Kimberly von Trapp says... Salzberg Rocks!!

Aaah... much better. One thing I've learned that works really well when you're travelling solo-- have a hotel that's right in the action. I think that is what was missing in Fürth. Otherwise, I think it's too slow-- we need more action when flying solo. My current hotel is fantastic, totally located in the central part of town. thank goodness to my travel agent, I think I remember her saying it was a good location.

Salzberg totally rocks. I took the cheesy Sound of Music tour this morning. Our guide was Günther, and our driver was Heinz--or was it Hans? Günther first had a couple of the youth-hostelers skipping down the road, just like Maria did in the movie with her guitar and satchel.

He later had us yodeling along with the song on the bus. You just haven't lived until you've sung along to the Sound of Music tunes on a bus in Austria. i haven't laughed that hard in weeks. We also did sing-a-longs to "16 going on 17", Edelweiss, Favorite Things, and a couple of others. No kidding.

Günther used to be a mechanical engineer, and has worked in India, the states, the Himalayas, and Africa. He even speaks Chinese and Korean. Any tour guide that can get complete strangers to skip together and sing together is a master tour guide. He looked like an Austrian version of Paul Newman.

One surprise was that we got to go down this toboggan run. Wayyyyy fun! I didn't use my brakes until the very end, I actually bumped into the couple in front of me. Luckily, they were fine.

There was another solo traveller on the tour, she was originally from Brisbane, Australia, but worked in London. She was on a business trip, and took a day off to see the sights. She is a mystery shopper for Visa. Before that, she was a private investigator.

There was a couple from Florida on the tour too, they were hilarious. It's those little witty jokes that can make a huge difference when travelling. That, and the yodeling.

The weather here is perfect--sunny and warm, but not too much so.

I walked up the gazillion stairs to the 1000 year old fortress today, I got a great view of the city. My legs were shaking when I got back, and my shirt was soaked with sweat. I bought some Febreze today, so that I won't smell too bad on the way home.

I had cheese and herb dumplings for dinner, and a 1/2 liter of beer. verrry good.

Mozart apparently invented chocolate, from the looks of the stores. There is Mozart chocolate everywhere. Last year was the 250 anniversary of something related to Mozart, I think they still are selling the extra supplies.

While walking around in one of the squares today, there was a guy playing a small grand piano (mozart, of course) I could even hear him from the fortress, midway up. It was a really nice sound.

Today I finally got to do something I'd been hoping to do while I was on vacation--absolutely nothing. I did that for 30 minutes, while waiting for the tour to start. I sat on a bench, nowhere to go, nothing to do, but people watch and take pictures when I felt like it. It's the kind of thing I'm always longing to do at home, but I never seem to have the time. It seems so simple, but I have to get out of town in order to be able to do it. I think I looked at my watch every five minutes, and it was the longest 30 minutes I've had in a long time, but it was also the best.

Tomorrow, I'm not sure if I'll take the train to Innsbruck, or see more of Salzberg. I'll figure it out in the morning.

Salzberg tv has a lot of shows on the Oktoberfest. It looks really fun. I'm going to try and go to Neuschwannstein on Saturday, and then the rest is for shopping and drinking.

Auf wiedersehn for now...