Salzburg

Salz means salt in Deutsch. So basically Salzburg is the city of salt. If I paid more attention I could tell you why, but the few things I heard while there didn't stick in the old noggin I guess. I'm sure wikipedia could enlighten anyone curious enough to look it up.

So Thursday morning we had to be out of the hostel by 10 to get our 5 euro a piece deposit back, so trust be we were out of there by 10. Then we headed to old town. On the way we stopped at a bakerei that was pretty full of customers, always a good sign, for breakfast. Ryan got a filled doughnut thing and something else. And because he wanted two things I succumbed to my eye's desires and also chose two pastries. More or less we ate dessert (times 2) for breakfast and I felt sick like I ate a double dose of dessert for breakfast after I finished.

Following "breakfast" we headed for Dom. Wowza! Absolutely astonishing. Dom is so big. Probably two of the Frauenkirche in München. As many cathedrals seem to be Dom was split into sections and when you looked up the ceiling seemed to be domed above each section. Sorry if I am not painting a good visual. And on each of these doms were incredibly detailed paintings. The whole place was beautiful. Downstairs, the crypt had apparently caved in many many years ago and it was only recently that it has been reopened for visitors. They have an art show on display that was rather weird with candles illuminating little skeleton shapes that had larger shadows of themselves displayed on the wall. I did love down there though the colored glass they used in the doors and windows of a very small room that was a mini chapel with several rows of pews and an alter at the front. It was beautiful and very peaceful (other than the young children on a field trip).

After Dom we headed toward the castle on the hill without knowing for sure how to make it up there. On the way we came across a watermill that apparently has been in operation for a long time (again if I paid better attention I could give you better facts) and is used to create electricity to run a wheat mill (I think) that the monks (maybe) use in the bakerei. Hmmmm, not a great explanation of what we saw, but at the time I thought what they had going on was pretty cool. Then we turned a slight right through a gate and were in a old cemetery that was between two churches. We saw A LOT of churches. Although we have yet to go to a museum I think I would get quickly museumed out, but I can't imagine (at this point anyway) of being churched out. They are just so beautiful and to know that people have been worshiping the same God that I do for hundreds of thousands of years within the same walls I am confined in is an incredibly enlightening experience. I love it! I hope to continue to visit churches everywhere I travel. And I doubt I'll find a town without a church at it's center.

As we continued toward the castle we just followed a group of people we figured were headed in the same direction. Unfortunately the tram to the top is not in operation from January 18th to February 5th. Maybe the uphill climb was good for us. At least it worked different muscles than all the other walking we do ALL THE TIME. So eventually, out of breath and a little sweaty, we made it to the ticket booth. Our ticket was all inclusive too, so it would have included the tram if it had been open. Oh well. The way up gave us a chance to enjoy the beautiful view over the city. Once through the gate we continued walking up and eventually were inside the castle walls. It was fun to explore although it was very cold all day. Inside part of the castle we found out that our ticket entitled us to a audio-guided tour that was great to hear (we've done a lot of reading on most places) about the history of the castle. Once again I can't actually recount the information I heard. This is probably why I have never been a good test taker. I remember the things that a teacher wouldn't want to hear about on a test such as what I ate for breakfast. Towards the end of the audio-guided tour we went to the top of the tower on the roof. Unfortunately we weren't up their very long and the wind picked up, so bad that we all headed straight back down. While we were up there though it was a phenomenal view of all of Salzburg and I did get a few pictures. I apologize for not having pictures up of anything, but they will never load. I might have better luck in the morning, but I haven't been waking up with any time to spare if I am going to get to work on time. There was also a HUGE museum (with lots of things to read) inside another part of the castle. By the end we were just walking through rooms to check them off without spending hardly any time looking at things.

On our admission ticket to the castle we saw that we could get 20% off at the Stiegel Brauhaus. I think Brauhaus is brew house, as in brewery. Stiegel is an Austrian company and very old. It took us awhile, but we finally found it. I knew we were headed in the right direction because I started smelling hops at least 4 blocks away. Our ticket included a tour (which was just us escorting ourselves through a huge multilevel museum and A TON of reading), 3 (which turned into 4) beer samples which were actually 6-8 ounces each, and a free gift (the choice between a Stiegl glass or a beer, we each chose the beer). It was really interesting ready about how they were making beer when they first opened. It was quite a process and when the beer was finally made it had a very short shelf life (a day of two usually). The beer was almost all really good. There were only a couple that were too hoppy for me. They had a special one for the month that was really dark and super chocolatey. I finally felt like I tasted some diversity in beer because for the most part when you go out it is dark or light, that's it. They also gave us these cracker things that were delicious and made us realize we were hungary, so we ordered a meal to share. It said smoked trout, but we were still surprised to see and entire fish, skin and head in tact, delivered to our table on a cutting board. I have a picture I'll upload when I can. But I loved every bite.

When we left Stiegl it was time to catch our train, so we walked the long haul back to the hauptbahnhof to find a train to take us to München. We had to wait an hour and once we headed up to the platform we were told o go to a different platform, so we did. Finally a train arrived that everyone seemed to be boarding, so we did too even though it was headed to Frielassing. If you read my last post Frielassing is where we accidentally got off on the way to Salzburg. And when we reached Frielassing everyone got off, so we got off. Thanks to a nice German man who could speak some English we found out the train that should have been coming through to take us the rest of the way to München was not and we'd have to wait another hour for the next train. But because we had just been in Frielassing the night before we knew there was a Norma (a grocery chain) across the street, so we headed over to get some drinks and a snack. Isn't it crazy how if we hadn't accidentally gotten off there we would have had no idea where the town even was or that there was a Norma near the station. Finally our train did come. We made it to München no problem and just made it in time for a train back to Garmisch without having a layover at all. When we finally got back it was about 11:30 or 23:30 since we are adjusting to military time. And folks that it were our first adventure comes to an end.

Friday we slept in, did laundry, never left the Abrams once and tried to prepare for going back to work after a four day weekend.