Monday morning I took Shanna to work, and headed back home to pick up Josh & Kimber. To get to our house from the Autobahn you have to go through a series of tunnels. The last tunnel is the longest, and has an exit & entrance ramp in the middle of the tunnel to another part of town. That means there's a traffic light there. I was behind a big eighteen wheeler as we approached the light in the tunnel. The light turned red long before the truck got there, but the truck never stopped, it kept on going. At that point the light for entering traffic turned green and a car started to go. As it pulled into the intersection, the truck plowed into it, running it up along the side of the tunnel. It's amazing no one was hurt. I saw both drivers get out of their vehicles, and another person got out to act as a witness. Since no one was hurt, there was already a witness, and I don't speak the language fluently, I went around the accident and continued on my way. I'm glad I was way up front when it happened, otherwise I would have been stuck in backup for a long time.
When I got home Kimber & Josh were ready to go, so we packed up the car and hit the road. The first place we headed to was Hitler's Eagle Nest in Berchtesgaden, Germany. Shanna & I had gone last year, but it was rainy on the way down and heavily foggy up in the mountain where Eagle's Nest is, so the beautiful view it's supposed to have wasn't visible to us. This time it was a beautiful day outside, and we had a great view.
Clouds were rolling in & out, so when this picture was taken some had rolled in. For the majority of the time we were up there, the view was spectacular. Here's a picture I took of the valley below.
And another one from the bus when we were close to the top of the mountain.
The ride on the bus to the top of the mountain was a bit more disconcerting this time then the last time. When we went before the fog was so thick you couldn't see more then 5 feet in front of you. This time it was crystal clear, so on a bus with big windows, you could clearly see how high up you were, and should the bus topple over, you had a LONG way to the bottom.
When we got back to the bottom & left, Kimber mentioned wanting to stop in a small town we had driven through on the way to Berchtesgaden. It was so small that if you blinked while driving through, you'd miss it. It ended up being a neat little town with an old church built in the 1500's, a crystal clear blue river running through town, and a B&B that I think Shanna & I will have to come back to!
After walking around here for a bit, we headed to Salzburg. After checking in, we headed nearby to the Stiegel brew pub that the hotel receptionist recommended. They had great food, and of course, great beer. After getting back to our hotel, we started looking at tours to take the next day. Shanna & I had taken the Sound of Music tour the last time & loved it, and Kimber really wanted to take the tour. I found two tours that looked interesting. First was the Sound of Music tour, the second was a city / landscape tour that included most of the Sound of Music highlights. We decided to go with the second option since it also included a tour of the city. The rest of the night was spent walking along the river front and exploring part of the shopping district.
The next morning we walked a few blocks to the tour meeting point. We got on a small van with us and 4 other people, including the driver. I had pictured a large bus like we had taken last year, but I thought maybe with a small group it'd be more personal. The guide took us around the old and new city areas, and pointed out Mirabel Gardens as well as taking us to the lake area where you can see the house used to film The Sound of Music on the other side. I didn't take too many pictures since I had taken plenty the last time when we were in Salzburg, but since the weather was beautiful I took another picture of the house.
After we left here, we toured for a bit more, then were dropped off back at the starting point. The brochure had said the tour duration was 5 hours, and the city tour had only lasted 1 hour. I couldn't help but think we'd been ripped off, which was shocking since the company is well known and the other tour we'd taken with them had been fantastic. We were told to come back at 2pm for the second part of the tour. It was 11am at this point, so we had a few hours to kill. I figured it would be a good time to head up to the fortress. We took the scenic route and wandered through the shopping district until we got to the cable car that took us up to the fortress. It was a pretty day out and you could see for miles up there over the entire city.
After the fortress tour I took them through the cemetery area where parts of The Sound of Music were filmed. We grabbed lunch at a stand in the farmers market we stumbled upon and headed to Schloss Mirabel and the Mirabel Gardens. There were several musical numbers from The Sound of Music shot there. I couldn't believe how many locations from our tour last year that I remembered. The tour we took showed a few places, and I remembered where the rest were and took Kimber & Josh there. As a result, you'll see a few more times in this post where I mention places we visit that were used in the movie. I took Josh & Kimber's picture in front of the main fountain in the gardens, then we headed back to the tour start point.
This part of the tour was on a big tour bus like we had expected that morning. When the tour started we immediately left town and entered the hills outside of the city. Before long we'd reached one of the most beautiful locations I've ever seen...Wolfgangsee (Wolfgang Lake in English). It was a warm sunny day and the water was literally sparkling in the sunshine.
We boarded a boat, and this time, unlike in Zürich, it was meant for sightseeing as well as transporting people around various stops along the lake. We sat out there for a good 20-30 minutes with a drink in hand, enjoying the lake breeze. We passed a large sheer rock cliff. As we got closer, people were climbing up it! There was no ground beneath them either. They pulled up on their little boat, dropped anchor, and started climbing. I took a picture of it....if you click the picture below and zoom in, you'll see them.
Eventually we got to our stop in the small town of St. Wolfgang. We were given 45 minutes to walk around this quaint little town and explore. It was beautiful beyond words...pictures can't come close to capturing it. Here is a picture of the lake from part of the town.
We walked around, stopping in the various shops, and explored the giant church there that was built in the tenth century. I asked our tour guide what the average cost of staying here was, and she said it was comparable to staying in Salzburg. Sure enough the other day I looked up the cost for one of the hotels in town, and for their largest room with a lake view it was only 97 Euros a night! Shanna & I are DEFINITELY coming back here. It would be the ultimate relaxing get away. Once the 45 minutes was up, and we all gathered back at the pre-arranged meeting point, Josh & I got our picture taken with our guide.
The bus then took us by various lakes and towns on the way back to Salzburg. We drove by Mondsee, which was a town with a giant church that was used in the filming of the Sound of Music, but we didn't stop there. I told Kimber not to worry, we could head there after the tour was over. When Shanna & I were there, we found a great pizza place so we could do dinner there. Once we got back to the tour start point, we all agreed, this tour had not been a rip off and had been fantastic.
After the tour got back we headed to hotel and hopped in the car. Mondsee was only 20 minutes outside of Salzburg, so it didn't take long to get there. It was a beautiful night out, and the pizza place was just as delicious as I remembered it. After dinner Kimber got pictures of the church, and there was some sort of Austrian festival going on in town. A group of teenagers dressed in Lederhosen and Dirndls danced on stage while another guy played the polka. We didn't get to see them perform, but on the side were little kids dressed up to dance too.
The next and final stop was Hellbrunn Palace. It was a royal residence, but one of things it's best known for is the gazebo from the Sound of Music is located there. It was the last Sound of Music location to visit and the next day was going to be busy, so we headed there right before it closed so Kimber could see it and get her picture taken in front. I told her the reason the gazebo was closed was because several years ago someone decided to get on the seats and run in circles like in the movie, and ended up falling & breaking either a leg or arm. Ever since then the gazebo has been locked shut.
The day was finally over and we headed back to the hotel. In looking at this post I realized how long it was, and there's enough to write about to warrant another post. Like I've mentioned before, the pictures above will take you to a high-res version, and later once I've sorted through the pictures, I'll make a post with a link to all of the pictures we took.
Next up is our trip to the Salt Mines, Münich, and Dachau.
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