Salzburg, Austria - Frauline Maria's Bike Tour

Now that Europe is FINALLY open to travelers again, everyone here is making up for lost time.  I went to Portugal at the end of June with some friends, came home & left 3 days later for Salzburg with the family.  (And I'm not complaining one bit.  It's AMAZING. . . . oh & I'm headed to Paris tomorrow!  Oh it feels good to travel again.)

Salzburg is a 6 1/2 hour drive from our area of Germany which barely a drive in my opinion.  We took off after Trek got off work on Thursday & arrived around 11 pm.

Trek woke up early & did a 6 mile run & then grabbed me for a walk to enjoy the beauty of the alps.

On our way back to the hotel, we happened upon a hedgehog, which is Cadence's favorite thing in the whole world.  We had to get the kids so they could see it.

We got everyone ready & dressed & drove into town.  We ate breakfast at a Mozart bakery (Mozart was born in Salzburg & he's EVERYWHERE there.).  I love European bakeries.

We were surrounded by the beauty of the alps as we made our way to the city center to start our bike tour.  We stopped off in the palace gardens to enjoy our breakfast.

I absolutely love the castle that sits on the top of the hill.  The city completely surrounds the hill so no matter where you are in the city, you have a view of the castle.

We did the 4 1/2 hour Frauline Maria's bike tour & let me tell you. . . that was the best money I've ever spent in my life.  4 1/2 hours riding through the Austrian Alp countryside, seeing scenes from one of our favorite movies/musicals, singing the WHOLE time, 10 whole miles of exercise, & learning the history of Salzburg.  It was heaven.  The kids did GREAT on the bikes too.

And of course we had to recreate several scenes from the original movie with Julie Andrews.  It made the tour even more fun.  Our tour guide couldn't believe we had 6 kids & that all 6 of them knew every song by heart.  I think he was enjoying the tour even more than we were because my kids kept singing & recreating the scenes in the movies.

The tour guide asked the entire group to sing Do-Re-Mi together before we started the tour.

Our first stop was the palace gardens (where we ate breakfast).  All the statues we were playing with that morning were next to the gate where Maria sings Do-Re-Mi with the kids.  Of course the tour guide asked us to sing & act it out with him.

The kids loved the little gnome garden in the palace grounds too.  It's also in the Do-Re-Mi song of the movie.

Craiger was a "grumpy" gnome for pictures.

We also let the kids run through the vine tunnel like they do in the movie.

After a good amount of time in the gardens, we got on our bikes & headed across the river.  It was GORGEOUS.

After the river we rode our bikes to the top of a hill to see the abby.  The abby is still there & it still has 20 nuns that live there & run it.  We saw several of them on our tour.  We overlooked all of Salzburg from the top while our tour guide told us all about the history of the city.

We did get to go inside the nonnberg/abby as long as we were silent.  It was really beautiful inside.

And then we were on our way again.

After a beautiful, long stretch of beautiful countryside, we wound up at the lake where part of the sound of music takes place.  We also got to see the house they used for filming.  This mansion was used as the "back" of the "Von Trapp house" for outdoor shots.  It was GORGEOUS there.

I loved all the countryside biking we did.  It was SO beautiful.  Our tour then led us to the Austrian Mozart University (very famous music school).  This is the house they used for the front of the Von Trapp house in the movie.

The tour guide asked Cadence to recreate "I Have Confidence" here.

After more biking we found the little gazebo where they filmed several scenes in the movie.

Then we headed back to the city center.  The very center of the city they had a big gold ball.  My kids LOVED this area.  There was a giant chess board there & lots of little shopping kiosks, ice cream, & snacks.  We came back here several times on our trip.

In the city center area, there were some places they used for the sound of music movie.  I tried to take some pictures to compare the buildings from then & now.

This was the oldest restaurant in Europe.  It opened in 803 & has been serving people continuously since that time.  Charlemagne even ate there at one point.

Our tour ended up being 4 1/2 hours long, 10 miles of bike riding, & memories to last us a lifetime.  The kids LOVED it.  Now they want to take bike tours everywhere we go in Europe.  (I'm totally on board with that!). What a WONDERFUL experience.  If you're ever in Salzburg, this is the #1 absolute best thing I'd recommend for you to do there.  It's worth every penny.

 http://www.mariasbicycletours.com/