Today was hot and humid again and we also had two girls whose allergies were acting up and making them miserable.  Katrina had a scratchy throat and Sara had itchy eyes.  But they were real troopers and came along and participated in day's activities anyway.  Because of the heat and the girls not feeling well we cut today's tour of Salzburg a little short. 

 

The first stop was on one of the prettiest streets in Salzburg, the Getreidegasse.  On this street is the house where Mozart was born, the Mozarts Geburtshaus, and has beautifully ornate hanging signs, a practice that got it's start in medieval times.

 

Jim also showed the students around other parts of the city and we visited a couple of small little street markets that were fun to poke around in.  One of the little markets included a very large cheese and fresh meat vendor.  There were lots of different types of cheeses and meats and with the hot weather the smells were interesting to say the least. We shared a huge apple pretzel that could easily become addictive that we bought from a street vendor.  Other sights included the cemetery that was the inspiration of the graveyard scene in The Sound Of Music movie.  When we left the cemetery, we went into the castle bakery and some of us bought a fresh, delicious roll with raisins.  The bakery still uses a water wheel to generate the power to grind the wheat into flour. 

 

Of course no European city tour is complete without including a church or two, so we saw the inside of three churches; the Collegian Kirche, the St. Peter's Kirche and the Salzburg Cathedral Dom also called St. Paul's.  Inside St. Paul's is the baptismal font used to baptize Mozart. 

 

No self respecting tourist area in Austria is free of street vendors and musicians and Salzburg is no exception.  We listened to a group outside the Dom playing the accordian, two minerature balalaikas as well as a large one.  I've included a picture of the group so you can see what I'm talking about. 

 

The highlight of the excursion today was to climb to the top of the hill and visit the Borg or castle.  Whenever you see a picture or Salzburg, there will most likely be a picture of this fortress in it, it's quite impressive.  Although it was hot, Jim and the students made the climb to the top in about 15 minutes.  At the castle we took a self guided tour of the interior, went into the museum, a marionette museum (marionette shows are popular here), saw the canons and the castle well. 

 

After our tour around the castle, we went back to the train station where everyone had Doner, a turkish sandwich that everyone loves, and a cold drink.

 

Tomorrow, we will go to Mauthausen, a brutal concentration camp during WWII.