Salzburg, Innsbruck, Munich recap

Note: We're all starving and the Internet here is being finicky, so pictures of Innsbruck will follow as soon as we get fed and have time to kill.  Apologies.

Salzburg, Austria

We finally managed to enjoy our time at Salzburg.  On our last day, the weather was lovely, so we got up early and headed to the old section of the city to explore the castle and find Mozart's birthpalace and the Mozart family house.  

 

The castle was pretty cool.  It had a lot more character than some of the others we've visited, with interesting displays on Austrian military history, the castle's history, and Salzburg itself.  It also afforded a lovely view of the city.  Definitely helped redeem our time in Salzburg (not to say that seeing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on a cold, rainy afternoon wasn't worth it as well.

   

Following that, we stopped by the exterior of Mozart's houses, as we had been told that the museums contained therein weren't worth the price of admission.  They were also jam packed with people, so it probably wouldn't have been terribly enjoyable to smash into other people while seeing displays on an individual with whom I'm already quite familiar.  From there, it was on to...

Innsbruck, Austria

Innsbruck felt a lot like a fusion of Bern and Interlaken.  It had a lot of Alpine charm, was very well-kept, had pretty architecture and was flanked by mountains, mountains, mountains!  There wasn't terribly much to do in the city itself, so we spent our one full day there hiking.  We took a tram (that turned into a furnicular!) up to a cable car, which we rode to the top of the mountain, intending to hike ourselves down.

Sadly, the "hike" was mostly a long rock down a very well-kept road, and didn't really give us the woodsy experience that we had hoped for.  It was still a lot of fun, and a good workout (not to mention scenic), but less than we were expecting.

One more quick night in Innsbruck before we checked out at the obscenely early hour of 9:00am, spent time doing nothing in particular until our 2:30pm train, and then headed to...

Munich, Germany

Can't say much about Munich, since we've only been here for a little more than an hour, but I already like Germany.  Everything seems very well-run, and efficient.  Typically German.  Looking forward to a stein of beer and some wursts at a beer garden for dinner tonight!  Until then!

P.S.  We're within two weeks of our return to the USA.  Time has certainly flown and crawled.