Billy's Birthday Trip to Salzburg, Austria

Views from the fortress/castle (Hohensalzburg) on the hill above the city

 You can see the Salzach River running through the city.

  It is the same river that travels through our little town of Burghausen.  It mean "Salt" River because it was a means to transport salt on long flat boats to far destinations.

 Billy sampling the local brew.

 This is "Wiess Bier" or Wheat Beer that is a bit cloudy and rather yeasty tasting ...and very delicious.  We ate ate outdoors at the Cafe at the castle where there was a view of Salzburg below as well as the Alps. After exploring the grounds and seeing the many buildings and exhibits, we came back here and had an apple strudel to celebrate the 50th birthday! Very memorable.  The sky was perfectly blue and the temperature (with the added breeze) made us feel we were in a dream.

A view from one of the upper stories showing some of the many buildings that made up the compound.

They say the fortress was never breached in its over 900 years of existence.  When you ride the tram straight up to the top and then see these huge stone walls, you definitely believe it.  Here is a site that has some better pictures than what I could take: http://www.salzburg-burgen.at/en/hohensalzburg/index.htm

Here is the cemetery that was depicted in The Sound of Music. We saw a woman tending her family grave there, replacing the plants and such.  Each plot is perfectly "landscaped" in miniature. People actually only rent the plots and if a family quits paying... they move the stone & bones to another place and rent the space to someone else! Multiple generations are buried in a single grave. Ancestors are expected to disintegrate to make way for newcomers... interesting. The archways you can somewhat see to the sides are special mausoleums with iron gates containing elaborate stone burial tombs. It all seems like it might be creepy, but it didn't seem so to us. It was really a quite beautiful and peaceful spot.

Deede