Today’s tour started early. We had to take a taxi to a bus station in downtown Munich and ride like tourists! The idea is that we would not have to find a train schedule and figure out where to stop to go on organized trip. This one took us to see the highlights.


On the way, the big deal was seeing Alps through fairly hazy skies, but still a beautiful sight. The scenery was mostly green grass dotted with a few trees, farmhouses far into the distance, and a few cows.


Our first stop was downtown Salzburg. It was nothing like the quaint streets that I remember from college. No little carvings for sale of yodellers swallowing toothpicks. Instead,  palatial and intricate structures everywhere, looking a bit like a fairytale set. Beautiful,  but no one lives here; more like it was built for tourists. There were big plazas and Castle-like buildings and a giant hill that we could navigate by funicular or elevator to the very top of the mountain and get a view of all of Salzburg. We couldn’t find the elevator until we followed the spray-painted sign in the short tunnel!  Most of the town is devoted to Mozart. We had Mozart chocolate, and we saw lots of Mozart monuments to where his father took him, or where he slept or played a concert. Schubert was mostly overlooked and we heard nothing about The Sound of Music (no pun intended).

We met back at the bus in just a few hours and then headed for Wolfgang Sea. Saint Wolfgang is known for miraculous healings. So in a way I think we’ve just been on a pilgrimage. At one time, this was one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in Europe.

The Wolfgang Sea boat ride was just terrific, peaceful, beautiful, and just the right length.

When we returned to Munich, we hopped on over to our hotel, if you needed stops, and headed for the Hopbrauhaus for another rousing party, this time with mostly college girls and a few boys. We were trapped in the middle on long benches. The man next to me was about Katie’s age and over here on business, giving this place a try. It was pretty funny because he was completely trapped and wanted to pay his bill, and there was no way out. The music was really fun. They sang a few tunes we knew, but every few tunes they played Prosit, and everybody sings and drinks. Great way to end the day, good night.