Day 12: Salzburg

That afternoon we walked around town to see all the sites -Mozart's home, beautiful and massive baroque churches, picturesque streets, and a steep hike up to Hohensalzburg Fortress, Europe's largest standing castle, never taken by force (although wisely surrendered to Napoleon). We didn't pay to tour it (about castled-out) but the grounds provided a great view of Salzburg, nestled and protected between two cliffs and the Salzach River (named for the precious cargo it transported from the nearby salt mines, Salzburg's lucrative namesake).

We walked through pretty little St. Peter's Cemetery at the base of the Mönchsberg cliff, the cemetery that inspired the set design for where the Von Trapps hid from the Nazis in The Sound of Music. In Austria (and most of Europe I think), you don't own your cemetery plot, you just rent it and it has to be well tended by your descendants. So after a generation or so, it usually becomes home to the next deceased family member (or if no one pays your rent check, your remains are tossed and the plot goes up for rent).

We ended the afternoon at Sporer, a little shop where they've made homemade spirits for over 100 years. You can pay to taste small samples and we found some favorites to bring home with us - elderberry liqueur and a pear-ish baileys type thing (sounds weird but so good) for me and a Christmas and orange punch liqueur for Chris.

After a rest back at the farm, we headed out for our anniversary dinner, hoping to eat at this little place we read about - Saran Essbar - which is supposedly open on Tuesdays but turned out not to be. (Around here posted hours are rare and even if they're posted it doesn't really mean anything. There aren't really chains so these family businesses open - or not - when they want and will stay open later if there's a crowd or shut down early.) So we ended up at a random place a few doors down... Specializing in Austrian, Indian, and Italian... That should have been a sign I guess??? Strange decor, interestimg mix of aromas, not bad food but not great food. One thing they couldn't screw up was the beer, Chris' first in 2 days. He's back!