Woke up at 5.30am again - all the extra light in summer is great but I wish they didn't have daylight savings!
 
Went for a 45min run along the Danube . So beautiful early in the morning! Stopped to take a few photos & would have taken more but my phone cut out ... with 64% battery! Grrrr ... thanks Apple!

Came back & got ready to go. Mum was ready about 20min before we needed to go (of course)!
 
She was starting to worry when Mr Gruber was 5 min late but all good & we got to the train station before they'd even opened the train! Seems most people only rock up about 5min before it goes!
 
Helped an old Austrian lady with her bags to get them onto the train. She couldn't speak a word of English & we hardly speak any German but we both knew what she needed & that she was very appreciative of the help!
 
Went looking for the train's dining car but unfortunately didn't find one so we assumed we'd have to fend for ourselves & eat the very healthy snacks we had (like gingerbread, chocolate, and market nibbles). After we'd already munched most of these, the conductor turned up with menus ...  
 
Arrived in Salzburg with Austrian efficiency & got a taxi to the hotel - only 10 min away so very easy . Sherry had done another fantastic job of locating a great hotel in an excellent location!
 
Mum fell asleep within about 10min of arriving as she wasn't feeling very well - perhaps something she ate didn't agree or was a bit dodgy. 
 
Looking at the weather forecast, it's supposed to be rain & storms tomorrow so I had the dilemma of deciding whether to wake her up to go on the Sound of Music tour at 2pm (one of the main reasons for coming here but you really need fine weather!) or let her rest because she's unwell. 
 
Fortunately she woke up & we decided to go on the tour after all. 
 
A few highlights of the SoM tour:  
 
 - The movie isn't popular in Austria because it was only released 19 years ago so no one really knows it & the ones that do think it's completely ridiculous (see details below about the "escape" into Switzerland!) 
 
- The producers originally gave the Trapp family just $9,000 for the rights to their story but when it was so successful, Maria Trapp threatened to sue them because it was so inaccurate, so they ended up giving her $900K .
 
- It started as a Broadway play & ran for 4 years before they made the movie. 

- Untersburg mountain, where they filmed the scenes on the mountain, is about 10km from Salzburg. Maria runs back from there to the Abbey when she hears the bells & somehow gets there while the bells are still ringing! Later on, the family escapes over it but the other half is in Germany! Switzerland is over 500km away!   

- Filmed the "High on a hill was a lonely goat herd" marionettes scene at the puppet theatre here
 
- All the interior scenes were filmed in Hollywood as they weren't allowed to film in the buildings.
 
- The glasshouse was left by Hollywood after the film but the owners of the property moved it as too many tourists jumped in & danced around it. They eventually had to put a lock on it as an 80 year-old injured herself, jumping from bench to bench!

- The Von Trapp family were indeed from Austria, they sang as a family group, & they did leave Austria to avoid the Nazis but that's where the similarities ended!

- Hollywood never let the facts get in the way of a good story! The family actually left Austria before the war (1938) . They took a train to Italy & the caught a boat to America where they lived in Vermont on a farm. Since their shows were so popular, they added rooms to stay to their farm & they're still there today!
 
We continued on & visited the church at Mondsee that was used for the wedding. Mondsee is a cute village next to a stunning lake in the mountains that's surrounded by tiny villages, full of Heidi houses, meadows full of tiny yellow flowers, cows with bells & deer. Mum was very excited "We're in Europe now!" Yes, we are!
 
Tour guide funny & provided a constant stream of classic dad jokes like:
- what's black & white & red all over? A nun with an axe in her head!

 - what's yellow & smells like bananas? Monkey vomit

- Mr & Mrs Hill were killed in their sleep by Dracula one night. Energized by all the new blood, Dracula decided to entertain himself by playing a few symphonies on his piano. Shortly thereafter, he was very surprised to see Mr & Mrs Hill standing behind him & exclaimed "Hey, didn't I just kill you! What's happening?" To which they replied "The Hills are alive with the sound of music"

I warned you!
 
We watched a DVD of grown-up Liesel making a behind the scenes documentary about the movie on the way back to Salzburg which culminated in the entire tour bus singing "Edelweiss" then sadly (though predictably) "The time has come for me to say goodnight!"
 
Back in Salzburg, we visited the Mirrabell Gardens where they filmed quite a bit of Do Re Mi, then went into the old town to get some Italian for dinner as we're all schnitzeled out . 
Wandered around the old town a little more then took Mum back to the hotel as she's still not feeling 100%. 

For some reason, every 20-30 seconds, something in the apartment was beeping, very annoying & very hard to sleep! Turns out if you accidentally cover the controls of the hot plate, it beeps at you ... not the smoke alarm after all!
 
Got the all sorted then I went out for a night walk, taking photos down the alleyways of Salzburg while Mum went to bed. 
 
Finished off with an Aperol Spritz - getting quite accustomed to these now!