Two Days In, Having a Blast!

Hey, everyone. Sorry that there was no post yesterday. We went from literally sun-up to sun-down, and by the time it was all said and done, I was too zonked to remember to post. I did remember to take pictures though.

The first thing we did yesterday, after getting ourselves oriented, was to visit the Salzburg Museum.



As you can probably figure out from the name, it's a museum that chronicles the history of Salzburg, which actually goes back several hundred years: Salzburg was a wealthy city-state and then an independent province before being absorbed into the Austria-Hungarian Empire in the mid 1700s.

We spent about an hour or so in the museum, following a guided audio tour. Here are some pictures of some of the exhibits:









After that, we went to one of the two Mozart Museums in the city. Specifically, we went to the house where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born and raised. No pictures of the interior, as they didn't let you take cameras inside, but I did get a picture of the outside...



...as well as a picture of Mozart's statue in the city square.



Next, we went to the big fortress that overlooks the city. Sadly, the name of said fort escapes me. Sorry.



We took a funicular railway up to the top (didn't get any pics, sorry), spent about an hour and a half up there, and then hiked back down to the city. Man, the views up there are spectacular!





After visiting the fort, we went to Schloss Hellbrunn, which, despite the ominous-sounding name, is actually a pleasure-palace designed by one of the Prince-Archbishops who ruled Salzburg back in the mid-1600s. Again, no pictures, because the entire area is rigged with water traps; a whole bunch of little nozzles that spray water at guests. Needless to say, I didn't want to wreck my camera on my first day in, but a few of my friends took pics. I'll have to borrow one of their memory cards.

Anyway, that was my first full day in Salzburg. I had a real blast.

I'll post pics of what I did to day later on. Until then, peace.

Thanks also for your prayers during my travels.

-Raptor

PS. Amanda, I did get your message. Thanks very much for the call. Unfortunately, I couldn't call you back because, stupidly, I didn't pack my cell-phone charger and needed the phone to be charged in case of an emergency. So sorry!

Also, including Prof. Berlin, his wife, and Dr. Guentzel, there are 13 of us. Perfect size, actually; we can go out sightseeing together without having to split up or clogging up any of the sights with our presence (as about three foreign tour groups, each numbering 20+ did in both museums and the Fortress).