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Tuesday 22nd April 2014
A bit of a cloudy morning as we arrived in Passau a bit ahead of schedule at 7.00am. Today we are off on a coach to Salzburg approximately a 2 hour drive.
The drive to Salzburg was beautiful, rich farm land, very green, forests so pretty dotted up on the hillsides with every shade of green you can think of, snow capped mountains in the distance.
On arrival in Salzburg our guide led us into the very old beautifully preserved medieval city, giving us the history and local legends of the area. This city also has colourful houses, narrow lanes and passage ways and charming squares that you round a corner to find graceful statues and fountains in large open areas. Many churches can be found, the city also boasts of its own university and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born here. The city is surrounded by mountains on 3 sides making it popular with students from the university to go skiing.
In our free time to explore this beautiful city we took the Funicular railway to the Hohensalzburg Fortress that towers majestically above the city rooftops to one side, the surrounding mountains in the other direction. The views are breathtaking from every angle no camera can capture such a fantastic sight. We then returned via the Funicular to the city to mooch around the delightful small shops before a coffee and meet our guide again at 3.15pm for the next phase of our day.
Back on board the coaches again, we drove to an area known as the lake district, high up in the mountains, stopping for a short time to photo the mountains and a beautiful lake below us. We drove on to the small town of Moodsee next to a large lake also called Moonsee. We walked through the charming small town, turned a corner to be surprised by a large open area in front of a beautiful church. Inside was one of the most decorated and adorned churches I've ever seen, opulence at every turn.
We had time for a coffee before re-joining the coach to take us back to the boat that has moved down river to Linz. We didn't arrive at the boat until just after 7.00pm, everyone was tired but all agreed what another great day it had been.
Dinner was fairly quiet and most people retired for the night immediately after all tired but happy.
The picture is taken from the tower Hohensalzburg Fortress looking out towards the snow capped mountains.
Chat again soon.
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