The Hills are Alive...

The hills are alive... with the sound of off key singing!!!!
For half term break we did a driving tour of southern Germany and Austria. Got to do some really fun stuff which included a tour of all the Sound of Music movie sites in Salzburg, Austria. DA made us recreate some of the scenes. Here are a couple.

"Doe, ray, me.." cue Julie Andrews for the high note, cause we surely cant hit it.

"I am 16 going on..." the gazebo is locked due to a grandma jumping from bench to bench - she fell and sued for damages, hence no more jumping from bench to bench.
Our decision to drive across Germany/Austria was based partly on the fact it is fairly easy to do, the scenery is beautiful and since it is low season, there really aren't many professional tours we could have joined anyway. Driving ourselves to our own schedule was great except for --- they drive on the right side of the road! DA had to drive a stick shift - on the right side of the road- and we were driving straight up narrow roads in the Alps. Scary! He drove on the wrong side so, so, so many times. And then he kept stalling the car. He did a much better job than I ever could have, but it was still nerve wracking. If it weren't for the TomTom (satNav) we would still be driving around the border looking for signs we could read.
We ended up making our trip safely. Surprisingly, we had some friends who ended up being on our same flights and were going to some of the same towns as we were. Very strange to run into someone you know (unexpectedly) on top of a mountain in Germany. The kids were pumped seeing their friends, made the trip just that much more fun.
Here are some highlights:
Neuschwanstein castle in Germany. Supposedly this castle inspired Walt Disney's Cinderella castle.
Our hotel at the top of the mountain - the building on the right. The hotel was just below the ruins of Falkenstein castle. I held my breath the entire time we drove up the 1 lane road to get to the top - stalling the car made it so memorable!
Me at the top of Falkenstein castle ruins. I'm the one waving!Salzburg, Austria. One of my favorite things - the iron signs lining the old town. They are so picturesque. Even McDonald's has a fancy sign.

We visited the salt mines outside of Salzburg. (get it? Salz = Salt. The $ from the salt mines paid for the building of Salzburg)
The salt mine tour was really cool. We were so far underground (at least 750 meters straight into a mountain). We even crossed the German/Austrian border while underground.
We had to wear these dorky white overalls - to protect our clothes from the narrow cave walls and also to protect our legs on the cool slides they had which allowed us to get from one level to another within the mine.
We rode this train into the mine - too far to walk!Innsbruck, Austria Olympic ski jump. I'll never understand how those jumpers get the nerve to jump the first time.
My family on the Olympic medal stand in Innsbruck at the bobsled track.


The first snow of the season happened while we were there. Had to get out of the car and throw a few snowballs.

Munich, Germany.
The Marienplatz and the glockenspiel. B was soooo over it by this point. We'd been to one old building too many.
B looking out over Munich. It was absolutely freezing in Munich, but it was warmer than London which had ice at the time.

This was the weirdest site of the whole trip - entire stores devoted to decorated eggs- thousands of them. They were mainly Easter themed, but had Christmas and Halloween ones too. They cost 6.50 Euro per egg, so they weren't cheap. Family - this is what you're getting for Christmas gifts.... NOT!