Salzburg

I picked Sara up from the airport Friday afternoon.  She must have decided to make up for lost time, because nearly her entire suitcase was full of goodies for Elora. There was a sing along CD, a collapse-able crawl tunnel, a glow worm, a stacking-block train, a set of interlocking foam number mats, a baby doll stroller, and a ball-and-hammer toy.  Aunt Sara went a little overboard, but she certainly knows she didn't have to, and if she wants to spoil my child rotten, who am I to complain?

 Saturday we drove to Salzburg.  It should have taken only about three-and-a-half hours to get there, but it took us more than six.  I guess everyone else was traveling this weekend, too.  Sara and Elora kept themselves entertained in the back seat.

We got there around dinner time, checked into the hotel, and then went into town for dinner.  Sara went for a walk when we got back to the hotel, but Brandon, Elora and I called it an early night.

After breakfast the next morning, we went to check out the old part of Salzburg.  We got a really early start, so we stopped by a cafe to relax for a while, to wait for things to get moving.  The Salzburg Festival was in fill swing, and there were a ton of street vendors set up along the river.  That was our first stop. I found a couple of treasures, but those are for another post.

The views along the river were gorgeous, this was just one of them.    In the back ground, you can see the row of white vendor's tents set up on the walk along the river. Many of them were selling items they'd made themselves, and some of those were actually working on projects right there.

In addition to the lamp-working and embroidery, there was a woman weaving tiny strips of palm fronds, and another painting hand-sculpted mouse figures.

 Once we'd explored all the tents, we headed back to old town.  It reminded me a lot of Old St. Augustine, with the ice cream parlors, souvenir and novelty shops, cafes and little restaurants.  (It surprised me, though, to see that McDonald's and Claire's had both set up shop on the street.  Oh well.)  Most of the restaurants were either upstairs, above the shops, or in courtyards between the buildings.  We had the stroller, so upstairs was out.  We ate lunch in one of the lovely little courtyards.

Elora was in desperate need of a nap after lunch, so Brandon took her back to the car to rest while Sara and I checked out the small Mozart museum in the house where he was born, and grew up.

This was the main draw for Sara.  She is a great lover of all things Mozart, and was in awe the whole time we were in the house.  My interest was in merely visiting, exploring and enjoying the city, but I definitely enjoyed the museum and had great fun watching Sara enjoy it even more.

Fortunately, traffic wasn't quite as bad on the way back.  It took only four-and-a-half hours for the return trip.  Most of the rest of the week isn't going to be nearly as exciting.  She's mainly just going to be helping me get ready for the move, until the weekend, when we have more fun stuff planned.