Danube River Cruise

Left at 8am for a two hour bus ride to Salzburg through the beautiful Austrian countryside. Made a put stop at a restaurant area overlooking Lake M,___, where some of the Sound of Music was filmed.

Salzburg, the Salt City built its wealth through salt mining over the last several centuries. Another claim to fame is the Mozart was born here. (He spent his adult years in Vienna.) We started the day with a 90 minute walking tour after which we had 3 hours before the return trip.

Tauck gave 20euros to each of us for a lunch as well as coins for the toilets. We visited the baroque St. Stephen's Cathedral and a beautiful little cemetery. We shared fish stew and a smoked fish plate for lunch before touring Mozart's birthplace. Honestly, it didn't move me very much...collections if family portraits and brief histories if his family...the violin he played as a child, a few letters to his wife and some sheets of Music..but not original scores like we viewed at Libowitcz Palace.

At this stop, we had the choice of Salzburg or Chetsky ______, a restored medieval UNESCO town, said to be impressive. But we felt like we'd regret missing Salzburg. The small, old town is pretty with pretty gardens best the Bishop's home, winding streets filled with nicely restored architecture and two cathedrals. I know I'm probably jaded by the beautiful Prague and the well restored Regensburg and Passau. I'm guessing that Tauck gives a choice here because Salzburg is part of their Alps land tour, which several passengers had already done.

But, other travellers reported that the Chetsky was nice, but easily finishes by pm, especially since it started raining at 1pm. OK forgot to mention that Salzburg gets rain 200+ days a year. We were extremely lucky to have a sunny, sweater day.Lue lisää