June 18 - On to Austria

During the morning drive, we learned about the origin of the onion-shaped domes found on churches.  The shape came from the tulip plant, which became very popular in Europe in the early 1600s.  This "tulipomania", as our guide Erich termed it, led people even to invest in labeled bulbs in the ground.  That marked crashed but the tulip remained a popu;ar symbol in the Baroque period.

Tour guide Erich (from Vienna) keeps us informed and entertained:

Our morning stop was in Innsbruck, where we had an hour and a half to walk around, use the "smile room" (our tour guide's term--I guess because you smile after you've had the opportunity use it), and get lunch.  Most of the group stayed with the tour guide as he led us through the pedestrian street area, past the palace built by Emperor Maximilian I in 1494 with the "Golden Roof" (2,657 gilded copper tiles) 

to a Sweet Adeline's favorite store--Swarovski.  They also have a a nice, clean smile room.  After an orientation talk we were free to shop (of course), strolling among several rooms of "goodies".  Note to my quartet:  unfortunately, they were very expensive goodies....  

Swarovski "fly eyes" wall sculpture.  They "see" what is happening around them and light up in red and blue in the shapes of people passing by.

Even the stair case is decorated with crystals.

In order to have a bit more time to walk around and not get tied up in a cafe, I found lunch in a bakery.  I got a Casey Stengel--no, that's not quite right.  It was something like (but probably not exactly spelled) Kasestegl, a broad bread stick that had had cheese melted on it (but now room temperature).  

From the bus we were able to see the Olympic ski jump on the hillside above town.  Winter Olympics were held here in 1964 and 1976. Wonder if this is where that poor ski jumper became the perennial NBC symbol of "the agony of defeat".

We arrived in Salzburg about 3:00 pm and I stopped in my room long enough to drop my carry-on bag and head out to the Old Town.  Tomorrow's schedule is packed and we get only a brief walking tour.  Last fall when we were here we did not get up to the old fort high on the hill overlooking the town 

so I set out through the Mirabell gardens, where we will give a concert tomorrow, over the river, and through the streets past the cathedral to get the fenicular up to the top.  The fort is rather plain inside,

and I didn't take time for the museum since I had to be back at the hotel for dinner tonight, but the view from the top is spectacular.  It overlooks the city on one side, and small villages, countryside and mountains from the other.

Unfortunately the Dom, or main cathedral has a set of bleachers set up in front of it so you lose the great view as you approach it from the street ;-(

I then took a zig-zag walk through the streets of the Old Town, especially the main shopping street of Getreidegasse.  At one point the narrow street was almost completely filled with a fire engine responding to some sort of alarm that had been set off at the restaurant.

Definitely getting to bed earlier tonight to be as ready as possible for the 6:00 am "good morning" call as tomorrow we are up and out early to Berchtesgaden and Hitler's Eagles Nest.  Then we have a city walking tour, performance, and dinner at a farm house.  I'm exhausted already!  Especially with the heat we are having! 

13482 steps