Day 2: Salzburg

Boy I tell you that with Roberta as tour director, we are covering a lot of ground--although she does build in time for meals and a beer along the way. Today was a FULL day in Salzburg that started at the DomQuartier. This is a complex of royal and religious buildings that cover 1,300 years of history in 15, 000 sq. meters -- much of it done in high Baroque style.
I got some pics of the horse drawn carriages of course waiting out front.

I love the architectural details like doors and fancy fish on the rain gutters.

We got to go into the organ loft to see the main organ; although I could not get a picture of the main organ because of the backlight from windows in the loft, I did get some nice shots of one of 4 "columnar organs" down in the cathedral.

Roberta, Tim and Anne highlight the view from the observation deck of the archbishop's residence.

While wandering through the courtyards, we came across two men playing chess, and another sculpture that I think must be by the same artist as the one who did the man standing on the girder in the old section of Munich, only this guy is standing on a huge golden ball.

After lunch, we headed up the mountain in the funicular to the HohenSalzburg Fortress. Unlike many castles I have toured in Europe, this one is almost completely intact, having never been taken by force. Again lots of fabulous architecture to admire and stunning views of the Salzburg basin.

Down the funicular again for a boat ride up the Salzach River.  We walked through the Mirabell  Gardens, where Roberta modeled for a statue, the entire motley crew posed for a picture in front of the flowers, and I am captured with another really dumb expression in front of the fountain.

Then to a really yummy dinner at the Alte Fuchs restaurant where I had the best cheesy spatzle ever. Back again to the hotel for dessert in honor of Anne's birthday, and some planning for tomorrow--we're off to the salt mines! Of course Hal is already asleep...which is where I need to be since again it is after 11 pm.

Munich to Salzburg - Day 1

We arrived in Munich about 5 pm local time on Weds, Sept. 3 and spent 2 hours getting to our hotel, where we eventually connected with friends, Anne, Roberta and Tim. On Thursday morning (today), Tim and Roberta took their small rental car back to the airport to exchange it for a VW vanagon to transport the 5 of us to Salzburg. Meanwhile, Anne, Hal and I roamed a bit in Munich and went to the Apple store to replace the laptop charger I forgot to pack. :-<
As remembered, Munich is full of amazing old buildings like the Rathaus (city hall)

and all these gorgeous old churches (this is St. Michael's)

The man on the rafter is actually a sculpture

This is Anne and Hal posing with a large bronze statue of a wild boar.

And I couldn't resist taking a picture of this very elaborate wind vane on top of one of the old tile roofs.
Then we loaded all our bags in the very nice van and headed to Salzburg about 11:30. When we got near the Chiemsee (a large inland lake), Roberta and Tim deftly took us off the autobahn and found a place to have lunch overlooking the water--the Chiemsee Yacht Club, no less.

We arrived in Salzburg about 4 pm and quickly headed into town on foot along the Salzach River. They have adopted the custom of putting padlocks, bearing the names of couples, on one of the bridges over the river.

We wandered through old town and saw a shop that sold nothing but decorated eggs!

We had a a beer and then checked out more wonderful architecture in the old part of the city

before heading back to the hotel for dinner about 8 pm. As you can see, I now have photographic proof that I went on this vacation since Hal took a picture of me on one of the bridges over the river at twilight.

Hal is already sound asleep and I need to get there soon as we have a big schedule for tomorrow!

Pike Place Market, Seattle - May 2014

We had a nice visit with dear friends Catherine and Kevin when we recently went to Seattle for the big wedding of long-time pals Flora and Betsy. We got a day of mixed sun and rain on Monday when we ventured down to the Pike Place Market. Here are pictures of Cath and Kev with Hal.

 Seattle has its own ferris wheel now and there are just more and more high rises going up.

Tulips were in season so the market was especially colorful!

 As usual, there were plenty of gorgeous vegetables on offer...

 

 And lots of interesting pastas, dipping sauces and other tasty treats for Hal and Kevin to try.

 And of course lots of fish!

 

Chimney Rock - April 2014

Once again, our intrepid tour leader, Leslie took us on a wonderful high desert hike above the Crooked River to Chimney Rock on April 28. My friend Betsy was visiting from Boise and joined us (that's Betsy in blue and Chimney Rock dead ahead).

Fellow hiker Charlotte, was kind enough to take a picture of Betsy and me in front of Chimney Rock when we stopped for lunch.

It was quite a climb, but at the top we were rewarded with some panoramic views of the Cascade mountains.

There were some nice wildflowers along the way, paintbrush, townsendia, etc.

Here is a picture of Leslie and the rest of the hiking group when we stopped for lunch.

When we came back down to the river there were all these mud bird nests across from us with birds flying in and out. Unfortunately, did not seem to capture the birds, just the nests.

This hike is well worth repeating!