strudel (amazing !).
Back into the van for another hour drive ... at this point we can see the Alps looming not so far ahead. 
The next stop was the small town of Unterach am Attersee.  This is where Gustav Klimt spent his summers and was the setting for some of his landscape paintings.  There is a bronze bust of Klimt in the park near the water and from that spot you can see the buildings and water his painted.
The next stop was St. Gilgen, just outside Salzburg, in the region known as Salzkammergut.  This is a picture perfect Austrian town with many alpine style houses, beer gardens, cafes and it's all very, very clean.  When we arrived, being Sunday, everyone was just leaving church.  Austria is a Catholic country and in the small towns they are very religious.  Old traditions are practiced and we saw many families and couples walking home from church in traditional garb, men wearing Lederhosen and women in Dirndl dresses.  Vivienne Westwood once said that if every women wore a drindl there would be no more ugliness.  They are very pretty, but very traditional and not everyones cup of tea ... google them
St. Gilgen is also known for another claim to fame.  It is the town used in the open sequences to 'The Sound of Music' ... before you see Maria running through the meadow (which incidently was shot in Germany about 5 miles away from Salzburg.  Below I've taken a screen shot of the movie and then added my shot from the most panoramic point we went to.
On to Salzburg.  We met our Salzburg tour guide who would be with us for 2 hours ... then we had 2.5 hours of free time before we started heading back to Vienna.  He showed us Mirabelle Palace which was used in the movie as well ... the steps that the children were singing on ... the fountain with the horse in the middle that they all danced around.  You may need to watch the movie to pick up on all the references as there are many !
Salzburg is the third largest city in Austria but only has a population of 150k compared with 2.5M in Vienna and 500k in Linz (second biggest).
There were many things to see as we strolled around, Mozarts birthplace and where he lived for many years, home of Christien Doppler, the oldest restaurant in Europe (built into a cave), the Monestary where 'Marie' lived, the church and square where the Von Trapp's sang their final performance in the movie. 
There just wasn't enough time to see it all !  might have to come back
We left Salzburg at 4:30pm and arrived back at my flat around 7:30pm.
I don't have anything planned for tomorrow so will just wing it !