Last night was, thankfully, our last night in Munich. We were given a room at the Marriott right across from the elevators and heard the mechanical whirring noise all night. Pretty lame how we are Gold Members and we get the worst room. At least our breakfasts there were free.
We left Munich at 9 am and decided against stopping for lunch in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy since it would be at least 7 hours of travel time verses the 2 hours if we went directly to Salzburg, Austria. And it was snowing there anyway and would have made the roads worse.
We are so glad we came directly to Salzburg. We saw so much that we would not have had time for if we had gone through Italy.
I took lots of pictures while Mark drove. Not a bad picture while zooming by at about 80 mph. I love how green it is here. Now that we are near the mountains it almost feels like home. Just greener.
We arrived in Salzburg at lunch time. After checking in at the Hotel Mozart we finally found an authentic Austrian/German restaurant. Funny how everywhere we go we can easily find Italian restaurants. Today we really wanted something local. We found a place called Spieglbrau which was delicious.
We started with a goulash which was really good. Mark had genuine sauerkraut which he says was delicious. I say it was ok. My mom would have loved it, though! It was called a saddle of pork and boy did it have a ton of pork! And I had some pork dish with yummy green beans and potato cakes (just picture a McDonald’s hashbrown).
After getting totally stuffed full of good food we headed out on foot to explore the city. Our first stop was Mozart’s birth place but on the way we found Mirabell Garden. It was beautiful and you can see Hohensalzburg Castle on the hill behind us.
And yes, it was freezing again. Gloves and hats are a must on this trip. I’m still trying to convince Mark I need to buy a warmer jacket on this trip but he hasn’t given in yet. I’m trying to milk all the shopping I can from this vacation but I guess I should be happy I got a coo coo clock.
We had to include a picture of the cool unicorn statue we found. And Mark made me sit side saddle for the picture.
One cool thing we have found is that on bridges around Europe people put locks on the fencing. Most of them have lover’s names engraved on them and then hang them on the fence. I wish we would have known about this because Mary’s Bridge at Neuschwanstein Castle had them as well.
Here’s the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This is the only picture we have since no photography was allowed inside.
The museum inside their home on the 3rd floor was very interesting. We learned a lot about Mozart, his family and his musical proficiency. Picture Piper playing the piano and violin right now. That is when Mozart began mastering instruments. He was writing his own music at age 7. At age 10 he was doing performances.
After that we headed to Mozart’s second home. Again, no photography was allowed and by this time we had limited time to walk through this museum/home . Myrna and I did see some boots we really, really wanted. Mark thought 120 euros was too much. Whatever.
After the boys pulled us away from the shoes we stopped in for a quick look inside the Salzburg Cathedral where Mozart was baptized. The original church burned down and this one was built in it’s place. The inside was huge and it had an Italian style.
Our next stop was Hohensalzburg Castle.
We took the Festungsbahn tram up the mountain to visit the castle which overlooks the whole city. Here is the view of the tram ride, halfway up. Much better than walking.
The views from the castle were spectacular. Here are just a few of the pictures we took.
We found this cool statue at the end of the day.
It’s called Il Commandatore. It was made in memory of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. It is the empty coat known as the “Cloak of Conscience”. It looks kind of spooky. We finished up the day with some pastries and retired to the hotel. Next stop, Prague.
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