Tuesday morning we started our real traveling. Well, after we had gotten the parents checked out of their hotel, brought their stuff to our room, and had breakfast at the dorm (since that hotel breakfast was really expensive!). Once we had done all that, we got down to the train station and caught a train to Salzburg.
The first order of business was to walk 500 miles to the hostel and get checked in. We managed to get their, but they didn’t have our rooms ready, so we stowed the luggage at the hostel and went into the city to start the touristing. We didn’t make it very far before we saw something neat. Can you guess what it was? HEY! Don’t look down there! That’s cheating! Oh never mind.
Remember that huge fort in Salzburg? Well, that’s what we decided to check out. We took the tram up this time: MUCH easier than walking! We had to stop for a bit to see the view, as is customary when going someplace with a nice view. We then moved into the castle and discovered a little tour we didn’t know existed. We had to wait in line 15 minutes, but then we got a little audio tour of the place. The audio tour actually told us what that big green field with the house in the middle was: it was a turnip field. Yep, turnips were grown there. The house belonged to the field guard that would kick anyone’s butt should they try to steal a turnip.
The tour also brought us to one of the highest points in the fort. From there the view was even better.
I cornered Joni and took some pictures of her and her audio tour thinger.
We ran ahead of the group and got to the end of the tour in short order. It was a pretty short tour, but it was included in the main ticket price, so no complaints I guess.
Pretty soon the parents popped out of the exit door, and I promptly began exploiting my “camera man” position.
They can be challenging models sometimes.
The trick is to distract them whilst you take the picture.
The fort was actually closing in short order, so we quickly hit up the little puppet room. Remember the creepy puppets and the dungeon from last time we were here? Yeah, nothing has changed, they’re still creepy.
We did a quick run through the museum. On the audio tour we had learned that the turnip was one of the fort’s big money making crops at one point, so the current head of state added it to the family crest. Sure enough, we found a family crest with a turnip in it. I guess they didn’t have much dignity back then. 🙂
We got through the museum part just as it was closing down. The gift shop was already closed, so we didn’t get to see that. At that point we decided to head back into the city, so we went to the tram for a ride down. Joni and I went through the little ticket scanning gate and hopped on. Pretty soon Pam came down and told us that Dennis was having issues with his ticket. Suddenly the doors beeped and slammed shut. Turns out that Pam was the last person allowed through for that tram. They just had it on a system where after X people went through, it locked until the tram doors closed. Since Joni and I were already inside, we took the tram down while Pam and Dennis patiently waited for the next one.
When we got to the bottom, we found a little pool with fountains and fish. We didn’t take the tram last time, so this was new to us. There was even a little area next to it that had some information on how the water was used for different things. There was a little section of tunnel that lead to a small spring. Mary Jo fit perfectly
while I fit as well as something that doesn’t fit well at all.
They also had this little fountain that just needs to be seen. Wait for it…
Oooooooo, creepy.
We still had some daylight after that, so we went over to the big church. It was still as nice as last time. We did notice some interesting imagery in their decorations though. Notice anything weird about this?
No? Let me zoom in for you.
Yeah, that’s nice. Pope Skullhead the third?
The church was closing down too, so we headed outside and found one of those machines that squishes a penny and prints some pattern on it. I guess both Dennis and Pam collect those, so we had to stop and get a couple made!
Running low on energy and daylight, we decided to search for food. We went to the place we ate at the last time we were there, but she was closing, so we couldn’t get food. We walked down the block and stumbled on an Irish pub. They had a specials board out front advertising burgers. Well, decision made.
Supper was delicious, and also had a guest star: HP Sauce from the UK. What is HP Sauce you ask? Well, it’s basically a slightly thicker version of Worcestershire sauce. Equally delicious, just a little thicker for a more BBQ sauce like experience.
Right across the street was an ice cream shop, so after supper we stopped over there. I was feeling exceedingly adventurous, so I tried their “chocolate chili” ice cream. Yeah, it’s chocolate ice cream with CHILI FLECKS IN IT.
It was really strange because it would taste like chocolate, then a second or so after it melted in your mouth, you got hit with chili. It burned. As long as you didn’t stop licking it, it just tasted like chocolate. At least now we know to avoid that stuff.
We returned to the hostel, got into our rooms, then played some cards in the lobby while watching the Sound of Music before heading to bed.
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