The hills are alive...

with the sound of music....because my kids are hiking while singing tunes from the movie.  We had a good time in Salzburg.  We hiked Kapuzinerberg, enjoyed the scenery, listened to the organist play at the Capuchin monastery on the way up the hill (you can see the monastery in the pics below), and had lunch at the Franziski Schlössl a small fortress at the top of the mountain.  We toured the Haus of Natur (a nature and science museum).  It was a little too explicit in some areas- several exhibits would be considered offensive in the US.  Definitely a culture difference here, but the kids enjoyed the museum and we sped through areas we found inappropriate.  This morning before leaving we toured the Fortress Hohensalzburg and visited Mozart's house.  It was a fun trip.  It is a beautiful city, very hard to capture the sights on camera.  The one negative both Tim and I noticed was how unwelcoming a significant amount of the people were in a town that survives based on tourism.  It wasn't universal, but someone treated us with an apathetic attitude at every place we visited.  Not overly rude, it was just as though they could care less.  We really enjoyed the city nonetheless.  It is a beautiful place and it was fun just to be there and see it all.  A definite "do" on those European itineraries...Here are the pics:

Trailside fountain

Walking up Kapuzinerberg

View of Salzburg below and Fortress towering over the city

Salzburg and the mountains behind our crew

Hiking down along the fortress wall

We loved the hands on exhibits in the Haus der Natur

View from the Fortress Hohensalzburg

Seeing Kapuzinerberg from the Fortress

Family pic on top of the Fortress