We awoke late and had breakfast at 10 a.m., the last people to eat. While we were having tea, the girls played with Alexander, Herbert’s son and some other kids who had been saying at the pension who are American kind-of. I think their mother was born in the US, but their father my have been born in Germany and they live in the UK. The breakfast was as I remembered from my previous visit. Bread, jams, Nutella, juice, ham & cheese slices. So good! After breakfast, we headed out for our day of visiting the sites in the city. First, we went to Schloss Hellbrunn. I had gone here 24 years ago in high school during the summer and again in November on our honeymoon. What I remembered from the HS visit was the tricky fountains. We went on a tour of the fountains and all got wet – Emily the most as she volunteered to sit at the Prince’s table. Given that it was 35C already, being wet did not feel so bad. We found a playground right next to the Sound of Music Gazebo – do you have 16 going on 17 in your head now? We also toured the Palace but the girls weren’t easily impressed. At this point, we are all castle snobs. I sent a message to 3 of my facebook friends that I went to Europe with in HS. They all couldn’t believe I was going back or remembered that much.
After Hellbrunn Schloss, we drove into the town and went to HohenSalzburg Festung, the Salzburg Fortress high above the city. We took the Funicular up as opposed to walking it as Scott and I had done on our honeymoon. Way, way better, especially at 90 degrees Fahrenheit! The castle had a marionette theater which the kids liked. The state rooms were not very decorated – remember castle snobs. After we descended, we were in the plaza right next to the Dom where Maria & the Captain got married. There is a large chess set in the plaza and Emily & Ainsley started to play. A gentleman sat down and was shocked that they were actually playing and started giving them tips. He even taught us a new thing – apparently if your pawn makes it across the board, the piece that replaces the pawn acts like a queen. Armed with that move, Ainsley ended up winning as she had 2 queens. I think the man is somewhat a regular there as another player came to play him and the first man sent him away because he was enjoying watching the girls play. At one point, one of the girls made a move without any guidance and both men complimented the move. After the game was finished, we walked over to Mirabell Gardens, where the kids run around singing Do-Re-Me. We got a few pictures that you may see in the Christmas card this year. Next, we found an outside restaurant – no A/C inside anywhere that we walked to. After dinner, Emily requested that we go back to Augustiner so we drove over a second night. Afterwards, Scott said it would be best if I drove and given that it was on the right side, I drove. It felt good – no shouting that I was going to hit anything either so that was a plus!
At bed that night, Emily started off sleeping on the windowsill next to the open windows to get a breeze. Even though we were on the first floor, we had to keep the windows open all night. The first floor windows all have Iron decorative grating so no one could come in. Probably a fire code violation but luckily, no issues.
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