Salzburg Austria to Southern Germany

After a wonderful time in Vienna and visiting with friends, we hopped aboard a train and headed to Salzburg. I think the most interesting thing about the train ride was the group of loud, drunk and somewhat threatening soccer fans. They were quite drunk…at 10:00 in the morning! We hunkered down for the hour that they were around us and then they exited to go and cheer their team on. Crisis averted!

And when we stepped off the train, we were in beautiful Salzburg, Austria - home of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Yes, Salzburg is famous for being the birthplace of Mozart and we just happened to be visiting during their international music festival - what an amazing time to be there! We attended an organ concert in the beautiful Salzburg Cathedral - the cathedral where Mozart was music director. We also went to a dinner featuring a quintet and two singers performing selections of several Mozart operas.

The city is easy to navigate on foot and we did our share of walking, including up to the Festung Hohensalzburg (Salzburg Fortress). Great views over the city (the cover photo) Here’s some other highlights from our wanderings…

View toward the Alps from Festung HohenSalzburg

There were markets in each city we visited. This market was just behind our AirBnB

After four days in Salzburg, we were ready to move on to our next destination. We took the bus to go and continue or planes, trains and automobiles journey and get our rental car!

We left Salzburg and went to Berechtesgaden National Park in Bavaria. It’s in far Southwestern Germany and an absolutely beautiful area. Only one problem: every German thinks so too!!! It was absolutely crowded and I think we were the only English speakers there!

We took the electric boat from the dock across Königssee to the dock at the other end of the lake where we hiked to Obersee. Here’s what it looked like…

One of my favorites from the entire trip. Öbersee

We spent two nights in a cute AirBnB at Herrsching am Ammersee. After 90+ degree days in Austria, it was nice to have some relief as it barely broke 70 when we were there. We had a beautiful sunset view over the lake.

One of the things that excited me most about the trip was the opportunity to visit King Ludwig II’s castle Neuschwanstein. I purchased our tickets even before we left the States to make sure we could visit, because I knew it would be crowded. The morning we were supposed to go, we woke up to…rain! I was not happy!!!

We arrived in the town below the castle and most of the rain had stopped. Fog covered everything, though, so there was no indication that one of the most famous castles in the world was just up the hill. We hiked the ½ hour up the path to the castle to get in line for our specified tour time. Unfortunately, they don’t allow photography inside. King Ludwig died under mysterious circumstances before it was completed, but what was finished was stunning!

The rain had picked up again as we exited the castle and headed up the path to the viewing bridge. I had my fingers crossed that I could get at least one good photo…I was rewarded when the fog broke!

At first, I didn’t recognize how special the fog made the picture, but Melissa pointed out that the fog obscures any indication of when the picture was taken. You can’t see the roads, houses or 21st century development beyond the castle. It could have looked like this while Ludwig was still alive!