The Smiths Do Germany: Salzburg

With heavy hearts after leaving Dachau, we headed to our hotel in Salzburg where we stayed for two nights. The name of the hotel was Gablerbau (Star Inn). We were excited to find out that we got a free upgrade to the top floor suite. It was a HUGE improvement over the last hotel. There was plenty of room for us to spread out and two flat screen TVs which the kids were glad to see (even if it was in German). Salzburg is a beautiful town. It is most famous as the birthplace of Mozart and also where the Sound of Music was filmed. On the last day we headed to the mountains south of Salzburg and it was some of the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen.

View at night from the bridge.

Cheers!

This was at a restaurant called Carpe Deim Finest Fingerfood. All the meals (even this cheeseburger) are served in shot glasses. We weren't really expecting this, but we ended up having a great meal.

The bridge in the daytime. People put locks all over the fences with initials, wishes, etc. Mary King loved this and wanted to stay looking at all the different locks for as long as we could wait. :)

We spent an evening here at the Augustiner Brau Mulln. It was founded by monks in 1621 and it is still a monastery/brewery which is common here as well due to historical reasons I won't go into here. We drank the best beer we've ever had (Augustiner Hell) out of big wooden barrels in stone mugs. There was a playground and the kids had a blast playing with other kids. We met a family from the area who were pretty entertaining and had some interesting things to say about the differences between Germans and Austrians.

The kids reading at the brewery.

Okay schmuck means jewelry but still too good to pass up.

Below are photos from the Hohensalzburg Fortress. Here is what it looks like from below:

This was a Marionnette Museum inside the fortress.

Views from the fortress down into Salzburg.

Brad as a prisoner in the fortress.

Leaving the fortress, we went back into town:

Salzburg Cathedral (I didn't take this picture but this shows the whole front of the church.

Mozart's Home

Below are pictures from Mirabell Park and Gardens:

Random things around Salzburg:

In a touristy store in Salzburg, Mary King joined the Von Trapp family!

Cute marionette street show.

On the final day we drove 30 min south of Salzburg into the mountains. We were completely blow away by what we found. We drove to Berchtesgaden National Park and took an electric boat across Lake Konigssee which is a glacier lake - Germany's third deepest and also the cleanest. Only electric-powered ships, rowing and pedal boats have been allowed since 1909. It was crystal clear and a beautiful color that almost looked fake because it was so aqua-green. We stopped once at St. Bartoloma and had the most delicious smoked fish we've ever had. Then we got back on the boat and went another 20 min or so to the other end and then hiked about 15 min to Lake Obersee.

First stop at St. Bartholomä - a famous pilgrimage church only reached by boat or trails.

We stopped on the boat to hear the guide play a trumpet - the echo would play it back note for note perfectly. They were talking about it in German so when it was over we asked the kids what they thought and they both thought someone was on top of the mountain playing it back. ha!