Salzburg

Four days, four adults, six kids, four scheduled events. Great weekend. We went with our Volksmarch buddies, Scott, Bonnie and their kids to the German/Austrian border for the long weekend. The motto for our Salzburg section of the trip might as well have been: Here Come the Americans!. Thursday afternoon we descended into one of the region's salt mines, which provided the area with its wealth hundreds of years ago. Train ride in; long slide deeper into the mine; leisurely stroll several hundred feet under ground as we learned about how they pump fresh water into a section, dissolve the salt and pump out the saline slurry from the bottom. Takes 30 years to get all the salt, leaving a lake the size of a football field. Electric boat ride across an underground salt lake. More slides and trains and a glimpse at a giant bronze antique pump.

Then Fraulein Maria's Sound of Music bicycle tour. We took a grueling seven-mile ride through the city around some of the famous parts of the movie past statues, gardens, convents, castles and mansions. The kids and moms sang and sang. For some reason, I think the two dads were quiet.

Saturday night was dinner in the Hohensalzburg Fortress. One of the restaurants has a program with medieval games (no wild boar hunting though) and waiters in costume.

We spent Saturday on the Konigssee, which is so beautiful it made my heart sore and soar to look at it. It is rare that a spot on earth is everything you could want it to be. This is. No motorized vehicles on the lake so it is quiet, clean and mirror smooth (only one set of electric boats). One of the boat attendants pulled out a flugelhorn and played it (badly) facing a granite cliff. The sound came back to us in fuller, rounder tones.

Highlights:
Coming off the boat at the Konigssee shore to find a group of traditional German dancers performing on the peer.
Listening to the kids sing "Do a Deer" well, shout "Do a Deer" as we biked along the river. We sounded *just* like Julie Andrews
Listening to the clang of cow bells echo off the mountainside as we walked through Bertchesgaden,
Hearing Micah brag that he shot his first crossbow.
Riding a wooden slide deep into a salt mine
Trying to convince the three older girls to get out of the car to see one of the most famous cities in Europe (they were listening to The Westing Game on tape in the car, and that book is always at an exciting part).
Nutella for breakfast.