Salzburg means castle of salt. It was famous for its salt in the history.
It is such a popular place for tourists and we just needed to follow all the tourists groups to all the famous spots. We soon found out why it’s so attractive to the tourists.

[singlepic id=197 w=320 h=240 float=left] Mirabell garden palace. Baroque style garden. It was originally built by a archbishop for his mistress who gave birth to many of his children ( which is not allowed in Catholic). Eventually he was arrested and died in the prison.

Salzburg is also hometown of several world famous musicians. Such as Mozart. His birth house is this yellow building in the picture. It’s amazing to see such old building still standing there.
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To be continued….

It’s raining when we drove to Austria. This is the first rainy day we got during the vacation.

Drove through the border out of south Germany, it’s Austria. It’s good the EU make it so easy to cross the border. We stayed at Wolfgangsee, one of several beautiful lakes at the foot of Alps. It’s a popular vacation area. In the afternoon, the rain stopped and we had a short hike up to the mountain. My first hike in Alps!

[singlepic id=299 w=320 h=240 float=left] Beautiful view of the lake from the Hut on the mountain

[singlepic id=149 w=320 h=240 float=left]Munchen is the capital of Bavaria. Parked the car outside of Munchen, we purchased a whole day pass for the public transportation. It costs only 5 Euro per person.
The subway came on time. After 6,7 stops, we arrived the center of Munchen, Marienplatz. It’s the center of the old town of Munchen. There were many people waiting at the square in front of the new city hall already waiting for the clock to announce noon. When the bell hits 12 o’clock, the figures in the Carillon starts moving and dancing. They are all human size figuers. It’s maybe one of the most popular tourist spot. Groups of Japanese, Chinese, and Italian crowded the whole square.
[singlepic id=157 w=320 h=240 float=left]There’re many other historical buildings around this area, built in 17 century. The church are in different styles too, which shows less complicated decoration inside.

For lunch, without thinking, we had radler and “pig leg” again!

In the afternoon, we came to the “English garden”, which is a huge park in the center of the city, like the center park in New York. A river running through of it. A lot of people were sitting on the bank of the the river relaxing, some were swimming, just like people on the beach in L.A. On both side of the park, there’re 2 univercities.

[singlepic id=294 w=320 h=240 float=left]A tower in the English garden, called “Chinese tower”. There’s a really nice cafe/restaurant next to it. Recommend it! We sat down and had our cafe time.

[singlepic id=168 w=320 h=240 float=left]In Germany, many famouse bear brands came from Monestries. The oldest one is the Weltenburge, which is said that started the brewing from year 1000.
Our plan today was going to visit the old monestry and enjoy the beer and food. This cannot be accessed by car, only by boat or on foot, bike.
The monerstry is on the bank of river Donau. Normally there’re many boats taking people to the monestery, but today there’s a sign out showing most boats are not running since the low level of the water. But we don’t mind walking at all. Actually it’s quite enjoyable walking next to the Donau river in such a beautiful summer day! The trail is covered by trees, easy to walk, but just one part is steep at the end.
[singlepic id=165 w=320 h=240 float=left]Walking into the court yard of the monastery, I found out the less boat taking people here didn’t stop people coming out here. Many people already sitting in the beer garden enjoying the monastery self brewed dark beer and food. I got a radler and “schweinhaxen”, which means “pig leg” in English. Look at it, it arouse your appetite if someone like to eat meat! It’s such a big chunk of mean with bone in it. The “pig leg” turns out to be great! It’s soft inside with crispy skin. This is definitely not the last one I was going to have.

After the lunch, a boat took us down the Donau river.It was so great to sit in the boat floating down the Donau. I had another wish completed.

[singlepic id=169 w=320 h=240 float=left] On the way back we had a look of this beautiful “hall of libarition”, “Befreiungshalle” in German, which is build on a green hill, with beautiful view of Donau. This monument was built for the war with Napoleon in 17 Century.
[singlepic id=171 w=320 h=240 float=left] Inside there’re many goddesses status holding hands making a circle, making major battles of the war.

It’s such beautiful summer day today, but the temprature was very comfortable. Some white clouds was floating in the blue sky. We rode bikes along the Nobb river. There’s a bike lane and people don’t need to worry about the cars. The meadow was bloomed with wild flowers, the river was flowing slowly in the summer sun. Sometimes there’re colorful canos or kayak so in the river. It reminded me how beautiful a summer day can be.

After passing a few villages on the way, we sat down at a beer garden and enjoyed our Rudler. Beer+lemonade is such a good invention. It’s not strong and taste fresh and sweet. I think I totally understand why it’s so popular here.

After came back to our village, we made another detour before going back to home. It’s for the ice cream! Having the ice cream in hand, we sat on the bank of the Nobb river and watching people feeding swans and ducks. I’ve never seen young swans before. They are not like their grown-ups, which have white feather, but with grey feather. Maybe that’s why there’s story of “Ugly ducking”, since they are not so beautiful before growing up!

[singlepic id=135 w=320 h=240 float=left]Regensburg means “castle of rain”. I felt it’s such a poetic name. The city itself, is extremely beautiful too. It’s said one of the most well preserved medieval city in Germany.

[singlepic id=137 w=320 h=240 float=left] The famous river Donau runs through of it. How exiting I am standing on the bank of it! I started hearing the “The Blue Danube Waltz” in my mind.

[singlepic id=139 w=320 h=240 float=left] San Peter Cathedral has a long history started from mid-700. It’s rebuilt into Gothic style from mid-1200. The construction continued for 600 years and finally finished. Standing inside and look up the high arch ceiling, I was thinking people living in hundreds years ago were looking at the same ceiling too, and imaging Bishops in red robes and noble man and woman praying here.

In the middle of the old town, there’re many lovely bear gardens and cafes. We had some Bavarian food and radler, which is a drink mixed with half beer and half lemonade. It tastes a little bit sweet and fruity from the lemonade, but still has beer flavor, which is fresh and easy to drink.