The Sight of Music

I'd never seen an alp of any variety until today, and my goodness, what incredible creations the Austrian Alps are!

Bill and Mary arrived last evening, we departed Munich fairly early this morning and drove south toward Bled, Slovenia, via Salzberg, Austria. Nearer Munich is farmland, villages and towns,  then foothills with rugged mountains rising up, really rising steeply up into craggy, rugged peaks with snowcaps. And the valleys between are high, steep but gentle slopes with houses Heidi might skip out of or meadows Julie Andrews might spin around in. "The Sound of Music' could just as easily have been named 'The Sight of Music' because it is so glorious a vision--those peaks rising into a blue sky and valleys flowing between. (Chuck was smiling every bit of the way for I brought him along, you know.) I couldn't stop exclaiming every direction I looked, utterly magnificent, truly!

We spent a few hours in and around old Salzberg, riding the funicular up to the fortress, peering into churches and shops, finally collapsing and devouring excellent pizza for lunch. We continued on to Mondsee, site of the wedding in The Sound of Music, and get this--there was a  real wedding taking place in that beautiful, old church! As we entered, a choir was singing, as if from Heaven, so glorious was the sound (yes, I know I just said 'glorious' but it is so apt a word!)! Bill and Mary explained that it was a wedding mass and just beginning of it, so to stay for the organ recessional would be a long wait.

En route to Bled, the highway took shortcuts right through the mountains--several tunnels. Bled is in a pleasant valley with a picturesque lake. A monastery sits in the lake and a castle guards the view. Bill's conference doesn't begin until tomorrow night, (and, alas, no dinner at the castle this year) but we'll go up during the day tomorrow.

I think tomorrow, Sunday, will be a less eventful day, a slower pace; we're all of us very tired.

 I am unhappy with my current camera situation because my ipad mini with which I can imbed photos into this blog, is too large for my purse, and my backpack is too much bother to wrestle with. I may buy a bag of the correct size tomorrow or Monday so I can have a greater selection of photos to share. In the meantime, I'm channeling Julie Andrews, the irrepressible 'Maria.''