Salzburg (In Austria)!

Hello again!  This quick succession of posts is mostly because I feel guilty for not posting for a long time.  I will continue to try to be better about my blog.

Here we are, in the beautiful city of Salzburg!  In Austria!

Salzburg is famous throughout Europe for being a musical and sophisticated city; it was the birthplace of Mozart and also, like any great (and lots of non-great) European city, has centuries of history behind it.

Here we see Castle Salzburg, there at the top!  We also see many of the churches and the bridge across the Salzach river.   Salzburg, in the middle age, was a place of great power and wealth due to the several salt mines there.  That is why everything in Salzburg is named after salt.  "Salz", in German, is salt.

Here we are again, on the bridge, looking down the Saltzach.  Several more wonderful European churches are in view.

Oh, and I should have mentioned, Salzburg is the most Christmasy city I have ever been to or heard of.  The Christmas spirit was palpable in the air, even with Weihnachten (Christmas) being over a month away.

Mmmmmm, European schokolade!  Very delicious.

Look at all the Christmas carvings and nativity sets!  Salzburg is indeed, very, very Christmasy.

Christmas decorations everywhere!  See how Christmasy it is?  Oh, and don't you just love the buildings (once again)?

.......

Salzburg is perhaps a little.....TOO Christmasy. 

The birthplace of Mozart.  There's a museum there now, dedicated to him specifically.  It's pretty pricey though.

Gotta love the little back alleyway cafes!  They are primarily selling Gluhwein, which is the main drink around the holidays.

Salzburg city center!   This is the entrance to the Christkindle Markt there.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree....

It really is quite magnificent.

More Christmas carvings and decorations.

I just can't get enough of these churches!!  They're so fascinating and pretty....

Of course, the center for the Christkindle Markt is pretty cool also.  Plenty of yummies and other Christmas things.

I'm not quite sure who these statues in front of the church are of, but they sure were imposing.  And pretty.

Statue the second.

Statue the third.

So many Nutcrackers......

All of those things that he's selling are for cutting out cookie dough, to make plätzchen, which are the cookies everyone makes around Christmas.

Soap carvings!  They smelled nice, and were really creatively done.  Not sure they would be very practical as soap, though.

Ornaments!  I would've sent some to all of you at home, but I don't think they would have lasted through the mail.

Me, laughing and eating a chocolate covered pretzel!  It was really good too, very Christmasy.

Bernhard's ordering our Gluhwein.  What isn't shown here are the wonderful apple slices that place also sells. They cut apples into slices, soak them in spices, fry them, and then salt them.  Tastes so good one could die.

Us with our drinks and Gluhwein!  Also me, as always, with a book sticking out of my pocket.

Now, to Salzburg Castle!

Nice view from the climb to Salzburg castle.  The tram going to the top was way too expensive to take.

The castle wasn't actually overly impressive from the inside, mostly it just seemed like a castle from the middle ages should.  We did get to see the torture chamber/dungeon though.  But my Camera battery died before then.

Porta dell'Inferno!  1504.  That's kind of old!

Me and Salzburg's beautiful skyline.

I found this picture to be especially beautiful because they had just turned on the Christmas lights.  Straight in the middle you can see the Christkindle Markt, and up more and to the left you can see the bridge we came over on.

I encourage anyone reading this in the USA to come spend Christmas in Europe!  It's really quite an experience.

Also, to all of you in the States, Happy Thanksgiving!

Regensburg

So, on the way to Prague, we stopped at a lovely German city called Regensburg!  "Regen" actually means "rain" in German, so you can imagine what the weather was like.

A square in the middle of Old town Regensburg!  You can just barely see the tips of Regensburg cathedral over the building, but it's hard to see through the fog.

Nice little market going on in a different square.  Don't you just love the European buildings?  And the statues, like the one over to the left there?

I really love those European buildings.  Through the building with the clock is the Steinerne Brücke, the stone bridge of Regensburg across the Danube River.

And, here it is!   It is the main tourist attraction in Regensburg, along with the Regensburg Cathedral.  Did you know that the first settlements in the area of Regensburg dates back to the Stone Age?

"Stone Bridge", originally constructed from 1135-1146.  As seen here, it was destroyed in the war on 23 April, 1945.  Rebuilt 1967.

These are common around rivers.  They mark the record water height of certain places.

Bet this cafe wasn't doing to well business wise, on February 6, 1893.  And It might actually have been there!

Wow, what a beautiful shot of the Cathedral and the bridge across the Danube!  You may ask, "How was Nils able to take such a wonderful picture?"  Examine closely the lower half of the image, and the answer will be revealed to you.

Wait a minute....are those shoes?

The Regensburg cathedral!  Not quite as big as the one in Cologne, or the Church of St. Vitus in Prague, but still very impressive and a landmark of architecture.

Me and my host family, in front of the Regensburg Cathedral!

Gotta love that architecture.

It was quite impressive.  As most 400 year old churches are.

Love the windows.

Need I say more?

Picture of the Organ inside the cathedral, and of course the windows and architecture.

Of course, the architecture can be kind of creepy sometimes.

After sight seeing, we went to this quaint little hole-in-the-wall restaurant whose specialty was Dampfnudeln. It was sort of like a cooked white bread, but very sweet, eaten hot with vanilla sauce.  They were absolutely delicious.

This tower built in 1260!

There's the restaurant where we went to eat, and that tower is over 3 times as old as the United States as a country!