Munich and Salzburg

In the past 48 hours I have been in 4 European cities. Yesterday we did a blitz of Munich, we were planning to stay in Munich for two days but then decided it would be fun to see Salzburg as well so we changed our plans.

Munich was an amazing city, the architecture was so interesting, I think it might be Roman? All the buildings were 4 or 5 stories high and no highrises. They were all stucco in different pastel-type colours, very square and boxy but at the same time beautifully ornate with designs around the windows, on the walls. A very neat city. We hit up a bunch of churches, to be honest, I can't remember the names of them right now, but they were beautiful. Really cool....man do the catholics ever invest a lot of $$ in the decor of churches. We also explored the English gardens, which is a HUGE park that has a beer haus, a really neat river, lots of green space, and something really cool - a place to surf!!! Right near the entrance of the river to the park there are these crazy waves that I think are made from the speed of the river coming through the bridge that goes over it. Anyway, there were at least half a dozen wet suit clad men taking turns surfing the waves. It was really neat to watch.

Munich was fun, we spent most of the day walking around, taking in the beautiful architecture, there was a neat archway that entered into the old city, cool statues etc. We even went to the HB beer house, one of the oldest in Germany, and believe it or not, I drank a beer. It wasn`t even that bad. However, our waiter was not good, and he even took his own tip from our change and didn't let us decide what we'd tip him. Weird eh? Anyway....we stayed the night in Munich and got up bright and early to catch the train to Salzburg.

We almost had another close call with the train when I went off to put a few postcards in the mail and the girls waited for me outside the station, but I had thought we said we'd meet inside, so needless to say there was a lot of running around trying to find each other and we literally found each other a minute before the train left. We had to run....again....with our big packs. HA HA but we made it and pulled into Salzburg Austria just after 10 am.

We were all excited to be in Salzburg because of the sound of Music, but it is famous for several other things. It is a very musical city, everywhere we walked there were musicians singing, playing instruments or the dozens of church bells were playing. Actually, as soon as we walked into the centre square we came upon a group of men singing....probably 20 or so, and they were so beautiful. It looks like they were tourists because they were there with their families, but we thought maybe they were in town to give a performance, were sight seeing and decided to do an impromptu concert in the town square. In front of the statue of Mozart no less. Pretty darn cool.

We walked all over town, got to see the house where Mozart was born and grew up and the house where he did most of his composing. We also visited this amaxzing fortress that overlooks Salzburg and used to house the Archbishop who was also considered the prince of the time. We visited the Abbey where the REAL Froline Maria had taught and studied to be a nun. We also visited St. Peter's church (which is composed of several courtyards and churches). As well, we visited Salzburg Cathedral, where Mozart used to play as an organist. Man oh man....was it beautiful. So many amazing paintings and ornate statues, I honestly can't imagine what the cistine chapel must look like, because this place was amazing. We finished the day with a giant pretzel (mmmmmmmmm) and sat at a cafe, where I had an excellent mocha. Considering how much we saw, it was actually a fairly relaxing day.

I really enjoyed Salzburg, it was so beautiful....right after we came out of the cathedral all the bells in all the church towers started ringing, and they rang for about 5 minutes. It was glorious. I love Europe. :P

We caught the train early in the evening, and as I write this I am sitting in an internet cafe in Vienna. We just finished dinner from a place down the street (pizza) and picked up some food for breakfast from a grocer. Now we'll go back to our hostel and plan for the day tomorrow, relax a bit and go to bed. I hope you all are well. I miss you. Cheers!