CHAPTER 26: CHIEMSEE, GERMANY
Tuesday, November 16

We visited Salzburg, Austria, on Sunday. Salzburg is just over the border from Germany and only a short drive from our hotel. It is a pretty nice little city in a beautiful setting. It's located on a river's curve where it cuts through some mountains. On both sides, the old city is squeezed between mountains and the river. The southern mountain has sheer cliffs rising hundreds of feet above the city, and an old castle dominating the skyline. The old city layout follows medieval streets, and many (most?) of the buildings are ancient. We saw many dating to the 1300's or beyond and still being used. One of them is now a Radisson hotel. Many of the streets have small alleys leading off each side, going to courtyards with boutiques and restaurants and other such places. Since this was a Sunday, most of the stores were closed. We've run across this custom all over Europe and one of these days, we'll figure out that Sunday is just not the day to go sightseeing in the city. We wandered all over the old town, visited Mozart's family home (a very interesting stop), found some neat shops, and hit a street vendor selling a doughnut shaped like a pretzel and covered with sugar (yumm .... we went back later for a second visit). It was a gray, cold day, so we didn't stay too long. We had an absolutely fabulous dinner in a hotel near city center, then rode the train back to our hotel.

We finally got our replacement Visa and MasterCards today, one week after they were mailed express. I griped, but the postal clerks said that one week is within their guidelines for express service. Say what? The Army must be putting all their postal funding into storage facilities. They're certainly not spending them on transportation.

Weather has continued to be cold and gray, interrupted with rain and snow. We haven't seen sun since we left Prague two weeks ago. During this time we've gone from late fall, with leaves still on the trees, to winter and snow. The snow is beautiful in the Bavarian mountains, when you can see them, but we're ready to go now.

First thing in the morning, we're heading south to the American Army base at Camp Darby near Pisa, Italy. They have some rooms available for old retired folks like us. We're going to be there until the 26th. We're really excited about this move: Florence, Pisa, and Venice are all on our "must visit" list, and we can't wait to get there.

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