Friday - Salzburg to Munich

Normally I avoid sightseeing tours because I prefer to explore a city on foot; it's a more leisurely way to experience a city, instead of speeding through it on a bus and being bombarded by info from a tour guide as they desperately try to keep up, and I think you get to see more of how a place really is. I most certainly wasn't going on foot today however, and instead took an hour's guided bus tour of Salzburg to get as much in in as little time as possible. It wasn't your average impersonal open-top bus journey though; our guide drove just me and a girl from Turkey around the city in a beautifully air conditioned people carrier, in which we were free to ask as many questions as we'd like. He was such a nice guy, very funny and chilled out, and he treated the Austrian rules of the road with a charmingly laid-back attitude. My ticket also got me up the lift to the cafe at the Museum der Moderne, high up on one of the hills, for a free coffee and applestrudel, and from there I was able to enjoy one of the best views of the city. In the shade thankfully, as it had got to 33 degrees by lunchtime.

My strudel view

Back in town, I walked around the Mirabell palace and gardens, featured in The Sound of Music, then sat in a cafe in town for a couple of drinks while waiting for my train. I like Salzburg a lot, as there always seems to be something sweet going on, and everyone seems genuinely happy and glad to be living there. As I mentioned before, it is an incredibly beautiful place, and that goes for many of the people as well; I challenge any straight man to see a smiling girl wearing traditional dirndl cycle past on her basket-fronted bike and not want to instantly marry her.

The palace

The fountain from that famous scene in The Sound of Music.
So I'm told, I've never seen it.

I realised I'd left myself too little time to walk to the station (that, and I didn't want to) so I found a cab, which was just dropping off a little old lady, and the driver said he was free to take me. But with time ticking down, the old lady took her sweet goddamn time getting out of the cab, stubbornly refusing the cab driver's offers of his arm to help her out or to take her bag for her. I continued to smile politely as she gradually eased herself out over several minutes, but the urge to scream some key German phrases I'd learned from old war films at her was almost too much.

Eventually I was able to get in and made it to the station just in time. The train journey was another wonderful trip though the Austrian and Bavarian countryside, and the view of the Alps as we rolled past them was absolutely stunning. I've only ever seen them from the air before, so it was nice to finally get to see them up close. That was until the stupid old bitch sat over the way pulled down the window shade. "What are you playing at?!" I wanted to shout, "they're the fucking Alps!!!"

I had a wonderful evening in Munich. I'd aimed to make it here for this weekend as my pal Mike has quit his job with my old company and I really wanted to see him and his lovely wife Erin before they move back to Seattle. It was great to see so many other old work colleagues too, catching up in a Bavarian beer garden well into the evening. I've realised the best thing about traveling is that when I meet people I haven't seen in ages and they ask what I've been up to, I actually have something more substantial to say other than "oh, y'know...working n'that". Am I becoming interesting?