Wednesday, August 26, 2009

This morning, I explored the walking paths on Mönchsberg Mt. while I waited for breakfast at the hostel. It was a peaceful morning; refreshed from a nighttime rain. Today, Brian and I went to the Hellbrunn Castle on the outskirts of Salzburg. Here, we met an older couple from Saudi Arabia who walked and talked with us during our tour. They had traveled all over the world, and he taught at a University in Illinois for many years…very interesting people. The palace was surrounded by gardens and trick fountains. You never knew when you were going to get wet, but since it was a hot day, the cool water felt good. Our next stop was Untersberg Mountain, which straddles Berchtesgaden, Germany and Salzburg, Austria. In the movie, this is the mountain the Von Trapp family climbs when escaping to Switzerland (a couple flaws…first off, Switzerland is not actually on the other side of the mountain, and second, the mountainside would have been much too difficult to climb with seven kids!) We took a cable car up to the peak passing right through the clouds. From the top, we could look down at the clouds, the city of Salzburg, and other surrounding villages. What an incredible sight! I felt like a bird! On the other side of the mountain, there were hiking paths that led to the bottom. We walked around a bit, but didn’t go too far—some of the paths take several hours to get to the bottom. In the evening, we went to Mozart’s residence, now a museum, in the new city of Salzburg. (We walked past his birth house on Getreide Strasse earlier in the day). The museum was interesting and full of music and letters that Mozart wrote. We had a full day of sightseeing. We’ve certainly been getting a lot of exercise from walking everywhere!