Salzburg

We are finishing up out last night in Salzburg, Austria. We've had a busy few days squeezing in all the sites we can manage. Since we got into town late the night before we spent our first day just walking around the old town seeing where Mozart lived, their famous old shopping street with their ornate gilded street signs now filled with luxury shops, the fortress high on the hill, the cathedral and many of the sound of music landmarks. Salzburg has such a quaint feel to it as well as pretty high end. In the Rick Steve's book he says vagabonds will wish they had brought nicer clothes and he's right. Everyone is pulled together looking very fashionable. We fit right in - of course.

Today we packed a lunch and drove 15miles outside Salzburg to the area where Hitler had his main command station/bunker during the war. Apparently this particular area was Hitler's favorite and therefore wanted to make it his central command. It is quite picturesque, winding up the mountains with 360 degree views of the surrounding area hillsides, towns, lakes and meadows. There is a big cabin/house up at the very top of the peak which you can take a gold gilded elevator up to to hike around and soak in all the views. It's pretty impressive. They've transformed the house into a restaurant so you can get a sense of what the inside architecture looked like but they've stripped away anything that was originally there.

We've had great weather so far and hope the weather forecast of rain turns in our favor. We are doing the sound of music tour in the morning (we did watch a bit of the movie last night as a refresher!) and then headed back into Germany to stay at Garmish in the barbarian Alps. This is the area where the famous castle is located. We're also hoping to get some hiking in. Food has been great, took a break from the chocolate croissant today but I'm sure I'll be ready for one tomorrow. We're playing cards right now listening to a big group of local men sing songs down in the small courtyard restaurant below our apartment, very fun!