The Hills are Alive...

We're a bit behind on our posting, so we have some work to do to bring you up-to-speed on our latest adventures.

In early September, we were extremely excited to have my parents, the Dierings, come to visit us. After they adjusted to the jet lag, we headed off to Salzburg, Austria. Maria graciously offered to be our chauffeur and she became the first Diering to drive the streets of mainland Europe. Six hours later, we arrived safe and sound!

Salzburg is probably best known for being the city where the Sound of Music was filmed. For a greater appreciation of our trip, watch this video, then browse through our pictures below.

Oh, it's also the birthplace of some guy named Mozart.

He's no Julie Andrews, but he still gets his own statue.

In the 16th century, the Prince-Archbishop decided to build the "Rome of the North." As a result, Salzburg is considered the greatest Baroque city north of the Alps.
The city's most famous Baroque building is its cathedral.

Mozart was baptized here and later became the organist for two years. St. Peter's cemetery, the inspiration for the scene in the SOM where the von Trapp family hid from the Nazis.

As you can see from this picture, the Mirabell Gardens had a spectacular view! Maria is pretending to be Julie Andrews finishing the "do-re-mi" song. I didn't believe her when Maria, my wife, not the one from the movie, claimed that the song ended with this pose. Don't believe her either? Judge for yourself at the end of the video attached above.

The SOM crew danced around this statue in the Gardens at the 3:58 mark in the video above.

They also pranced around this fountain in the Gardens at the 4:45 mark in the video above.

After much dancing of our own, we headed up the cliffs that soar above the city. Yes, this view also made the movie. See the 1:50 mark of the video above.

We ate some schnitzel for lunch at a fantastic restaurant on the cliff's edge, but we first had to pass through the medieval city wall in order to reach it.

The restaurant shares the cliffs with the Hohensalzburg fortress. Since its construction over 1,000 years ago, this fortress was never captured.

The view from the cliffs underneath the fortress.

We took a bike ride along the Salzach river to the Hellbrunn castle.

The von Trapps also enjoyed the city's bike paths. See the 3:00 mark of the video.

After biking for about half an hour, we had a much different view of the fortress.

The "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" gazebo...the real reason we visited Hellbrunn castle. It was so romantic!

After a busy day, we enjoyed one last stroll through the city at night.