Howie & "T": The Hills Are Alive.......

Our next stop was Austria..... This is where they filmed The Sound Of Music. This has always been one of April's favorite movies and so Austria was on top of her list of "places to visit" on this trip.

There were horses everywhere in the town of Salzburg. There was a really unique feel to this place.

Our hotel was just a block or so away from this cool tunnel leading into the town.

We packed up the kids in their strollers and we were on our way to explore...

One section of the tunnel was for pedestrians and bicycles. The other tunnel was for the cars to travel through. I think it was pretty cool they built this tunnel under this mountain for people to get into this quaint little town. Very awesome feel.

Just after the tunnel we found a chocolate store and stopped by to get some chocolates for Howie. Little did I know I was about to see more chocolate stores in one town than I ever have before. Yummy! Howie would be in HEAVEN here!!!

We chose not to take a tour of this place after all because it would have been an all day event and we had plans in the afternoon to visit the salt mines. It was not until after strolling through town for a few hours we decided to purchase a guide book from a local bookstore there. We later found out that many of the spots we had walked by and took pictures of were the sights from the Sound of Music. This statue is just beyond the tunnel as you enter the town and it was in the movie.

Not sure what these wall murals of horses were or what they represented but it was pretty. They must love horses or something. I should have April google it for me and find out the significance of these.

One thing I noticed as we walked through town was how "drab" the colors of the buildings were. In this one part of town almost every building was either gray, tan, or white. Don't get me wrong....It was a pretty place and extremely clean but very mellow compared to the colorful towns and sites that we had visited thus far.

I also noticed in this town that most people wore black clothing. We came across many groups of kids touring around and they all wore black. There were also a lot of bikes everywhere you went.

This town also had many different beautiful statues.

This one is also in the sound of music movie.

If you look closely at the horses they have water shooting out of their nostrils..... Reminds me of what happens when I am drinking milk and someone tells a funny joke. That happened to me a lot when I was younger!

Along with statues comes pigeons....

Lots of them.......

TAKE COVER.... LOOK OUT BELOW!

Bombs away!!!!!

(This looks like a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock movie)

We spent some time at St. Peter's Abbey.

This was a quiet, peaceful and intriguing place to visit.

Each individual grave site was beautifully decorated with plants, bushes and flowers. These were not the traditional cut flowers you see here but rather planted flowers like pansies, daffodils, tulips etc. It was very well manicured and maintained.

This building is carved out of the mountain and is part of the cemetary below. In the tour book April bought it said we could have walked up a pathway and gone to see what was inside. No time though :(

Another castle off in the distance on top of the hill.

Notice the man standing on top of that gold ball. Not sure why or if it is just a statue. I also don't know what that big ball is suppose to be anyway. A tour through this town probably would have helped a bit.

Huge chess game in the middle of the town square.....

We did not take time to cross the bridge to see the rest of the town because of our tight schedule but we did take time to shop a bit. We walked through these streets and did a lot of window shopping. Loved it loved it loved it!

It was such a bitter cold day that we decided to walk down these narrow streets to get out of the cold wind. The tall buildings blocked the wind and warmed us up a bit.

I am NOT a shopper ( I usually don't enjoy it at all) but this place was sooooo cool! I could have spent hours looking at the things in these shops. They had the cutest clothes ever as well as jewelry, toys, food and souveniers !

It is probably a good thing we were kind of rushed because I would have spent a lot of money had we stayed any longer than we did!

Notice the groups of people all in black...

Down the street not too far from Mozart's home is this open market area. I loved this place. Very cool atmosphere and lots of yummy food.

Fresh fruit.....

Cheeses.....

Delicious sandwiches.....

Chocolates.....

And GIANT pretzels..... Delicious pretzels coated in chocolate and a variety of other flavors as well. Pizza, cinnamon raisen, cheese.... OOOOHHHHH yummy!