Monday & Tuesday, May 6-7: We left DFW a little behind schedule, but made our connection in Chicago with just enough time to spare. In fact, I was able to stop at one of the many restarurants at O'Hare that sell Chicago Style Hot Dogs and get a good one, plus two large bags of that famous Garrett popcorn, both cheese and caramel. The stewardesses on the plane were agreeing how addicting that popcorn is. After about an 8 hour overnight flight, with Carol sandwiched between a rather rotund guy and me, we arrived in Dusselldorf right on time and then had a 4 hour layover at the
airport. Carol caught up on her sleep a bit and I practiced tunes on guitar until our mid-day flight to Salzburg. Besides the small Cessna 172's that I fly, it was the smallest plane Carol had ever been on. See attached photo of the Air Berlin plane. We arrived in Salzburg mid-afternoon and decided to take the bus rather than spend 35 Euro's to travel 2.5 miles from the airport. It tested the limits of our ability to navigate and converse with anyone that seemed like they spoke English, because we don't speak a bit of German. We did make it though and got off at a stop about a block from our hotel. We are staying for two nights at the Allstadt Radisson, which is right next to the fast moving, clean, and cold, Salzach River that flows through town. Our hotel is a converted residence originally build in 1377. Determined to maximize our sightseeing time, we then freshened up a bit and then began walking the area right near our hotel which is right at Mozart Square, where a huge statute of Mozart is located. In addition we took a cable car up to famous Hohensalzburg Castle that is built on a rock mountain overlooking the city. It's amazing to see the dates of on things like the castle and churches ranging from 774 AD, 1077AD to the present. We may stop in for dessert Wednesday night at a little restaurant (St. Peter Stiftskeller) literally carved out of the rock mountain base that is supposed to be Europe's oldest restaurant, serving since the 800 AD time period. Course we also saw a McDonald's and Starbucks too. Very interesting are the catacombs and nearby above ground cemetary also carved out of the mountain rock base. We had dinner at a traditional Austrian restaurant near our hotel where I had pork sausage, sauerkraut and potato slices. Carol had a very delicious Caesar salad with a huge pice of Pike Perch on it. The weather is so comfortable we were sleeping with the windows opened and we were awakened about 4:15 AM to what sounded like a man speaking in German, I suppose, and then we heard two gunshots. Then I heard what sounded like a woman yell and then more gun shots were heard further away. We were staying up on the fourth floor and weren't in any danger. I went down and spoke to the Indian man at the front desk and he said he was not aware of any shooting and said the area is safe.
On Wednesday we are being picked up early in the AM to catch a charter bus for the Sound of Music tour for about 4 hours and then going to explore closer to the hotel Mozart's birthplace and family residence, and maybe take a short river cruise. There is such a rich heritage of music here, with both Joseph and Michael Haydn and the prodigious Mozart brother's being from here. More adventures await us on Wednesday, I'm sure.
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