Salzburg

It's official. I have a new favorite city. Salzburg was amazing! We arrived yesterday in the early afternoon. It was raining/snowing so we decided to have a free night rather than doing any official sight-seeing. Some of us spent the free time napping. Some of us did a little laundry. Unfortunately, I was in the latter group so no nap for me. 

Most of us met up again later for dinner. We ate at this quaint little restaurant in the old part of town. The dinner (grilled sausage for me) was great, and the desserts were even better (I had a rolled pancake with ice cream, but the others were also raving about their apple strudel). European dinners are often a lengthy affair so, by the time dinner was over, most of us were ready to head back to the hotel.

The next day began at 10am with mass at the Salzburg Dom Cathedral. I'm not catholic, but I loved everything about the service. The cathedral was beautiful. The music was beautiful. It was a very peaceful experience in the midst of a very busy trip. I loved it. I think that it might be my favorite experience so far. Unfortunately, because this was a religious service we couldn't take any photos of the inside, but you can believe me when I say that it was gorgeous.  

Afterwards, we headed up to the Hohensalzburg Castle. We did a quick audio tour to learn more about the castle and surrounding area. The view from the top was incredible. 

On the way back down the castle hill, Neal and I stopped for a waffle. Delicious! 

Then, 10 minutes later, we stopped for hotdogs and hot chocolate.

I'm predicting a slight weight gain from this trip.

The rest of the day was spent exploring, shopping, taking photos, and eating (again). 

At 8pm, we said goodbye to Salzburg and boarded the first leg of our train to Rome. At 11pm, we're going to be switching to another overnight train with our 2nd round of couchettes.