Vienna, Day 3

Actually today, due to the advice and the investigation of our very wonderful and capable travel agent Herta, we spent the day in Salzburg.We got on a brand new train this morning for a 2 1/2 hour ride. First we got kicked out of the first class car where we went by mistake, but even the 2nd class was very nice and very comfortable. Every time I go to Europe I get so jealous of their public transportation. Wouldn't be great if we could hop on a train any time we wanted and go to Nashville or Houston or San Antonio, and for a reasonable fare??  It will never happen, but it sure would be nice.

From the train, at first it looked a lot like Wisconsin with rolling hills, farmland, and woods. Then we could see big mountains with snow.

The old part of Salzburg is the main attraction.  

This archway let to a square where there were food vendors, and where..........

......we had frankfurters for lunch. They are what we call hot dogs. They were invented by a guy from Vienna who studied in Frankfurt, so he called his invention a frankfurter. So in all the world they are wieners after Wien (Vienna), except in Vienna where they are called Frankfurters.

Mozart was born and raised in Salzburg, as was the guy who wrote "Silent Night".  The Von Trapp family is from here too. but we didn't see them or Julie Andrews.

We went into five different Catholic Churches, all within literally a stone's throw from each other.  First the cathedral...

....then St. Peter's Church and cemetary. The cemetary was quite ornate with graves and crypts, and I guess they must reuse the graves, because the plots looked very very old, but there were people who died and were buried there since 2000.

...and St. Francis...

 

There was a shop that sold nothing but Christmas tree decorations...except you could keep your tree decorated all year if you wanted. They specialized in decorated eggs - real blown eggshells - not styrofoam plastic. Amazing!  Spring ones, and valentines and Easter and Christmas and Halloween and any other holiday you might think of. I wasn't even tempted to try to bring any home, they would be crushed eggshell by the time we got to Memphis.

There is a castle above the town. We decided not to climb up and tour it (there is a furnicular in case you don't want to climb, but we decided not to any way).  It was built mostly in the 1500s and is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe.

And then also up on the hill where the castle was there was what looked like maybe a church or monastery, but there was this long brick tube-like thing that went down the mountain. We couldn't find out what it was, and I've searched on the internet and can't find anything. If anyone knows what it is, please tell us. You can see it in the photo below - that long skinny thing that goes down the hill. Click on the photo to  make it bigger.  And while you are looking at this photo, notice all the neat signs for the shops.

All day long we had snow flurries - just enough to go along with the scenery - if you are in Salzburg in the winter, there really should be snow. At the end of the day, just before we returned, the snow really started to come down heavy and on the way back, from the train, fields that were bare this  morning were now covered in white. Here is Armando at the train station in the snow.