Salzburg and Munich

June 26^th

We all had a pretty lazy morning and checked out of our room just minutes before the deadline and then we ate breakfast in the hostel cafeteria.  When I finished eating I finalized my travel plans to do some sightseeing in the afternoon and then catch a train to Munich.  My Canadian friends would be leaving a bit earlier.

We all walked down to the train station together and then said our goodbyes.  It is always sad to say goodbye to the friends that you make over bonding through participating in adventures together.  I will miss my Canadian friends but it is easy to still keep in touch.  I was on my own again, and after chucking my bags into a locker I headed back to the old city to explore the Hohensalzburg Fortress that overlooks the city. 

Salzburg from the Fortress

Me and Monks from St. Johns

The temperature had gotten warm and hiking up the steep hill that the fortress was located was quite a work out.  To cool down I enjoyed a nice cool radler before I continued on with the tours.  The history of the fortress is quite interesting.  It was build to protect the city more for looks than anything and it was successful in doing so for eight hundred years until Napoleon arrived and at that time all of Salzburg just surrendered.  As I wandered down from the fortress a baseball cap caught my eye; it read St John’s.  In my excitement the man and the group he was with and I asked if him and the rest of them were Johnnies.  Two of them were monks and faculty at St. John’s.  I took a quick picture with them and then headed to my next location. 

I next visited the Salzburg museum of which I didn’t spend much time in because I thought it was really lacking.  Instead I spent the remainder of my time walking along the river and then around the Mirabell Gardens.  Very beautiful and very relaxing.

 Eventually later in the afternoon I arrived at the train station, grabbed my belongings and drank a coffee.  The train ride was only one and a half hours to Munich and my train arrived at the same time as Irene and Brian.  Once the three of us found each other we departed the train station for Alex’s parent’s house (Ines and Georg). 

It was wonderful to finally meet my German parents, Ines and Georg.  I had heard so much about them from Alex, my parents and my sister and it was great to finally see it all in person.  After the proper greetings had taking place we all sat out on their porch with some beers and had friendly conversations.  As the sun started to go down we went back inside to have our dinner.  Ines and Georg were splendid hosts, the food was delicious and Georg shared with us some of his good wine collection. 

Tomorrow Alex would arrive and he would guide us around Munich to see all of the main sites.