Salzburg: Day 2

On Saturday, we climbed up the mountain to the castle and it was quite the climb!! We actually happened upon it by accident (my lazy self was kind of hoping to ride the tram up ... but, whatever!) so we just kept going. It was worth it, the views were amazing on the walk up and it made me feel justified for the street vendor food I kept eating. :) 

(Warning: This post has a TON of pictures!!)

So ... the parking garage we parked in was actually INSIDE the mountain. It was pretty neat! We kind of felt like we were being held captive or something. 

This is the tunnel that goes through the mountain ... pretty impressive. 

I liked this fountain. And at night, lots of teeny-boppers did, too ... for making out. Ha!

So ... this was on the way up the mountain (hill?) towards the mountain. It may not look like much, but it's the performance hall that the VonTrapp family performed in right before they fled Austria for Switzerland! I wanted to go inside but, I couldn't find the entrance. I guess this is as good as it's gonna get. 

The views were amazing. Austria is gorgeous. Oh, and these are the Alps. {love!!}

Half way to the castle ... 

And then, my crazies decided to run up the mountain. Weirdos. 

Just another (of many) shots of the castle ... isn't it amazing!? 

I really like these boys, a whole lot. They just 'click' and get along so great. Kason looks up to Brad as if he were a super hero. (Who are we kidding ... he kind of is.) I absolutely love watching them together and I have a lot of sappy, heart melting moments watching them. I love them. 

Hey ... did you know there's a castle in Salzburg? Isn't it pretty cool? And huge!? 

Once you get up the crazy steep hill, you are inside the castle walls and you can just wander and explore. It was really awesome. We wanted to move in. 

Blacksmith shop: 

A mountain of old cannon balls: 

And, the breathtaking views: 

Oh, and us: 

This was inside the castle courtyard. 

Looking down on Salzburg. Isn't it gorgeous?? 

There are those cute boys again. {sigh}

There was also a museum inside the castle with all sorts of old stuff to look at ... these are just a few of the cool things we saw. 

{These are torture devices ... not party hats} 

After the castle we headed to Nonnberg Abbey. This is the Abbey that the real-life Maria VonTrapp lived in before she became a nanny to the VonTrapp family. 

{hey look ... a real live nun. Kason has a weird obsession with nuns ...}

Next up, we walked to St. Peter's Church. I can't remember anything cool about this church but, there was a really neat old cemetery there that we walked through. 

These are the stairs up to the catacombs ... Europe has stairs and hills everywhere. Never a moment of laziness around here! 

This is Mozart's sister's grave. Apparently his wife is buried in Salzburg somewhere, also but we never found it.

When we walked into St. Peter's church there was a wedding going on. It was kind of cool, even if everything was in German and we didn't understand it. Brad walked out of the church and said, "Kind of makes you even more grateful for our marriage, doesn't it?" Geez, I just love that man. 

{Almost done, I promise} 

So, these houses/shops were awesome. I really wanted to knock on someones door and ask them if we could see their house because, they were build right into the mountain. I wondered if their back walls were the mountain or not? 

Austria is famous for their apfelstrudel (ie: apple strudel) and we HAD to get some while we were there! Naturally! We found this adorable little dessert cafe and had some of the best apple strudel we have ever had. We also ordered wild berry strudel. 

{We were super exhausted and kind of grouchy at this point ... thankfully, the sugar rush cheered us right up!!} 

This water drain was the coolest thing ever. And on the top end there was a spicket for drinking water. I wish you could taste this water, it is quite possibly the best water I have ever had. We're talking fiji water quality here. We would go out of our way to fill up our water bottles with this water. Mmmm, so good! 

And lastly ... this is how we watched conference in Austria. Thankfully the wifi at the apartment was good enough for us to all snuggle up on the bed and watch conference together. The worst part is, the afternoon session started at 10:00pm. Yeah, Brad and I never made it very far into those sessions.