Our Visit to Austria

Well, we've had some WiFi issues with the computer so I (Marg) get to do the blog tonight from my phone! Mainly it's going to be pics and hopefully Tim will have a chance to get a full description of the days activities up tomorrow.  

We got an early start this morning and took our first real train ride to Salzburg, Austria home of Mozart, the "Sound of Music", Hitler's Eaglesnest and lots of "white gold" (salt).  We toured an active salt mine (Salzbergwerks), lunch at a riverside cafe,  took a short hike to a gondola to be pulled up the mountain, rode the summer luge at an alpine park half way up the mountain (all the best pics of this are on the big camera and couldn't be uploaded), took another quick hike down the mountain to get to the bus and trained back to Munich for dinner at the Hofbrauhaus. (Mom, I know it's a run-on sentence but it's 1230 in the morning and I'm on my phone)

 The kids have really enjoyed how beautiful the Austrian countryside is. I'm excited to see their reactions in 6 days or so when we get to Switzerland!

 More pics and descriptions to follow but for now good night from Bavaria.  Tomorrow... Venice! 

 

 

After our explorations in the Salt Mines of the Berchtesgaden Salzburgwerks we set our for the Summer Luge and perhaps the Eagle's Nest if we could make everything on our itinerary fit into our limited schedule. After our explorations in the Salt Mines of the Berchtesgaden Salzburgwerks we set our for the Summer Luge and perhaps the Eagle's Nest if we could make everything on our itinerary fit into our limited schedule. 

   

This is the new part of the trip - something we've not done before, but something that will definitely have to be included on future trips to Salzburg.  Look at these stunning vistas.  Incredible.

After our time ran out at the Summer Luge in this breathtaking place we hiked through the Austrian Alps over to the Nazi Documentation Center which is just below the Eagle's Nest.  By this time of course, the Eagle's Nest was closed and we had to catch our RVO Bus back down to the city to connect with our next bus which took us to the Salzberg Train Station for the 2 hour ride back home for our dinner at the Hofbrauhaus.  WHEW! Refer to the above paragraph where I said we would try to fit everything into our too-small schedule :-)  

 

 

 

But we finally DID make it to the Hofbrauhaus.  What a place this is!  Tonight I think it was even more crowded and louder than I had EVER seen or heard it in the past.  We found some empty tables and prepared to have a real Bavarian Beer Hall dinner (which we eventually DID).  Unfortunately our waiter was having a bad night for whatever reason and Mr. and Mrs. Mynatt had to pull the "Mean Eyes" out and take care of the situation.  Needless to say we received 2 NEW waiters as well as free drinks for all of our group.  To us (the adults) it was not the greatest of experiences for the Hofbrauhaus.  For the students - I think they had a blast!  So lesson learned - it's all about being flexible which the STUDENTS taught US tonight!

 

But our evening ended well and we had one last look at the beautiful Marienplatz before we packed up to head out the next morning.

  

Good night from Munich...and little did we know what fantastic thunderstorms were heading our way in the next few hours.  I personally like storms at night but THIS one was like no other I've ever seen...

We've had a great time in Munich and just like in years past the days are moving MUCH too quickly!