Day 8-Mom and Dad's last day in Salzburg

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Day 8 (Saturday, September 26, 2009)

Saturday was mom and dad’s last day with me in Salzburg. ☹ There were still some things they wanted to see and we needed to wrap up whatever was left to get done. We started the day by going to Helbrunn Zoo. I love the zoo! It was a beautiful sunny day for it too! We saw zebras, rhinos, tigers, leopards, bears, monkeys, a fox, boars, etc. I’m so used to the Houston Zoo where there are always workers riding around in carts keeping watch over everything. But here we were just on our own. It was very calm. People were even petting the animals! (it was not a petting zoo). You can even drink beer at the zoo! I can easily spend all day at a zoo but there were things to get done so we just spent a few hours there.

Now it was time to find Kathy’s teapot. We had been looking and looking and hadn’t been able to find one that was made in Austria. The night or two before, we had finally found a shop that looked like they might have some but it was closed. We couldn’t remember where the shop was but we eventually found it and sure enough they had some nice teapots. Mom picked one out and we did whatever souvenir shopping we had left. The St. Rupert Festival was still going on so we walked through it one last time and I picked up a bosna. Yum! I think I like them a little too much. When we were done with that we had to move my stuff to my dorm. I had been staying in the hotel with mom and dad all week. It was a nice hotel with free breakfast! Can you blame me? ☺ I packed up my things and we called a cab…a BIG CAB! We dropped my stuff off and there were still a few things I needed for my room. We walked to the store but it had closed half an hour ago. Ugh! Then we walked to the grocery and that was closed too. Ugh! Stores close very early on Saturdays. On Sunday pretty much everything is closed except for some restaurants. Even grocery stores are closed on Sunday! During the week shops close between 5pm and 7pm. You really have to plan ahead to get things done before places close. Since we couldn’t get our errands done we went back to the hotel so mom and dad could pack before dinner. We decided to give Café Wernbach (and the waiter) one last visit before they left. But of course, it was closed! We weren’t really in the mood for a long sit down meal so we just went to the kebap place. Dad had been wanting a banana split (his favorite) for the longest time so afterwards we walked down the road to the gelato place and the three of us shared one. It was a nice relaxing night. We headed back to the hotel earlier than usual because mom and dad were getting picked up for the airport at about 2:30am. Ouch! They were flying out of Munich around 6am or 6:30am on Sunday and there weren’t any trains to get them there that early. We went to bed early so they could get a few and only a few hours of sleep. I woke up with them around 1:30am so I could say goodbye. I went downstairs with them and waited until they drove off. I was sad to see them go but I was glad that they were able to make the trip. We had a good time!

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