Johan picked us up from our somewhat remote Viennar hotel in a nice VW van and took us on a day trip to Salzburg. It was a great day! Soon after we got out of Vienna proper, he got off the Autobahn and we wound our way through the Vienna Woods on beautiful, twisty backroads. When we got near Salzburg, we stopped at the Alpine Lakes to breathe in the mountain air, and got great maps of the region from him. We went into St. Gilgan, the village on Wolfgang Lake, where Mozart;s mother grew up, and there is no way a tour bus would get in there. While there, we discovered apple strudel the same as my German grandmother used to make.
Johan then gave us a walking tour of the Mirabelle Gardens and Old Town in Salzburg and then set us free for a few hours of our own exploring. We toured the museum in the house where Mozart was born, and grabbed lunch from a vendor in the market square.
Johan honored our interests in both classical music and "The Sound of Music," and we visited the church where Maria got married in the movie on the way out of town.
Johan was very knowledgable and charming, and we enjoyed discussing everything from religion, history, politics, employment--all topics we, not him, brought up, by the way--during the drive to and from Salzburg.
Expensive, but well worth it!
