Salzburg
In Salzburg we tried a program called "couch surfing" for the first time. This is a similar website like woofing, except you are not going to work for the people. It is just a free place to stay and you both benefit by having a personal exchange. We stayed with a very lovely family. The mother is Mona and her two teenage daughters, Ide and Klara who are 19 and 17. They have a beautiful Austrian home and we were able to learn about them and their lives in Austria and tell them about ourselves, in addition to being able to have a free place to sleep for the two nights we were there. Europe was still experiencing an incredible heat wave and it was about 100 degrees while we were there. Too hot to drag the kids through the city so we went looking for places to swim. We went to the Eis river which leads to the Salzach. We found a great spot where you can jump off of a bridge into the water and relaxed there for awhile. The water was very cold but it did not keep us from jumping in several times. After we went to Hellbrun Castle to tour the famous trick water fountains. The archbishop who built it loved to play tricks on his guests using the hidden water fountains. He would require all of his guests to sit at the table and no one was allowed to stand until he stood. He could set off water under their seats to soak them but his was dry. He had several spots like this around the exterior of his home and the girls loved getting soaked on a hot day. We finished by wandering the gardens and had a stop at the gazebo from the Sound of Music where "I am 16 going on 17" was made famous. We enjoyed a long meal with our hosts and they are wonderful and kind people and very interesting to talk to. We took their dog for a walk and they live right around the corner from the VonTrapp's real home.
The next morning we tried to leave early to get into Salzburg and beat the heat to see some of the main attractions. I was mostly interested in the kids seeing stuff from the movie as well as some history. We went to the oldest bakery in Salzburg powered by a water wheel, and of course Mirabell gardens. The kids found a great playground and then we left the city to escape the heat. We drove about 30 minutes outside to Mondsee to get into a lake. They had water slides, inflatable climbing walls and all sorts of fun stuff. We also saw the church from the Sound of Music in this town. Unfortunately huge storms came in and the kids could only swim for 1 hour. The good thing about the storms was that the temperature dropped from 100 to 65!
On Tuesday we said goodbye to our hosts from Salzburg and went to Berchtesgaden. This is a beautiful area but also known because Hitler had a summer retreat high on a mountain top here called the Eagle's Nest. We decided to climb up to it on foot instead of paying for the bus and elevator. It took us about 2 hours of very steep climbing to get up there. There were beautiful views and interesting to see the interior (which is now just a restaurant) given the history. We hiked down and enjoyed a delicious apple strudle before we drove to Munich to stay with James's friends again ahead of Molly's visit with the doctor tomorrow to get her wrist checked out.
