June 25: Salzburg!

We got up and made off for Salzburg at about 8 AM on another lovely, sunny day. The drive through the small wooded mountains of the Salzkammergut region was very pleasant.

We parked the car on the left bank of the Salzach River and walked around, looking at some of the histroic buildings of Salzburg: the Cathedral, the Franciscan Church, Collegiate Church, birthplace of Mozart. it is a very pleasant city and I was much more impressed with the beauty of Salzburg than with that of Innsbruck.

After lunch we walked up the mountain to the Fortress Hohensalzburg, "the largest fully preserved medieval fortress in Middle Europe". It was a short walk and well worth the effort. It is a very large fortress - enough to house a small town. The most impressive part to me was the view it afforded of the city of Salzburg. The city is very attractive from that vantage point and you can see all the famous buildings on the left bank.

We drove back to camp and waited around to see if Noel and Pat Owen would show up but they never did. We had an interesting conversation with our meighbor at the campsite. He was from near Karlsruhe, Germany. He was a veteran of the German Army. He had been captured by the Allies in North Africa and had spent 3 years in POW camps in the U.S. He spoke good English and did not apparently harbor a lot of bitterness about his POW experiences - he spoke about how beautiful the area was around the Carson, Colorado camp.