Monday and Tues, August 4th and 5th--Seeing Salzburg, Austria

Salzburg is a beautiful historic city.  Founded in the 700's, it first was known for it's salt mines and a trading center, based on it's location on a river.  We began to understand the significance of it's name after our third meal which hit the trifecta of all being inedible due to a heavy salt content.  We kind of lived on ice cream and strudel which in some ways is not such a bad thing.

K in full traveling mode

The first day was spent walking down our street and enjoying the sights, sounds and smells.  German is the language, which can have a harsh, guttural affect on my ears.  We actually appreciated and engaged strangers who were speaking English, as they did us.  We walked down to the bridge that crossed the Salzach River and enjoyed the view of the panorama before us framed by the Alp foothills.  Crossing the bridge brought us to old town - beautifully kept old buildings with an ever flowing hoard of tourists intent on spending every last euro on stuff that is meant for impulse purchasing, but ultimately leads to dust collectors stored on the back shelf of your closet.

One of the joys of the trip is outdoor dining.

The Salzach River

Bridge to Old Town

Salzburg is known for two things - the birthplace of Mozart, (he lived here till age 7 when he moved, (probably because of high blood pressure due to an overdose of salt) and where "The Sound of Music" was filmed.  I literally took my life in my hands when I was singing, "Doe, a deer a female deer, ray a....."  Kat said it had worn thin.  There were loads of tourist bus's filled with folks just wanting to tread the holy ground that Julie Andrews once occupied.  Kat has grown particularly sensitive to one ethnic group who travel in large hoards and are totally (seemingly) unaware of personal space or common courtesy and photograph everything within view without thought to what the picture will actually show.  We cruised old town and managed to avoid buying one pair of Lederhosen - although we did think Max would enjoy a pair.

One of many horse drawn carriages

Mural above the shops

Crowds of Tourists

Fountain in the courtyard of the Dom Cathedral

Dome of the Dom Cathedral with the Fortress in the background

Panorama of the inside of the Dom Cathedral in Old Town Salzburg

Inside the dome.  The cathedral was rebuilt after it was bombed during WW2

Painting in the cathedral

Cafe in one of the squares with a street performer in the foreground.

Statue in another square

We aren't sure what they are selling, but are pretty sure we aren't buying!

Our second day dawned rainy.  Even though it was a gloomy day, we put on our raincoats and walked over to old town.  We walked through the right bank (new side) to the bridge.

Jeff enjoys his coffee on the fourth floor breakfast room.

Kat loved this scarf....it soon adorned her neck

Deserted curving streets on the right bank

On the way to the bridge, ice cream - yeahhh!

Street art

The Salzach--really fast  moving water

The pedestrian bridge had thousands of locks proclaiming the owner's true love. 

 Over the pedestrian bridge to Old Town we saw a market in progress.

Lots of wet tourists

The next thing we saw was St. Peter's Abbey, which was founded in the year 700.  It included a beautifully maintained graveyard. 

Inside St Peter's Abbey

Gone in 1147 but not forgotten

The graveyard on the way to the Fortress

Then we took the funicular up to Hohensalzburg Fortress which was built in 1050, give or take a day.  It is truly an amazing piece of history with a fantastic view, but the numbers of people wore on us - we both realize that this vacation biz can be hard on a person.  Stamina, patience and flexibility are needed to survive.

The Fortress

Pretty old and impressive

Panorama from the parapet

The city down below

We actually laughed out loud.....they had their iPhone on a long stick to take family selfies......OMG!

Thru the door it was a looooong way down

Bored kids climbing on cannonballs

Part of the original wall

We got silly on our way home.

The last meal in Salzburg......the beer was great, the food, not so much!

They do brew a good beer

It looked so good and it was like falling face first into a salt mine

I guess Kat's patience truly frayed when she found that Verizon had shut off her phone.  We soon found how difficult things can be when our service provider just tells us to call a 800 number if we need help - hey!!  There is no access to 800 numbers in Europe.  Well, it only took 3 hours to get things fixed and resolved and the crisis was avoided.  Seems Kat loves her phone almost as much as me, and yesterday, it was nose to nose - Hey everybody sing, "Doe, a deer, a female deer..."