Europe Day 24: Salzburg

May 7 we slept in, had breakfast, and caught a train to Salzburg, Austria, for the afternoon.  The amazing weather continued for us, with sunny blue skies and mild temperatures.  What a blessing!  The train ride was beautiful too - we rolled through farmland and fields of bright yellow canola and little towns.  When we arrived in Salzburg, we wandered through Mirabel Gardens on our way to the old town to eat.

A view of "old" Salzburg, across the river from "new" Salzburg, with the fortress on the hill.

The Getreidegasse is an old street with unique wrought iron shop signs.

After lunch in a "traditional" beer garden, we headed over toward the Residenplatz to check out the Salzburg Cathedral (Dom).  There was some sort of celebration in Salzburg that day, so we were treated to a live band and festive atmosphere.

Bryan is STRONG!

Salzburg Cathedral

Next we walked over to St. Peter's Church, which has a beautiful cemetary out back.  It was relaxing to walk through, strange as that may seem.

Awesome doors!

Then we saw a sign for the Catacombs and thought that sounded interesting, but it really just ended up being some stairs up the cliff with great views of the city.  It was nice, though not what we expected.

Then it was time to hike up the hill to the Hohensalzburg (fortress).  400 feet above the river, the fortress was never really used.  It was so foreboding that no one attacked for over 1,000 years...but when Napoleon stopped by, Salzburg surrendered without at fight.  Castle admission was free b/c of the celebration (yay), and we enjoyed the tremedous views from the top and soaking in the sun and blue sky (which reminded me of CO)!

We walked back down again, and snapped a few pictures of the fortress from below, another few fountains, and the required Mozart shot.  Then after wandering down a few more streets and browsing shops, we headed back to the train station for the trip to Munich.

The train ride to Munich was relaxing, and we caught up on world events (aka Bin Laden's death and Pakistan's potential harboring of terrorists) through an international newspaper.  Back in Munich, we walked down to the Marienplatz for dinner, and found an outdoor patio spot directly across from the Glockenspiel (huge cuckoo clock :)  Not a bad view, and we enjoyed watching the sky change from rich blue to velvety black as we ate. 

The middle part of the clock "performs" three times a day with dancing figurines and music.

Bryan's traditional German dinner of sausage, potato salad, saurkraut, and a pretzel.

All-in-all, it was another great day - perfect weather, interesting sights, and a relaxing pace.  It was hard to believe that we only had one more day of our trip left!!!