Salzburg

Remember 45 years or so ago, when the Bowman family went to Europe? I am determined to finish blogging that trip. DETERMINED. 

So, in part one we go to Vienna (see part one below). 

In part two, we venture on to Salzburg by way of the cutest train ride. But first, we forget our passports in the hotel safe back in Vienna. Of course we do. 

  On the train.

Oh Katie, you beautiful, rule-breaking moth.

Salzburg is adorable and beautiful and exactly what people mean when they use the word "quaint". We got there in the afternoon and spent most of the rest of the day having a good wander. Our hotel was right on the Getreidegasse road, lined with shopping and packed with tourists and hung with pretty, gilded store signs.

  Even McDonald's looked classy.

  Salzburg cathedral

We took the funicular that leads up to Festung Hohensalzburg, the castle that overlooks the city.

On the funicular:

 The view from the castle.

 There wasn't a lot in the castle itself, but the views were gorgeous.

After a good bit of exploring, we went back to the hotel for dinner. The waiter talked us all into getting the "special Salzburg dessert", which turned out to be basically bowls of whipped egg whites. We made up for it the next day by eating an enormous amount of strudel (and when I say "we", I mostly mean Sarah. Girl can pack a strudel.)

The day after that, we rented two BMW's and headed for the hills. It drizzled most of the day as we wound through the mountains, around lakes, through the fog. We found an alpine slide along our way (an alpine slide IN THE ALPS) and went for a couple of rides. Later, we stopped in Wolfgangsee to get picnic supplies and ate sandwiches by the lake. I could try to explain how gorgeous the whole day was, or I could just post a million pictures . . . 

Of course I chose to wear a skirt on the day we went sliding and spent all photographable portions of the slide trying to hold my skirt up.

Wolfgangsee:

 Carriage taxi in Wolfgangsee.

We got back into town in the late afternoon and even though we'd opted out of the Fraulein Maria bike tour, we still wanted to get our Sound of Music on a little bit, so we went in search of Nonnberg Abbey. As it turns out, the abbey is terribly inconvenient to access by car and in trying to find it we wound up on some very interesting (and very skinny) roads, including one that turned out to be a bike path:

So we ditched the cars and went on foot, through some streets and up some stairs until we found the abbey. We couldn't go inside and it looks a bit different in person—camera angles and all that, I guess—but we got our Maria moment. 

David was thrilled about it:

In search of the abbey.

The abbey.

Apparently the whole thing had me so exhausted that I couldn't stand up straight like a normal human being for a picture:

We also went, earlier in the day, to the church were el Capitan and Maria got married (either in the movie or in real life, I can't remember which.)

Anyway, I should mention, since I've just posted 125,000 photos, that David is an absolute champ for photographing things everywhere we go. He's talented. And I love him a whole heap.