Our Adventures

On Thursday June 12, I received a rare weekday off, so we decided to head to Salzburg, Austria, which is a little over an hour away from Munich, close to the German border. This is the birthplace of Mozart and the setting for the film The Sound of Music. The city is deeply rooted in the salt trade, as indicated by the town's name (Salz = salt; burg = fortress or town) and the river (Salzach), which runs through it. There are salt mines close to town where you can take a tour. We took this first picture from the top of the Festung Hohensalzburg, a huge medieval fortress overlooking the town. It was a bit of a hike from the bottom but well worth it as we got to take a tour of the fortress, which is really a walled city in itself. On this particular day, Salzburg - like everywhere else in Europe this month - was overrun with crazy football fans representing their country for the big UEFA 2008 tournament. We still managed to have a lot of fun. Both the fortress and the city center are very well preserved and, as you can see from the pictures, absolutely gorgeous. This area of the German, Austrian, and Swiss Alps is the most beautiful place on Earth I have seen thus far. The hills are alive!--Marc --