The Brezinski Blog of Adventure: Bavaria and Salzburg

Yay! We're home and settling in after a long and delightful trip to the Alps. Mainly, our visit was to see my good friend C, who I've been buddies with since 2006, and who has come to visit me twice in America and was excited to return the favor. We've been saying for years we'd tour Austria together, but it had to wait until D was off deployment and we could all go together!

We had an excellent time. Austria is lovely, and is full of friendly people and a totally unique culture from Germany (which, for whatever reason, I equated almost as the same country - how wrong I was!). I don't think we had a favorite place. I was most pleasantly surprised by the city of Graz, which you will see in my next entry. For this one, I'll post photos and tell you a little bit about our first two destinations: southern Bavaria in a small town called Inzell, Germany and the city of Salzburg, Austria.

Flying into lovely Salzburg.

Our first two nights we spent in the southern Bavarian region of Germany, in a tiny town called Inzell. The home we stayed in was in a quiet neighborhood surrounded by mountains and small farms that had cows with bells around their necks. At night the alpine breezes would blow through the valley and despite the weather being quite hot (in the 90s with over 80% humidity!) this area stayed fairly mild. Our second night here we went on a nighttime alpine mountain bike ride with our host in Inzell, G. It was so much fun!

Our bedroom at G's house. I love the chalet-style roofline and the large window!

Salzburg for the day. This is the edge of the Mirabell Gardens (a former royal garden for Emperor Franz Josef).

Looking from the Mirabell Gardens towards the Hohensalzburg Castle on the hill.

Austria has unicorns!

D is Mozart!

Makartsteg Bridge, walking towards the "Old Town".

Muzik shop! Fun!

Cellos.

Griesgasse - the major shopping street in Salzburg.

Medieval church doors.

The artwork in this church was amazing.

On the ceiling.

Real skulls on a plaque on the wall of the church.

Gravesites are very well-tended in Austria. It's really nice to see such a peaceful resting place.

After climbing to the castle, this was our panoramic view.

Within the walls of the castle, there was a marionette museum (definitely creepy!).

Did I mention it was super creepy?!

Within the castle museum were exposed walls illustrating the various "improvements" made to the structure over the years. On this site at one time were foundations dating back to the 1100s!

Medieval tuba... Just kidding. I have no idea what this is, but I bet it sounds interesting!

Stick warriors!

I kid you not: This is an actual chastity belt! HAHA!

Stocks!

Within the former royal quarters is now a room devoted to the various military uniforms of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Josef.

Doorway leading from the entertainment hall of the castle to the private quarters. At one time in its history the castle was kept by an Archbishop whose personal symbol was the turnip. You can see two turnips painted above the doorway as a "this is my house" gesture. :) The whole castle was littered with turnips!