Day Eleven: Thursday, May 24

Our stay in Salzburg was a good one. We had a comfortable hotel which served fantastic breakfast, a good tour guide, and plenty of time to explore the city. On our first day, we were able to see a fortress high above the city and the fantastic views that it provided, in addition to childhood homes of Mozart, a beautiful garden featured in The Sound of Music, and a unique bridge covered with locks from numerous visitors and native Austrians alike as  symbols of their love. As was the case with Vienna, we also saw various beautiful statues, buildings, monuments, and so on. On the second day, we went on The Sound of Music tour, in which we were able to see various sites and landmarks from the movie, such as the famous gazebo where “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” was performed, the Von Trapp house and lake behind it. Also, from a distance, we were able to see the meadows in which Julie Andrews performed the opening scenes of the movie. Another landmark from our tour which was NOT part of the film was the Eagle’s Nest, a building erected in Bavaria by the Third Reich in order to demonstrate its power. According to our tour guide Kristoff, Hitler occasionally stayed here, but did not like to do so, as he suffered from a combination of vertigo and claustrophobia. These made stays at the Eagle’s Nest difficult due to a combination of altitude and close quarters of the elevator leading up the mountain. In addition to the great sights from Salzburg, the food was also great. I was able to try several new traditional foods, such as nuss brazen (pretzel with nuts), bosna (a sort of hot dog-like food containing two long, thin wurst, curry, sauerkraut, and senf, a type of traditional mustard), bockwurst, apfelstrudel, and various types of bread and baked goods. Stiegl’s Salzburger Bier is also quite good, and might find a place in my checked bag for the return trip.