Yesterday afternoon we arrived in the picture perfect Salzburg. We had an amazing three-course group dinner that consisted of sauerkraut, succulent roast pork and veggies, and then a decadent chocolate cake (Sachertorte) with apricot jam in between, thick icing and of course cream!

We made up for the huge dinner with a huge day today. We spent 13-14 hours sightseeing, starting at 8am in the local food markets for our first pretzel, a stop at a special chocolate shop that hand-made "Mozart Balls": hand dipped chocolate balls filled with nougat and marzipan - yum!

We passed through the Dom, a huge cathedral that began as a project to surpass St Peter's Basilica in size but was never completed. It is now a whole and functioning beautiful church but it never beat St Peter's. We then headed up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress that is truly impressive and looms over Salzburg. In fact it is the best preserved and oldest castle/fortress of it's size in Europe and it was never once taken by force. After seeing it for myself I can see how it would have intimidated all who saw it!

On the way down the hill is sits upon, we visited the Nonnberg Abbey, the Abbey to which Maria belonged in the Sound of Music. It has a beautifully simple church and sits in simply beautiful surrounds halfway up the hill.

We then caught a bus out of town to get a cable car up to the top of the nearest mountain. I could not imagine more perfect weather for being atop this mountain nor for all this sightseeing. You could see for miles and it was such a magnificent sight of Salzburg, other towns and of course the Alps.

Probably the most fun of the day came with our visit to Hellbrunn Palace and its trick fountains. We took a tour of these fountains and were reduced to childlike giggling and squealing as water sprayed us left right and centre throughout the tour. The palace was built by Wolf Dietrich for the sole purpose of being a party palace and he took his fun very seriously - well he was a little mad too. At one outdoor table water would spout everywhere except his chair, up from his guest's seats onto their behinds, from the centre of the table and on the ground behind the chairs. I was very relieved not to be one of those chosen to sit there during the demonstration! By the end we were panicking every time we saw wet ground ahead and running out of every room in case we were sprayed! Needless to say we were quite wet by the end!

We then went into the grounds and found the gazebo used for "I am sixteen going on seventeen" in the Sound of Music.

We came back to town to visit Cafe Mozart so Glen could get his fix of a traditional Austrian dessert - the Salzburger. It is a soft meringue in three huge heaps in a baking dish on top of a layer of strawberry compote. It was so huge that we were all able to have a taste and it was pretty good!

Finally we arrived at the destination all the boys had been hanging out for: the beer hall in an old Abbey that holds more than 1000 people! The beer garden is particularly nice, with nice views and filled with trees. You go to giant shelves and pick up a 1L stein which you clean in a fountain before paying and having your beer poured from big barrels. The place is so big that it houses lots of food stalls and counters as well. As you can imagine the boys got pretty excited and we did have a lovely night as it was such a nice setting. We finished our huge sightseeing day with a leisurely walk along the river and then through the beautiful Mirabel Palace Gardens. Today has been the best day of the tour so far and a real highlight of my whole trip.