Three Countries in One Day!

I write this entry on our last night in Salzburg, Austria. We left Prague last Friday and drove across the western part of the Czech Republic, into Germany and then turned south, ending up in Salzburg by about 4:30 pm. Happily, leaving Prague was MUCH easier than entering it due in large part to excellent directions given by the hotel staff. Driving through central Europe is beautiful at this time of year and we had a delightful drive. Salzburg is a much smaller city and we had good directions to our hotel so we only had a tiny bit of trouble finding the correct street for this hotel. We've enjoyed our stay here. The first morning we decided to take the S.O.M. tour that Rick Steves' describes as "cheezy but fun". The mini van and it's driver/guide took 7 of us tourists to many of the locations used to film "The Sound of Music" in 1964. At one point, we had a lengthy drive between stops and she put on the sound track for us to sing along. We also saw the lakes district just outside the city and stopped for coffee and apple strudel, which was delicious! Jon and I went to a concert inside the Salzburg cathedral that afternoon. It featured the immense organ and a wonderful soprano. We've had three delicious dinners here, one Austrian, one Indian (east), and tonight Japanese. We just couldn't handle more schnitzel and sauerkraut! Today we went to the Mozart residence which was quite interesting. He is the city's favorite son and is featured in all the concerts, souvenirs and public areas, via names and statues. His story is tragic in some ways - he died young and poor and was buried in a mass grave. But what an incredible talent!

Tomorrow we leave for Fussen, a small town in Germany on the German/Swiss border. It is a good base for exploring the southern end of Bavaria. We plan to drive on scenic roads to get there and it should be lovely! I am including some photos that I hope you all will enjoy! They are: one of the many churches on the Old Town square in Krakow with the flower stalls in front, the train tracks that brought people to Birkenau death camp, the beautiful Czech countryside, and Jon and I at the lake at the Von Trapp family mansion in Salzburg.