We got going early and we were on the bus into Salzburg with the school kids. It was a bit rainy but we enjoyed the coolness after a week of over 30 degrees.

We arrived in the centre of Salzburg in 15 minutes and our first destination was the Mirabell Palace. From our self guided city tour: Originally constructed in 1606 by Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau — who wasn’t just building a palace, but also a very fancy love nest for himself and his mistress — this place has always known how to turn heads.

Hitler’s sister-in-law tied the knot here in 1944, with some disturbingly famous guests in attendance.

Which is interesting as the building now has many weddings at its registry office.

This waterfall was also the location of the ‘Do re mi’ song in the Sound of Music.

The marble staircase inside was a stunner.

The other parts of the gardens were also in the Sound of Music.

Glenn found a special performance for later.

Here is where Mozart lived from 17 years old.

Glenn found a new job at the Hotel Sacher.

We walked across the relatively modern pedestrian bridge – now weighed down by thousands of padlocks – very stupid in my opinion. The bridge had plaques with little stories about people who had saved Jews during the war and those who had been saved – and what it meant to be a decent person. Maybe they are trying to change some attitudes here?

Across the other side of the river we found Mozarts birthplace in Grain Lane – with many tourist shops.

We found other very old streets and a well made into a water feature.

We found the 16th century Salzburg cathedral – with a choir practice going on inside.

Other sound of music locations were around the squares including the residence square with the horse fountain.

We didn’t make it up to the fort but it looked impressive towering over the city.

That was the end of the tour so we got the bus back to Gus and set off after lunch.

We had an exciting drive going into the alps. The scenery was amazing – huge mountains with rocky ledges – and everywhere stunningly green.

There were many tunnels on the road and we missed our initial planned turnoff to a campsite by coming out of a tunnel and the gps didn’t update itself fast enough. However I found another good campsite further on beside a river and a cycle track so that was good for us. That’s the beauty of motorhoming!

We arrived at Camping Zecher at Fischertratten which seemed like in the middle of nowhere in the alps – but it did have a Porsche Museum down the road in Gmund where the first Porsche was designed.

We got on our bikes for a quick spin up the cycle path beside the river. It was very beautiful with the huge mountains all around us – and all very green.

We came across a small zoo and saw an alpaca and donkey.

We went through the small town of Malta getting ready for a big football match.

We were coming up to a narrow part in the valley and Glenn spotted a nice waterfall coming down. We got a few photos and then turned round and headed back to the campsite.

On the way back the zoo had now put out ostriches in the small field. They looked very odd there in the green pastures of Austria.

We then got back to the campsite and had a cooling drink and a rest. Glenn got talking to the chap next to us who was on his own and invited him to come across to our table. He was George , pronounced Yirka, from Prague and had done some hiking up the mountains and was waiting on friend arriving that night. Unfortunately his wife and kids couldn’t make this trip. He gave Glenn some authentic Czech Pilsner – which Glenn liked. Glenn traded him some Jupiter Belgian Pilsner.

George is a lovely chap and told us Czechs regard beer as medicine – as our very good friend Martin would know! We had a very nice evening discussing Europe and goings on there and only went to bed when his friends arrived around 11pm.