Today was one of those travel days that not much went as planned. It was certainly one of those days where many of us were glad we’re not the tour managers. For us it began just shortly after I have posted yesterday’s blog and turned out the lights. I was just drifting off to sleep when I heard someone put a key card in the door and try the handle. I assumed it was someone who had the wrong room and that they would go away. When they tried again two or three minutes later I went to the door and told them to go away, someone was already in this room. About five minutes later the front desk phoned to find out who was in the room, what room I was in and whether I was alone! He kept saying that he had a driver there who needed a room. Rather scary for 1:30 am. Needless to say, it took me a while to settle down and get to sleep after all that excitement.

When I reported this in the morning, our tour manager followed up with the front desk and found out that they had made an error in room assignments and since they couldn’t find an empty room at that point for the bus driver, he ended up sleeping in his bus. This meant that there was a lot of discussion and upset this morning and in the end we were a 1/2 hour late leaving on our Sound of Music tour.

We weren’t in the bus very long before we realized that our guide was a dud. She continuously interrupted herself, kept saying “yah?” and “you know”, and didn’t complete the tour on time which meant we were late getting back to town reducing our lunch time accordingly. Everyone was disappointed given that a young couple in the choir had done the tour two years ago and had a blast. During the tour we saw the home that was used in the movie, the gazebo and the Abbey where the wedding scene took place. None of these were really part of the true Von Trapp story. We saw the real convent from a distance, the real fountain and heard about the place where the real Von Trapp family won a singing competition.

After a quick lunch we boarded our buses again to head out to the Eagle’s Nest. We ended up on a very narrow road, not made for buses, and at one point our drivers had to get out and help each other negotiate a turn so that the bus didn’t bottom out going around the corner. We heard tonight that the road the driver usually takes was closed so this was his only alternative. The Eagle’s Nest was built as a gift for Hitler to celebrate his 50th birthday and was used as a tea house to entertain visiting dignitaries. It’s situated on a ridge at the top of a mountain some 6000′ up. The road up is about 6.5 km long with five tunnels and one hairpin turn. The last section is done by elevator. Wow, the view was spectacular!

When we returned to Salzburg we headed off immediately to dinner and a concert at the citadel, on foot through the old town. Many of us got a little damp as a passing thunderstorm rolled through just at that opportune moment. Dinner was delicious and the dessert was quite elegantly displayed. I’m not sure if the musical theme was because they knew we were a choir or because they knew we were going to the concert. We wore off our dessert by climbing 150 steps to get to the concert hall – a room that dates back to medieval time and is still decorated in that style. The concert was performed by a string quartet but I think the musicians the other night were much better. It was still enjoyable though.

When we returned to the hotel, we found an apology note from the hotel manager and a nice box of Lindt chocolates awaiting us. More pounds!