Stoll's Hotel Alpina Schoenau am Koenigssee

... the skating rink. Steve was excited that we found the beer garden. I couldn't believe that peoplewould dress up in the full lederhosen outfits just to go out on the weekend! On our walk back to the hostel we walked over the river and could see the castle and little town from the bridge. It was really pretty- one of my favourite views at night from the trip.
The next morning we took our final long train trip to Lucerne.

hey all,

I forgot about Salzburg... we went there before Prague... I guess I have put it out of my mind because KB sang the musical the whole time we were there! lol, it was great though...
We got to Salzburg at night and tried to follow the directions to the hotel, but we didn't know if we had to go right or left out of the train station, so KB asked some, what I thought were ...

... we decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel.

Our last day, we had a train leaving around 1 or so...so it didn't give us much time to do anything, so we spent some time on the FREE internet! Gotta take advantage of that when you have it...so luckily the hotel staff didn't mind that we just hang out using the computers. It was time to leave eventually, so we headed to the train station and boarded the train for Prague!

... a romantic, picturesque city, and practically everything closes early. I swear, the place seemed to completely shut down at about 5 PM. So we called it an early night, in order to be ready for some sightseeing the next day!

The next morning, we got up for my first real breakfast and milk since we’d left Paris (I’m surprised I wasn’t suffering withdrawal symptoms or something, though I did ...

... we actually drove across the same bridge 4 times…oops!) We walked through the party to see the Cathedral. The Cologne cathedral is Germany’s best church and one of the best gothic cathedrals in the world. When they claim that they aren’t kidding either, it’s incredible. Huge, nicely decorated, and full of processing bishops(!) We actually walked into the church right as the new years mass was starting, so we got to ...

... that spills over 2 squares in the centre of Salzburg but didn't buy anything, choosing instead to leave that until tomorrow morning when we plan to visit the markets again just before they close for the season. We managed to get to dinner at a restaurant back up on Liner Gasse just before the cold overcame my lower body. The meal warmed us up nicely but the return walk to the hotel, later in the evening was almost too much to handle. I'm now updating the blog from the ...

... as bad as I thought. Tramped down the hill and had some lunch, boys went for swim in the nearby river which was absolutely freezing. Drove back to Salzburg and stocked up on food from the supermarket, got some fish for tea and mince to do nachos one night. Drove to a nice lake in Kongissee, found a great spot by the lake to go for a swim. Early night so can go up Eagles Nest tomorrow.

August 26-Monday
We left Kitzbuhel at 8:30. There was a brief stop in Berchtesgarden, in Germany, at 10:00. Up on the side of the mountain, we could see Hitler's Eagle’s Nest. It was rather chilling to see that part of history. The bunker is now a restaurant. Our rest stop overlooked a valley filled with wonderful homes. What a view! Back on the bus and on to Salzburg. Time 10:35.

... so beautiful. For lunch, we had Wiener Schnitzel (breaded pork)…my first. Everything was delicious.

After lunch, we walked over to the Mirabel Palace to view the gardens. The intricate patterns of the annual gardens were amazing. (The rose garden was not too shabby, either.) After leaving Mirabel, we went to the Salzburg Cathedral, first built in 774. I took a few pictures, but stopped ...

... The only sound we heard was that of the cowbells. It was a bit eerie. Since the view was not the greatest at that moment, I decided to do a bit of mountain climbing (or mountain walking, if you will). I headed over to the Alpine Flower Garden. This mountain climbing is not as easy as you would think. (Or I could be that out of shape.) The garden wound its way along the side of the mountain. I got to see many different varieties of mountain flowers ...