The Hills Are Alive! Sound of Music Tour

What visit to Salzburg would be complete without a Sound of Music tour? In my mind, none. The tour, lasting about 4 hours, was filled with tunes from the movie filling up the bus trip between sites. Bec & I sang to our hearts delight. We visited various sites featured in the movie ending at the famous fountain the kids danced around – Bec felt compelled to danced about a bit, so had a dance down the stairs. A fun time was had by all!

Food For the Soul

My last night in Prague & no Zuzana to keep me company, so I decided to trot off to a Classical music performance. I looked at a couple of adverts, but the one that caught my eye was at 7pm at the National Museum & featured the Prague String Soloists Chamber Ensemble. In the one-hour performance, they played Vivaldi (Four Seasons, Sinfonia in G), Bach (Air for Strings), Mozart, Beethoven (4 German Dances), Tchaikovsky (1st string quartet) & Dvorak.
Set up on the giant staircase of the museum, it felt like quite an intimate setting with people sitting around on pillows & chairs watching the concert. The acoustics were pretty good too. Overall, a wonderful way to spend an evening hour.

Helsinki is Alive With the Sound of Music

They do like their music here in Helsinki. In the summertime, there's music everywhere - buskers on nearly every street corner, free concerts in the park, trios playing in cafes. You can't get away from it, even if you wanted to, unless you had some moose you planned on visiting in the country.

On the way to the ferry yesterday, I came across a great little group playing classical music on the corner. I stayed & watched them for a good 30 mins, as did many others - they were good.

And, after dinner (these really yummy meatballs from Cafe Engel), I strolled down to the little park in the centre of town to listen to this funky (boy, were they groovy) jazz band called Zum from London. For 90 mins they cranked up the beat with this out there jazz like I've never heard before. A part of the Jazz Espo festival they have going here at the moment. Thanks Helsinki!