Day 2: The hills are alive...

I love sleeping on trains!  It was so great to stretch out and to fall asleep to the rocking of the train; I felt like a baby in a cradle.  It also felt good to get a full night's sleep.

We got up an hour before arriving in Munich and had breakfast in our room.  How pleasant!

We had about 10 minutes in Munich, and since our trains were directly across the platform from each other, there wasn't time to even step outside to see the town.  I'm pretty bummed about that.  I guess we'll have to come back sometime!  :)

The train ride to Salzburg was beautiful.  As we went along, the Alps began looming on our right.  Oh, they are so beautiful!  Traveling by rail in Germany is so nice, because you pass by so many quaint little towns!  The look like the towns you picture in your mind.

Salzburg was great!  We got to the strain station just in time to get tickets for the Sond of Music Tour.  Wolfgang was an excellent tour guide, even making unscheduled stops for our small tour group of 5.

There was another couple from Taiwan (although the guy, Sean, was raised in San Fran), and a young man from Brazil.  We all got along very well.

After the tour, we had to go buy a camera, as the one we borrowed wasn't working.  That was certainly not a budgeted expense!  But when your camera breaks on day 1 of a 14 day trip in Europe, what are you going to do?  Oh well, c'est la vie.

After that, we checked into the Hotel-Pension Adlerhof.  It was very pleasant and clean.

We dropped off our bags and went strolling to Old Town.

  We walked through Mirabel Garden and past Mirabel Palace.  Then we crossed the river to Old Town.  We had a lovely stroll through typical European streets (narrow and full of character).  I was surprised at the number of people; I didn't expect such large crowds in the off-season.

We meandered through the streets, stopping to buy a spooon, until we got to the fortress.  We rode the funicular (a cog-driven train) up the very steep hillside to the fortress on top.  Oh wow!  What amazing views!  I could have taken pictures up there all day!  You could see all of Saltzburg, the surrounding areas, and gorgeous views of the Alps.  We took the audio tour and ended up on top of one of the towers.  The views up there were breath-taking!

After the fortress, we stopped by a store that makes schnapps and bought a small bottle.

  Then we made our way to a monestary we had heard of that has a beer garden and good food.  It was an off-the-beaten-path place that was full of locals.  We had schnitzel and pretzels and yummy sides.  The beer made there was really good; of course, I guess it should be with several hundred years of practice!  The place was full of character, and we really felt like we were immersed in the culture for a while.

We made our way back to teh pension where we forced ourselves to stay awake until 22:00, so we could talk to the kids.  We also were able to go to the internet cafe across the street and send an email to all our friends and family.

 

After the