Salzburg is the birthplace of Mozart. Every year thousands of musicians from around the world attend the Mozart Festival here in Salzburg.

All of the shops were closed on Sunday when we arrived, so we got to our pension, changed and decided to go on a tour to the Hellbrunn Palace. The pension was just two blocks from the Bahnhoff (RR station).

Hellbrunn Castle is an eccentric man's pleasure castle. He delighted in surprising his guests by squirting water at them from most unlikely places. There were fountains and statuary all over with spouting water. There were two turtles squirting water into each other's mouths. There were gargoiles and also a mechanical miniature village with organ music all run by water. Needless to say, everyone on the tour delightedly got wet.

SALT MINES: Our trip to the Salt Mines was quite interesting on Monday. We made friends with some young girls from Australia and Canada. Reminded us of our girls back home and I suppose we reminded the girls of their parents. It was great to listen to their travel experiences.

We had to dress in sort of mining uniforms for our trip underground where we crossed between Germany and Austria. This was where some of the riches of these countries were kept during World War II. The highlight of the trip was sliding down two chutes made of wood. What a hoot!!!

When we returned to the old town of Salzburg, we walked all over to get acquainted with the town and found Mozart's birthplace which was very interesting. It housed his first violin among many, many things. There was also a miniature museum which had the sets from many of his operas - all in miniature. Each of the sets from various cities of the world were different.

Finding the elevator for Winkler's Cafe, we found ourselves in their famous casino. From there we took a rather strenuous walk across the top of two mountains to the Salzburg Fortress. There we enjoyed the magnificent view of Salzburg on both sides of the mountain.

On the opposite side from the city, we could see the home of the Von Trapp Family from the Sound of Music.

That evening there was a chamber music concert in the Fort and we decided to splurge and attend. The concert was beautiful. They played Mozart and Shubert. It was quite a special treat.