After flying from San Diego to Frankfurt, we rented a car to drive up to Bonn to see Beethoven's Birthplace. Because of some large convention in Cologne (only a few miles from Bonn), most hotels and trains were expected to be full, so it seemed easier to drive on Sunday and continue our travels via trains starting in Speyer. At Bonn, we stopped at a flea market in the town center and toured Beethoven's birthplace. Carol posed in front of the Beethoven statue in the center of the plaza.

On my visit to Speyer last year, the Dom was closed to prepare for an annual ceremony. It was a nice little town to visit, with a wonderful hotel (The Domhof, next to the cathedral). I wanted to see the interior (its on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list), but was disappointed in how plain it was, shown above. The town was still interesting to visit, with the wonderful bakeries everywhere, and an unusual number of ice cream shops. (One sentence that is never heard in Germany - "Gibt es eine Bäckerei der Nähe?" - Is there a bakery nearby?!). After a nice long sleep to get over jet lag, we continued toward Austria.

The first stop was in Ulm, where Albert Einstein was born. His home is gone, but a nice monument is in a plaza near the train station. Inscribed in the granite are the words (translated from the German) "Here stands the house in which, on 14 March 1879, Albert Einstein came into the world." Most people walking by the memorial totally ignored it, of course. Its just next door to a McDonalds and other small shops catering to the travelers exiting the main train station. So far, nice sunny weather for the middle of October.

The outdoor sign next to the Einstein memorial for McDonalds gives a hint on the high costs were had to pay in Germany and Austria. The "Big Ciabatta" hamburger meal, with drink and fries, cost 6.49 euro, or $9.50. Luckily, taxes are already included.

Just a few more blocks away, placed on the Rathaus in 1913, was an inscription to Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). It talks about the Rudolfine astronomical tables for which he became famous, but I can't translate it any better. The Rathaus also has a (non-functioning) astronomical clock. Next door to the Rathaus is the cathedral with the highest steeple in the world. Like many large, old buildings, it is under continuous upkeep, and scaffolding surrounded the spires on this visit. Rather than posting and ugly picture, I was more interested in the large vertical sundial on one of its walls, shown in the next photo..

The sundial was reading the correct time, of course (almost 3pm), but I cold not understand the character on the dial. Maybe it is Father Time? When we got back to the train station, we found out that the German train system is not perfect; apparently, some kids were playing on the tracks somewhere outside of Munich, and they had to send some police to investigate. Our train was delayed 10 minutes, then 10 minutes later, another 10 minutes. This continued for another hour, until the train was more than 90 minutes late. By this time, we were not sure we were going to make it to Salzburg before midnight. We missed one train when the platform was unexpectedly switched from Gleis 4 to Gleis 8, and I did not pay enough attention to the overhead PA system to understand the German-language message. We were advised by the DB information booth to take any train to Munich, and try to get to Salzburg from there. We finally arrived in Salzburg about 12:30 am.

All around Germany and Austria, the fall colors were fully developed, with the grass still bright green. This particular scene is near Lake Wolfgang outside Salzburg. We knew Salzburg was the home of Mozart and scene of the "Sound of Music", but there was much more to see. Mozart's birthhome and apartment did not allow photos inside, and the outsides were pretty ordinary building facades

Since we expected rain later in the week, we quickly scheduled our outdoor tours, including a surprisingly enjoyable "Sound of Music" tour led by a guide with a definite sense of humor and a wide variety of interesting stories to tell about the movie and its production. This scene is the location of the lake home used in much of the movie. According to the tour guide, some people are pretty fanatical about the movie. He told a story about one 19-year old girl who was in tears, since it was her dream of visiting Salzburg, and she had watched the movie twice a year since she was 5 years old....

The original gazebo used in the movie no longer exists, so a smaller copy was made a few years ago, simply for the interested tourists. No one is allowed inside, or the tour groups would never leave. Since we were outside of the tourist season, our group was small enough that anyone could pose for a private photo.

The "Do-Re-Mi" scenes used a number of locations around the city, including this set of steps in the gardens of the Mirabell Palace. Carol has already purchased a Mozart bag; his stuff is everywhere, especially the Mozart chocolate candy balls, ballpoint pens, pencils, magnets, pillows, busts, notepads, tissues, mugs, etc. I found a place that also sold chocolate Bach candy balls, bit as far as I can research, Bach never lived here in Salzburg.

The theme of this trip was classical music, and the first concert in Salzburg was at Stiftskeller St. Peter's restaurant, the oldest restaurant in Salzburg (operated continuously for 1200 years!). This venue included dinner, with up to 10 guests at each table segregated by language. We were early enough to get one of the closest tables, and since the place was only about half full, we had only three other Americans at our table. We had a great time with pleasant company, good music, and interesting food. The local Stiegl beer was actually very good. The musicians wore clothes in Mozart's style.

Among the exhibits in the fortress was the earliest example of stamping (one of Carol's hobbies)! This stamping was on ceramic pottery instead of paper, and probably was not made with rubber stamps, but Carol knows the German word for "stamps" is "Stempeln". These examples are from the 13th - 14th century.

The evening dinner was in the lower level of the fortress, where we had a nice window view overlooking the city and the coming rain. Since we opted for the dinner package, we were again rewarded with premium seats in the second row center, with empty seats in front of us. We were about 10 feet away from the cellist. This concert was in the highest part of the fortress, about 9 flights of stairs above the restaurant.

Our last morning in Salzburg was used to catch up on shopping. The main shopping streets were pedestrian zones. Each business had a nice sign over the entry so you could see the type of business from a distance. Time to buy souvenirs, chocolates, and gifts. In addition to the chocolate balls sold virtually everywhere, I found a place that sold schnapps of an incredible variety - I got some chocolate-nut flavor, which turned out very good.

Among the street kiosk and tent vendors was one that offered this delicacy. Unfortunately, it was closed due to the rain, so I regret not trying this earlier! I was disappointed in most of the food in Austria, since interesting meals are one of the pleasures of traveling. It seemed that Italian food was everywhere, but it didn't seem to be influenced by the proximity to Italy. Since several meals were part of dinner concerts, they were mass-produced chicken, usually, with interesting soups, but average desserts. The most interesting meal I had was a very good Chicken Roulade (as opposed to the normal Beef Roulade, which I was able to find in one other place).