(written by Dave)

The day started rainy and grey.  The rain stopped but the grey never really went away.  All the same, Salzburg has to be one of the most photogenic cities that we’ve visited.  It is one of the best preserved cities in German speaking Europe.  Through the years there have been a fair share of battles here but damage from the more destructive world wars was minimal – meaning that many of the older buildings are still in good nick.  In addition the Mozart and Sound of Music connections have made for a real artsy feel – lots of flowers and attention to architectural details.  I’m sure that building permits are quite full of restrictions but the final result looks great.

We slept in today than gorged ourselves on the hotel buffet (the buffet is great and will definitely provide us lunch supplements tomorrow – keep it quiet)  Otherwise, we had a mundane morning doing laundry and shopping.  Nancy held the fort at the laundromat while I searched for a new “spork” and a haircut.  Surprisingly, the spork was easier to find than the haircut.  We are now firmly in the part of the Europe that is into outdoor sports and they know sporks.  Being firmly in central Europe also means fancy haircut places.  I really have no hair and only need a clipper buzz.  This is not something that the “artists” or coiffeurs here understand.  Too many want to charge 25 Euro and cut each hair individually.  I need a less sophisticated city and regular barber at the most.  I’ll keep looking…

This afternoon we went out for another walk around the city and I just about killed the camera battery.  Thankfully Nancy was patient with me.  We had a few stops that made things more palatable for her as well – the Swedish candy store, a famous coffee shop called Cafe Tomaselli and a market where we found a great wurstel stand.  The coffee shop proved a great place to people watch.  We got a table on the second level and I snapped all sort of people shots while Nancy read an English newspaper (wow).

We eventually made it to Mirabell Gardens where the real Von Trapps performed in their time and many scenes from the original Sound of Music movie were shot.  The flowers are in full bloom and gardens look great.  Growing up, my older sister was a big Sound of Music fan and the movie came on every year in the USA.  I’m not so much a fan myself but somehow I never could pull myself away from watching the television when the movie was on.  Many of the songs are now permanently burnt into my head (much to Nancy’s chagrin today – something about singing in public being un-Swedish – I’m not sure).

We’ve re-gigged the route north one more time.  Probably won’t be the last time.  We are now heading straight for Linz, via Gmunden.  Our bike path friend the EV7 makes a circuitous route from here that goes to Linz as well but it is not very direct.

Not much else to report.  I’ll stop there so that I can post a few more photos.  Salzburg deserves more than words anyway.  Enjoy the slideshow.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.