Salzburg!

After Munich we just weren’t ready to go home. We headed to Salzburg to check out some Austrian stuff. Two things are shoved down your throat in Salzburg: 1. Sound of Music takes place/was filmed there 2. Mozart was from there. When we got home we watched Sound of Music, as I had never seen it before, and we were all like ‘been there... oh, we been there... and there.... i remember that, do you remember that? I tied my shoe there!’


In the square in front of the Salzburg Cathedral is a statue of Mary, and if you position yourself just right, the angels on the facade of the cathedral will crown her!


See?:



Mozarts place of birth:

funky old cemetary we wondered through:



Awesome castle overlooking the city:






This is our new friend Luke. He’s doing an extensive backpacking trip around the world. We first met him on a bus in Munich, then ran into him at the bar at the Hostel we were staying at in Salzburg. He joined us for the day in Salzburg and then even came with us to Innsbruck the following day! It was a good walk up to the castle:


One of the gates:

Inside the castle.




Cool Medieval artifacts on display in the castle, most of which here involve pain or killing:


Some of Shellys undwear from before we were married:





View of beautiful Salzburg from the castle!:

Innsbruck

Next the three of us headed to Innsbruck. We had no reservations or anything so first thing was to find a place to stay. It took us a while, actually it was quite a confusing ordeal, but we ended up in this weird hostel with pod-like rooms.




We found this really cool resteraunt. I had the Weinerschnitzel. excellent. After a good nights sleep we split up from Lucas, as he needed to go see mountains and we needed to relax and do city stuff.

This is the Golden Roof, Maximillian I’s box seating to watch tournaments of sorts below. ca. 1500



Awesome Old Town:

This Baroque building is right in front of the Golden Roof. I thought it was super cool. Me: ‘Hey its Baroque’ shelly: ‘Someone should fix it!’

Hall

Rick Steves recommended checking out Hall, a town 10 mins north of Innsbruck. Less touristy, and super cool old town to just hang out in for an afternoon.

Inside the church they had the remains of various saints on display. Like real piles of bones decorated with golden accessories and behind glass. It was way creepy, and they were preparing for a funeral so I kept the camera put away.




EUGENSTRASSE!!!!!

Neuschwanstein Castle

King Ludwig II of Bavaria was a wacky guy that was really not into politics. He kind of distanced himself from his responisibilities, and as a patron of Richard Wagner, he had this famous castle built in Wagner’s honor. It was intended to have a glam fantasy feel to it, and certainly pulls it off. Its relatively new, mid 1800’s, and because of this, it stands in excellent condition, as it has been a tourist attraction since it was new. (Ludwig II may or may not have been assassinated by his own government just as the castle neared completion... well actually some of the rooms were never finished!)

I took the first image from Google, since I didn’t have a helicopter to take the picture myself:






Ludwig II, Diane, and Kenny!





View from one of the windows:


You’re not allowed to take pics on the inside... but of course I stole a few anyways. Its not like Im going to post them on the internet or anything.

Each room was done up as a schene from a Wagner opera.


To go along with the fantasy theme of the castle, this creepy cave-like hallway has a secret door! Shelly points to the handle.

Munich and Oktoberfest!

We were to meet Shelly’s sister and her husband in Munich for Oktoberfest. They were doing one of those European bus tours and came into Munich a couple of days early to drink. Well, we set a meeting place, at the Franziskaner carousel, and as there turned out to be multiple of these, we were unable to meet up the first day :( So you know what we had to do...

Scenes from Oktoberfest! :






Shelly having a beer at the Hofbrauhaus



at the Hacker-Pschorr tent:

Shellys singing!



Before going to bed we found ourselves stumbling around Munich at night. Heres a couple of pics of the Neues Rathaus, or New Town Hall.

Shelly is in the lower left:


This is where we stayed. Yup! Under normal circumstances this might have been a little cold, but after a couple of beers...