Willkommen to the land of Mozart and the Sound of Music

outside of Munich

Mirabell gardens

they like their 'einhornen' too (all little girls seem crazy about anything with a unicorn on it)

this Pegasus served as a backdrop to a scene in The Sound of music

we ate traditional Austrian food at The Funky Monkey

the city is sandwiched between cliffs on two sides of a large river

in the 'alte stadt' of Salzberg

the castle high above

never saw iron grave markers before . Some graves were 500 years old

buildings back right up to the cliffs. One year (sometime back in the 1600s) the cliffs crumbled and their was great loss of life. Since then, they test these cliffs every spring

very old church

inside their gothic cathedral St Michael's

fancy expensive shoes

We flew into Munich overnight via Atlanta. Isn't Atlanta out of the way? Isn't there a direct flight from Detroit to Munich? Well yes to both but we were using frequent miles and the only flights we could afford made us go way out of the way (why, Delta, why)  I like the overnight flights, free booze, lots of food (though the exact same menu as flying to Amsterdam,..Airfrance and Alitalia have more interesting menus). I settled in watching movies Favorite: Rocca Verandert die Welt (Rocca changes the world, a German movie) Maybe I slept an hour despite getting up at 4 am EST so I could run on dark streets.  We got on a train to Salzburg with just one change. I tried to get hotels fairly close to train stations to minimize hauling suitcases long distances.
 though our neighborhood looked quite boring and could be anywhere. It was close to the river however where I could run on smooth paths and use as a reference point. The hotel was capitalizing on the Sound of Music. All sorts of decorations and scenes from the movie though Austrians in general hated the movie in part because of all the inaccuracies but we Americans don't know better.

After walking a bit, we soon were in areas of great beauty. We at outside in a Rick Steves recommended place (The Funky Monkey) and then explored the old city. Mozart was born here and lived here 25 years before moving on to Vienna. We went in the church where as a teenager, he was the chief organist. Every store sold Mozart candy, chocolate covered marzipan.

We retired early as neither of us had gotten much sleep. This was the only day in which rain was a threat but it had rained before we got there. Lucky as the city is known for its constant drizzle.