Back to Salzburg:

Saturday morning was an early enough start (8 for breakfast) so that we could make the most of the day. At 9:10 our morning tour guide skipped into the hotel singing "The hills are alive.." so we knew it was the right tour. Yes, we booked a Sound of Music tour!! It was superb! The rather camp but excellent guide, Peter, took us (well Ted drove while Peter talked, joked, sang..) round the city and pointed out various bits that were used in the film, via the building that was use as the back of the house and the lake the children fell in. Then up into the mountains and lakes for some fantastic scenery, to village with the church the wedding scene was filmed in.

All in all the tour was excellent! Well worth it. For the rest of the afternoon we walked round some stalls by the river and round the town. There was a superb quartet busking that consisted of 3 balalaika and an accordion player, playing Rossini and other overtures. They were brilliant - we bought the CD! Then back to the hotel for a short rest (we're getting old...) before going into town to an Italian restaurant.

Then on Sunday we got up a bit later and walked into town, via a big hill with a church on top to try and get a good view of the city and the castle. It p*ssed it down while so we huddled under a tree. (J and M had the wit to bring umbrellas which dripped on the rest of us). Stopped off for an Apfelstrudel and walked round town. After lunch we went round Motzart's house (which had a good museum) before going back to the hotel to get ready for the evening 4 course meal, followed by a concert in the castle. And here is the cockup. When we booked the meal and concert we completely forgot about the football, so I was sitting watching a string octet (actually there were 9 of them) with a horn solo while fighting VodafoneLive for score updates! The horn player was superb, playing a conventional French Horn a Motzart horn concerto, then an "Alphorn" for a Motzart Senior piece. The Alphorn is a long wooden thing that is played in the mountains at the goats.

Anyway that's more than enough written for one go. Back to supporting the French against Croatia - after England's excellent 3-0 win over the Swiss.