The Alps

We are currently on a train speeding from Munich to Verona Italy.

The Alps are extremely beautiful and rise up all around you as you meander thru on the train.

All the mountains should be covered in snow, but apparently they are having a very warm winter over here and only some of the mountains have snow caps. About an hour ago we passed thru a little Austrian village that was covered in snow. Was very pretty and kind of a shame that we haven't had snow ourselves yet.

The weather so far has been pretty good, not much colder than a normal winter back home. This will be great for Italy, but we are hoping a cold change will come when we head back north thru the Swiss Alps.

At the moment we are passing thru northern Italy and vast expanses of vineyards. Bordering the vineyards the the huge cliff faces of the mountains around us. Wish I could upload photos from my phone.

Salzburg

The birthplace of Mozart and the location of 'The Sound of Music'... the main tourist drawcards of Salzburg and they don't let you forget it.

Once you get past all the tourist crap, Salzburg is a very picturesque city. The view from the fortress is un disturbed to the Alps, and when we were up there the skies were blue and clear.

The city is full of little streets, cafes and lots of churches. At midday all the bells went off at once which was a bit loud, but still nice.

Had authentic Austrian food tonight at the Wilder Mann - Salzburg Schnizel and Beef Goulash, washed down with a half litre of Wiezerbier.

On the subject of beer, it is very cheap and available in Europe. Evenwhere sells it in half litre bottles or glasses and it tastes great. Even supermarkets sell crates of it, and you get money back when you bring back the empties.

We head back to Germany tomorrow, 3 nights in Munich before tackling Italy head on.

Salzburg

En route Salzburg

Currently on the train to Salzburg. We said good bye to the others this morning, they are headed to Budapest, which we are skipping so we can spend more time in Italy.

Hopefully we will bump into the girls in Salzburg or Munich, which is the next stop on our tour.

Looking out the window of the train as I write this, and it is all farm land as far as the eye can see. There is the occasional village and castle too. It is a huge contrast to the dark, 'dead' forests and abandoned buildings in Czech. Another thing we have noticed in Germany and here in Austria is huge wind turbines that appear occasionally in the fields. These 3 blade turbines must be at least 50 meters high off the ground and the blades at least 5 meters long each.

Wiener food! (Vienna Food)

Jeni and I took in as much of Vienna as we could today. Part of that time we visited the markets close to the State Opera building. We took some awesome photos which you can check out here.

Next post from Salzburg

Vienna

We are in Austria now, the birthplace of Mozart and Arnold Schwazeneger.

We stay tonight and tomorrow night which leaves one full day tomorrow for seeing the sights. After that we are probably heading to Salzburg, Austria. The others are talking about heading into Budapest for a few nights instead.