If you know me at all then you know how much I love....adore.....clocks, specially cuckoo clocks and today was clock-a-licious!

The morning began slow because I was so freaking comfortable in that bed. We went down to breakfast and had the usual except for a fancy pineapple and coconut herbal tea. We packed up our stuff and braved the storm for the two steps to our car that we so conveniently parked right in front. We punched in the glass blowing factory called the Dorotheenhutte in the black forest. We got there with out problem. 

We toured the glass shop then bought tickets to see the people blow glass right in front of us. We watched for a while then got in line to....get this....BLOW OUR OWN GLASS VASE. Right? We had the coolest looking vases in the whole house. We had time to watch people make theirs ahead of us. When it was our turn, I went first, we both asked for a small vase. This was key because we do have to get these puppies home after all and some out there were mighty huge. I chose white and black and spots rather than swirls. 

The man who was so nice and helpful, got me a glob, put on the color chips, heated and shaped the blob. Then it was my turn to blow. They give you a plastic nub so your mouth isn't right onto it and the man spins it for you. I blew a little to keep it small. Then he told me to do more so I blew my brains out and a beautiful little vase formed. The man put a flat bottom on it and broke it off the pole. I looked over to see the bf finishing up his totally gorgeous black and orange one. His was smaller than mine. 

We left the Dorotheenhutte elated and uber proud of our vases. It was still relatively early in the day so we actually passed the town we were to stay in and drove an extra twenty minutes to the German Clock Museum. 

This was a paradise to me. It lead us on a tour of the history of time keeping in the finest detail. It began with astronomical clocks, then went through the whole history of the first clocks made. It told the story of function to aesthetics to precision. I particularly liked the progression of the wrist watch display as it represented watches through the decades from before the 1930's all the way through the 90's and beyond. There was also a whole room dedicated to the pocket watch. I loved all the wall clock displays and the various methods of displays as well as methods of function from wooden cogs wit only an hour hand to the nuclear clock. I checked my watch and it was only two seconds off! I left with an even greater appreciation of clocks than I had before. They sound beautiful, as I heard angels sing in the ticking in the room with over sixty ticking cuckoo clocks, they look beautiful, as I admired the intricately carved wooden or the golden inlaid clocks and they are intricate as I staggered at the fine tuning of the miniature cogs used in small intricate watches.

We tore ourselves away from the museum only because the metabolizing machine of a bf needed food, stat. We backtracked to Triberg and checked into our wonderful, darling little hotel, the Hotel Pfaff which is dead center of town and steps away from the waterfall that is sort of the jewel of the town. We had little interest in climbing the waterfall because, one, my legs were killing me but two, because we might not have been able to tell the difference between the waterfall and the rest of the town, it was raining so hard!

We poked our head in an Italian restaurant so the bf could grab a cheese pizza, some of the only things he, as a vegetarian, could eat. Then we walked a block down the street to Cafe Schaefer where they hold the original recipe for the Black Forest cake. I have tasted the Schwartzwaldertorte other places and it is NO comparison. The reason we came to this town is to go to THAT cafe and eat THAT cake. It is like licking the frosting off of heaven. The cherries are perfectly soaked in alcohol, the chocolate cake is perfectly fluffy and flavored. The cream, well I don't even need to tell you how amazing cream is here in Europe. It's one churn away from butter, as I say. Then the whole thing is sprinkled with the kirshwasser which is a cherry schnapps. It is worth the trip, for sure. 

The bf got an eclair like thing with cherries, and we both got some hot chocolates to warm up our bones. Full, and stupid happy we strolled up the shopping street in search of a cuckoo clock. There are a few stores here called The House Of 1000 Clocks. We ended up in one such a store on our third stop. They do not joke around in there. We looked at the various types available; the one day' the eight day, which means you only have to pull the string once a week, the electric, the manual, the musical ones, the ones with dancing people, beer drinkers, water wheels spinning and the ones that are dark, carved wood. We left $1200 poorer but one magnificent cuckoo clock richer. It is dark wood, with very intricately carved pieces, it has a cuckoo and dancing figures with two different songs and it is an eight day. I had to have it when I saw it and i am so thankful that the bf felt the exact same way. He also bought some prezzies that I won't mention until he gives them to the men in his family, but they are really cool.

We rested from the massive purchase and checked our email then headed down for our dinner. I ordered a half board with the room because I have been here before and this hotel has a wonderful looking restaurant which is quite affordable with the half board. We went down at seven and were seated. The awesome waiter started going too fast with the German and I got all confused. I said 'English?' And he said oh! And explained to us that we were having a soup to start, a lamb and pancake soup. I was embarrassed because I didn't know half board meant a set menu so I had to explain that the bf is a vegetarian. I think that set him back a bit but he said no problem. The bf got a tomato soup, a salad like mine, and a veggie and rice platter that he said was the best meal he has had this whole trip! Yay! I adored the pancake soup that had thinly sliced strips of crepe in it. The salad was fresh as it could get, with various lettuces and tomatoes. My main course was a juicy, tender pork slice with mushrooms and bell pepper covered in melted cheese with a side of fries. I tried to trade my fries for the his potatoes. I do not know if it the type of potatoes they have here or how they cook them but they taste like pure butter throughout. If given the opportunity I would eat them like a goldfish until I exploded. I would.

The dessert was just perfect, like everything else on this trip; Two scoops of ice cream, one chocolate, one vanilla, covered in cherries and hidden in whipped cream. At the bottom was a wonderful surprise of alcohol, more kirsh, I suspect. Amazeballs!

We climbed the stairs to our room and internetted until we sere sleepy....like right now....see you tomorrow!

We awoke at six in the morning to multiple church bells going crazy. Next came the drums. That was followed by the cannons. Yes, I said CANNONS. All this was then proceeded by singing, marching and German music interspersed with more cannon explosions. The festivities lasted for about an hour or so. The bells continued to ring every fifteen minutes, however. At around eight thirty it started again. Luckily that is our wake up time so it was not quite as painful. Apparently, May 30th is a big religious holiday in the area. We stumbled down to breakfast which was in the cutest room ever. There were antlers on the walls and domed ceilings. It was like eating breakfast in a little church! We both had the usual, he had cheese and more cheese (it is not all that easy to be a vegetarian here in Bavaria) and I had my egg, yogurt and salami sando.

Brekkie in Mittemwald. I wish I had a photo of the breakfast room. It was all domed like a mini cathedral.

We left in the pouring rain and drove an hour to the Linderhoff Palace. There were several points in this day where I was just staggered back with bliss. Many of these times were at this campus. We toured the castle first. King Ludwig II lived here for seven years. I find him to be a fabulously interesting man. He died at age fourty unmarried and with no children and under sketchy circumstances. Fascinating.

Castle Linderhoff

He also was in adoration with the French which made him quite unpopular with his people since they were at war with France at the time of his rule. Nonetheless, he decorated his home in a French style. Pretty much everything is covered in gold. The bf really took to these castles. He wished we could spend more time in each room but they herded us through pretty quickly. We had a ton to do this day so I was OK with that. After the opulent castle, we walked to the grotto.

Here is a small glimpse of King Ludwig's Grotto. It is all man-made, built into a hillside. He held operas and choirs here, often for an audience of one.

King Ludwig had a fake cave built to have music played for him in it. We then walked to the hunting cabin which is my favorite place on the grounds. It was pouring rain on us but we huddled under our almost uselessly small umbrella for the twenty minute walk. The cabin is sooo cozy with tactic on the walls to look like a tent. There is a fake tree growing up in the center and lots of fur to keep warm, near the fire or in bed.

The photo does no justice to this adorable lodge. See the real tree in the center? Cool.

We walked the long distance through a dense forest back to the car and drove the next hour to the ever so famous, Schloss Neuschwanstein. This is the castle that Disney models his sleeping beauty castle after and they look very similar. The castle is waaaaay high up, perched on the mountain side.

See the giant castle waaaay up on the hillside? We are going to hike up to that.

We climbed the streets in the rain towards the ticket office when I spotted a super cute Alpine wool hat. I bought it along with a pin of the castle and a big, floppy feather. It kept my hair dry the rest of the day. We bought tickets but the next English tour was three hours away at six in the evening. This did not please me since our hotel for the night was still two hours away! The uber metabolizing bf needed food so we searched the multitude of restaurants available to us. We walked all the way to a lovely lake and back. He settled on having a cheese pizza and I had pork medallions in a mushroom cream sauce. I had a local white wine and he had a hot cocoa. He also had a cheesecake with mandarins.

Yum! All this followed by a cake and hot cocoa.

We waited in the still dumping rain for the packed bus that drove us like a maniac up the steep hill to the castle. It dropped us still twenty minutes walk from the castle so we trudged up. We were almost an hour early but didn't realize it at the time. The freezing wind was howling so we found shelter in a tiny souvenir shop and hunkered down form the hour wait. I had a lovely view of the men's toilet whose door was wide open. I learned a lot about the peeing styles of various men and, even less appealing, how few wash their hands after the deed.

Hike hike hike. Up up up. In the rain to the castle!

The tour finally began and it ended far too soon. This castle he built near the end of his reign and never completed it's construction. There were a lot of steps, that is what my aching bones recall the most. The wait for the bus ride down was a lesson in human behavior. We missed the bus that was there so we waited in the 'front' of the line for about ten to fifteen minutes. In that time, there was pushing and sneaking around by all sorts of people. Then the bus came and nearly mowed us all down. There was an animal-like shove-fest that ensued that made us both sick. People were desperate to get on that bus and all notion of fairness flew down the mountainside. We managed to get on the bus in the very last moment, despite being in the front of the line. We lost the car for a bit but finally found it.

No photos are allowed inside the castles so here is an historic one to give an idea of what we were seeing inside Newschwanstein Castle.

It was a little over a two hour drive to our next stop, our hotel in Meersburg on the Bodensee. I was in Meersburg before, thirteen years ago with my ex husband and we were, at that time, at the end of our relationship. While there, I stood alone on a balcony of a palace as the sun set. I felt the loneliness set in as I yearned to share the beauty with another and so at that moment, I promised myself I would bring someone I loved to that very spot and I would kiss that someone at sunset. This trip...the bf and I were running too late to make that kiss that I spent over a decade thinking about, hoping and planning for. We did drive through lovely little towns. The rain came in alternating downpours and sprinkles. Then, I noticed there was sunlight at the horizon. We had not seen the sun, let alone a SUNSET, since the one day we visited Hallstatt. That was the one day of the whole trip that the sun was out. I was driving down the darkening road, mesmerized by the golden amber color. The driving was getting a little more difficult as the darkness chased us down the lonely freeway. Right then the bf leaned over and kissed me. It dawned on me, he knew how much I wanted to kiss during the sunset but due to our late tour date at Neushcwanstein, it was impossible. He changed all that. He is the most thoughtful person on the planet. He made the seemingly impossible, possible. I truly felt that the cosmos opened the skies at the very moment there was a sunset so we could make my long time dream come true. At that moment, I was the happiest person in all of Germany. He is such a perfect guy!

Here is a stock photo of the place I had intended to kiss the bf at. It worked out much better than that.

I seem to get flipped off a lot by motorcycle riders. Apparently, I am not giving them enough room. I do not feel like I am cutting them off though, I treat them like cars....perhaps I am supposed to be treating them more special. But I thought it was worth mentioning that I got flipped off again today. We pulled into Meersburg  at about nine twenty. The hotel was simple to find and they helped us right away. We took off our wet clothing and walked next door to a wine stube. We split a delicious Flammekuche and some local white wine. This stu be was so precious with stone walls and mini wine barrels as stools. I feel so lucky to be here and that things just work out for us.

Time for sleep now. The bf's shoes and socks are drying in the bathroom and he is snoring next to me so I better join him...until tomorrow.... Auf wiedersen!

We drove two hours in pouring rain and lots of road changes due to construction and ended up at the Swarovski Museum. This is a remarkable place. We spent about three hours in there. We bought the tickets and entered the giant grass and crystal waterfall head. 

Entrance to the Swarovski Museum.

There are about eleven exhibits separated into rooms divided by a thick curtain. First we saw the world's largest jewelry stone that was some three hundred thousand carots. We passed along a two story wall filled with gems and crystals as we continued on to the first exhibit which was a mechanical museum. 

One of the crystal walls.

It had wild electronic legs similar to the Herbie Hancock. Video from the eighties and much, much more. Then, and we shall see if I can recall all eleven here...we went into a massive crystal dome that changed colors and echoed in strange way as you moved toward the center. 

Then there were a few rooms of various artists making three dimensional art with crystals and video. There were massive natural looking crystals in varying colors and varying opacities, there was a video of an opera singer singing in the crystal dome, four famous buildings made totally of crystal, mazes of color changing false crystal shapes and so much more. I realize now that there is way more than I can even describe here. I apologize, but with the sparse internet I can get at these old little hotels I am not able to load photos with my blogs so I will have to add when I get home. I, personally am not a fan of reading wordy blogs so I understand if you wait until I add the photos in a couple weeks when I get back.

After the amazing, well displayed, and interesting tour, we entered the shop :-) 

My wonderful boyfriend bought me not one, but two pieces of jewelry!! I got a ring and a bracelet. Everything I wanted, I got. He also bought a beautiful gift for his mother. We had our previously bought lunch in the car. It was semi clear skies when we left the building but while we were eating lunch, it began to pour again. We drive our sturdy, speedy Mercedes four more minutes to Mittenwald, Germany. Our GPS, once again lead us astray but we parked and found our hotel on foot....AGAIN. No problem.

This hotel is our favorite yet. This is our first small town of this trip. The hotel is called the Alpenrose and it is totally traditionally Bavarian. There are antlers, or as my family calls them, dead animals on the wall. There are smalls glass windows that look like they are made of wine bottle bottoms. We sat in the bar and easily imagined being there when the beer was served by wenches in pewter flaggards. We walked the town to do Al little shopping but it was late and we hit only one shop. It was a traditional tracht store. Tracht is the traditional clothing of the local people in this region.  That means lederhosen for the men and boobalisious dresses for the ladies. I bought a top that looks li,e the upper half of a dress. We had to co e back to the hotel because every shop was closing. Good thing because in would have  bought everything at that store and more. Apparently, it is a religious holiday tomorrow and everything is closed. Good to know!!

The bf was hungry early again, I am learning this now...this boy needs to EAT! So we decided to eat at the hotel since it was such a beautiful place. We sat in a carved dark wood bench alcove with lanterns and everything alpine and Bavarian. We both ordered white wine and enjoyed them immensely. The bf had a deep, rich garlic cream soup, then a cheese dumpling that came in about two inches of clarified butter which freaked the calorie conscious bf out completely. 

Nonetheless, he LOVED it. I had the game sampler with a creamy mushroom sauce, spaetzle and cranberries. I mean, we gotta keep the animals employed, right? We finished with a shared apple strudle with ice cream, pudding, and cream. The middle, which, I have never had with a streudle before. It was incredible, and with studding ourselves for. I washed that dessert down with a local hazelnut schnapps which I know I have in my room anyways but it was recommended so I had to have it....plus it is ...AMAZEBALLS!!!!

It was fan fabulous to just stroll up the stairs to our cute room and relax. I showered, he found soccer on the TV. We are as content and as happy as we can possibly be. Goodnight.

We got to breakfast on time....right at nine o'clock. The spread was similar to the one in Munich. I had another boiled egg. This one was brown but I still saw the feathers stuck to the side so I knew how fresh it would be. It was delicious. I had my pfeffermintz tea, orange juice, and yogurt with musili and fruit. I finished off with a salami, swiss and ham sandwich. We freshened up and walked the short walk to my car in the handicap spot. It was still there's...Phewww. We were able to drive out through the gates with no trouble, contrary to what the taxi driver told us. The gates are open for delivery trucks in the mornings. We were thrilled to see blue sky and feel the sunshine as we drove the hour to the darling village of Hallstatt, Austria. Along the way we had tons of photo ops of rolling green hills dotted with chalets whose window sills were spilling over with bright geraniums. All that was backdropped by massive, snow topped alpine mountains. It's like: Yosemite who? It makes half dome look like a kid's toy. We passed the town initially, and parked at the bottom of one of the aforementioned mountains. We took a really steep and long funicular up then hiked for a while.

There's salt in them, thar hills!

The hike was wonderful because we were in a cool, shady forest with the sun streaming through and birds singing. We passed through fields of wildflowers and more chalets as we made our way up to a salt mine. the salt mine here is the oldest in the world. They found a body in the caves that got caught in a cave in. The body was preserved in the salt. They examined it and found it to be prehistoric! They got a first hand look at the clothes, shoes and tools these cavemen used. The tour was really well done. We put on some coveralls to keep from dirtying our clothes and also to provide padding for our bottoms. To get into the deep mines we slid down a series of wooden slides. These slides are so steep and long that you get going very fast! We saw movies and light shows along the tour before they took us back up to the surface on a miner's train.

The bf was already hungry so we had lunch at a restaurant above the top of the funicular. We had cream of wild garlic soup perched on the precipice of a steep cliff, overlooking the lake and town. After my soup and beer I had a 15 layer hazelnut torte, yum! We made our way back down to the car after buying a bunch of gifts. We drove a little ways back to the center of town. I parked in a tunnel above the city center and we walked around the sweet, beautiful town. Hallstatt is my favorite town in all Europe. It is situated at the bottom of a steep mountain and along the large, deep lake, the Hallstattersee. We bought some more gifts and headed up to see the chapel made of bones. Due to Halltsatt's location at the bottom of a rock cliff, Hallstatt people have little real estate to bury their dead so after they are buried for fifteen or so years, they would dig up the skulls and large bones and bleach them. The families would then decorate them, write the name and date of death and display them in the altar. There were over 600 decorated skulls and countless bones lining the walls. 

We then strolled back down to the waterfront and hired a boat. We took the little motorized boat out for a half hour tour of the lake. I was having the time of my life lazily lounging, snuggled up to the man I love in the warm, warm sun as we trolled along the cool lake.

We returned the boat and headed back to Salzburg. We again had struggles with those darn bolsters. We found the right one this time but some men were working on it so we could not enter. I imagine someone did my nightmare and unknowingly followed someone through. Then the bolster popped back up, lifting the car into the air. I have seen this on YouTube. It looks real bad, real bad. I would hate to hurt my Mercedes like that so early in the trip. Luckily, there was more handicap parking just outside the bolsters so we just walked into the town.

We got home, freshened up and headed back out to find a place to have dinner. We turned one corner in the Old Town and saw a Furst store. Furst is a candy shop that made the original "Mozart Balls". The town of Salzburg and all the surrounding areas are flooded with Mozart Balls but you can ONLY get Furst Mozart Balls at a Furst store. You can tell you have the real deal by the wrapper. Furst is in a blue wrapper while all the knock offs are in red. We bought some for us on the road, some for comparing with the much cheaper red ones and some for our families - which, later on will melt in the car. We did a comparison between the red and the blue and found there IS no comparison. The balls are both about the size of a ping pong ball, both have a chocolate coated outside but that is where the similarities end. Furst's chocolate is much higher quality. It melts in your mouth and the chocolate inside is creamy too. As you venture even further inside you find a light marzipan encircled by a thin, flaky cocoon. The red Mozart Balls are filled with a dense turd of cheap marzipan. Believe me, the Furst are worth the money.


We strolled aimlessly around Salzburg reading the menus of all the restaurants we came across. I am really easy about what I am eating but the bf is not so much, being a vegetarian and all. We had almost settled on Indian food (which secretly was the worst possible choice in my mind because I want to eat local food when I am abroad but it wasn't my decision that night) when we came across this little, cozy, half underground tavern. The tavern, called Restaurant s'Herzl, is connected to the much more expensive and far fancier, Goldener Hirsch. The Goldener Hirsch is a super plush multi star hotel. I looked into staying there for our two nights in Salzburg but that would have been over $600 per night!! That should give you an idea of how high end that hotel is. We scored with the Restaurant s'Herzl because I'm sure they have the same cooking crew and staff only with much more affordable prices.



The menus were heart shaped. Awwwww. The room we were seated in looked like it has never changed since the middle-ages. It took very little imagination to visualize serving wenches lugging around draughts of beer, horses tied up outside and rowdy men trying to drink off the stresses of the day. The room is small, the walls are lined with old wooden panels and there are big, stone columns presumably holding up the rest of the building. I ordered a Stiegl Hausbier beer to start. I chose it because it was locally produced. As I have said before, I love to eat the most local foods, drink the local wines and participate in as many local activities as possible. Otherwise, why am I here?!

Biggest Schnitzel in town!

Bread was served in a basket. There were a couple pretzels and a couple rolls. We picked at the bread as we waited for the food to come. Later we would find out that we were charged $2 for each bread we touched and we touched them all. I wish I had jammed them into my purse! I ordered a schnitzel. The bf ordered a tomato soup and some ravioli. My schnitzel was so massive that it took up the entire surface of the plate. Between finishing that and finishing the beer I could tell that my poor stomach was getting pretty angry with me. I soldiered on through the whole meal because it was all so wonderfully delicious.

We passed by Mozart's home a few times, no big deal.

We again strolled leisurely back to our hotel, arm in arm. The last light from the sun was disappearing and some cool night air was brushing past our skin as we walked. We were appreciative of the wonderful weather we had today. We were appreciative of having each other, of being able to be where we were. I just soaked in the moment and felt it through my whole body. When we arrived at the hotel I fell asleep and the bf watched some soccer. In the middle of the night is when my stomach decided to let me know what it thought of the dinner I ordered.

We started the day early because of the early conk out the night before. I was, once again, doing OK, but the poor bf had woken up at 3:15am and could not fall back asleep. Having slept through dinner last night, we were starving for breakfast which was a wonderful thing as their breakfast spread is so bountiful. I am getting less and less shy about my German so we breezed through the service with a nein danke no kaffe bitte. We once again tried to hydrate as well as fill our bellies. I ventured to the boiled egg this time. I swear there was a feather on the shell of my egg. That is how fresh and wonderful it was. I also made a great poppy seed bread salami and German bologne sandwich and a yogurt with museli and fruit. I washed it all down with a Yakult, a fresh squeezed orange juice and some peppermint tea.

Wonderful breakfast, this time with an egg to boot!

We decided to get some more cash before we left so we popped back to the platz for the ATM and some gum for the bf. He is a gum fanatic, that one. Too bad that it was too early for most of the stores to be open because I have a lesson learned. When planning a trip, try to not leave on a Friday. We landed late Saturday which meant our first whole day was a Sunday. Although Europe is pretty progressive and are not crazy religious much any more, they still close everything down on Sundays. Our only day in Munich we could not shop. We ended up with no souvenirs at all. Bummer. Later on in the day when I finally bought some gifts I was leaping about with happiness!

We checked out and grabbed a taxi to the car rental place. We were given a Mercedes! Fancy or WHAT? It was all paid for so we just hopped in and....sat there. I asked for a car with GPS. As such, we were mailed a GPS unit that we dragged from home all the way to Germany. We spent time trying to get it to show maps in Germany yet speak English. We had finally figured it out when we got in the car and ...what do you know?....there is a GPS already connected to the darn car! Then we spent another few minutes figuring that one out. Then we spent a few minutes figuring out how to release the emergency break. By that time the rental guys were nervous as heck watching me drive out of their parking lot with their Mercedes!

We had little trouble making our way through the pouring rain to the Austrian border where I had to stop at a gas station for a sticker that will allow me to drive on their roads. While I was there I had to use the WC, aka bathroom. It was like a subway station there. I had to give a turnstile €0.50 to get through to the toilettes. It was worth it to me at that point....I mean...did you read what I had for breakfast?

On we went to Schloss Hellbrunn. I wanted to come here because the last time I was in Salzburg I went there and it had a lasting impression on me. Of course the last time I was there it was almost 90 degrees F outside. The grounds are famous for what they call "trick fountains". The wild ...or bored? prince set up the outside grounds to trick his guests by squirting them with concealed fountains of water.

Here, the Krazy King put the fountain in the seats of the dinner table so his guests would get a surprise.

One of the underground grottos made with big shells.

This visit, it was raining and about 12 degrees C. It was still totally enjoyable for both of us. We huddled under one, tiny, useless umbrella before we realized we were better off with hats or hoods and fending for ourselves. You know, before we killed each other over an umbrella.

No umbrella for YOU!

After the guided tour of the crazy trick fountains we took the time to wander the grounds further because despite the weather...or because of it, the area was beautiful. It was serene and the deepest shades of green. The statues were all the more dramatic when wet, dark and set against an ominous sky. Sometimes we pulled out the tiny umbrella as an excuse to snuggle up and walk close to one another. We toured the inside of the castle too but it was the outside of this particular castle that was most interesting.

After leaving the Schloss Hellbrunn we had a short skip into Salzburg proper. Our hotel is well situated in the old town where cars are NOT allowed. To keep the cars out they have these posts that stick out of the ground. Like a gate, you can enter a code and the post will lower and you are allowed to drive in ONLY if you are a guest at a hotel and are unloading your car. Our GPS lead us to the correct street name but stopped helping us once we reached the posts. We froze at the blockade not knowing what to do. My hotel instructions said to push the Hotel Wolf button. Problem was that there was no Hotel Wolf button. We circled around after being honked at repeatedly by impatient cars behind us. We never figured out what to do so I circled around and back to the blockade. I pushed any ol' hotel button and whined to them in my pathetic voice......Hotel Wolffffff??? The big posts dropped down without a word....so I drove on in. We pretty much could see our hotel but didn't know it because it was just out of car reach down a one way (the wrong way for us) street. We circled the roads that forbid cars until we happened upon a taxi. I asked the cabbie " how do we get to the Hotel Wolf? " and he basically said we entered on the wrong side of town and without a code we were stuck there with no way out of the blockade. Well that sucks. We found a handicap spot and parked, we walked only a few steps and found our hotel. The woman at the desk was amazed that we got in at all. She said it should be OK for us to park where we are. She checked us in and we went out again. Our room is really cute and comfy, similar to the last one in Munich. 

One of the views from above Salzburg.

The bf was starving and I had the idea that we go up the funicular to the castle on the cliff to eat up there. He was skeptical that he might starve to death before we got up but the funicular was super fast and before we knew it we were sitting on the top of the world eating lunch. He had veggie cakes and a salad, I had a Sacher Torte and an Eiskaffe. A Sacher Torte is a decadent chocolate cake with apricot jam in the center. An Eiskaffe is a coffee with ice cream dunked in it. We took our semi full bellies on a tour of the castle that lies at the top of the cliff. I was most excited to see the torture chamber. I took a great pic of me in hanging shackles, too bad I can't share that now....later though.

We spent so much time at the castle that we ran out of time to see Mozart's residence and birthplace. We, instead, took our time walking the old Town. I was thrilled to be there with the man I love, walking those old streets, seeing the shops. We took all kinds of pictures of various squares and platzes. We saw a huge church and thought it would be nice to take some pics inside. We went in, I lit a candle, as per usual, and we started walking around. I noticed that people were starting to file in more and more. This was much more than your usual church visiting crowd. I suggested we take a seat in a back row and see what happens. A choir of men in red robes came out and began to sing this wonderful A Capella music. We stayed for a half hour or so because it was so beautiful hearing that sound in the echoing chambers of the church. We ducked out and took the long way back to the hotel. 

Back at the hotel we ditched the umbrellas, ours and the one we borrowed from the hotel, and I changed into a dress. We walked back out into the rather comfortable night. We headed to a restaurant called Carpe Diem where all the food is little finger food and mist of it is supposed to come in little cones. We never got a cone but we had some mighty unique food. I ordered three entree snacks and the bf ordered two and one dessert. I started with caviar with sour cream and smooth, creamy mashed potatoes on toast points. Then I had a huge slice of wheat toast topped with arugula and loads of delectable Spanish ham. But here's the twist...they topped it all with caramelized bananas. My third meal was perfectly cooked venison with figs and....here's the twist....white chocolate raviolis. The bf got cheese raviolis in a tomato foam, a coconut curry soup then a Chocolate Mozart Ball with rhubarb ice cream. Those Mozart balls are extremely popular here.

We walked home and I was feeling so happy to be here with the bf. We meandered through the old, narrow, cobblestone streets, happy and in love. We fell asleep at around ten, when we got home.