Geo: 47.8005, 13.0444Breakfast was mostly the usual fare this morning, but it had a little Mediterranean accent. There were olives, as well as marinated olives with feta. Also, sliced tomatoes with mozzarella; hard-boiled eggs too!Our local guide was Brigitte, and she took us first to the Mirabell Gardens. Pretty, but not at all on the scale of, say, Versailles. But there is a wonderful view from the old palace (now government offices) through a fountain and to the cathedral and up to the fortress. Outside of the gardens is Mozart's house, but not the one he was born in. Across the street from that is where Christian Doppler was born. The Doppler effect has something to do with the change in frequency of a sound in relation to the observer (thank you, Wikipedia). In Austrian German, ... read more

Geo: 48.1391, 11.5802Was awakened at 2:00 a.m. by what sounded like a herd of British men stomping through the hall and talking. I got the idea that they had ended up on the wrong floor, but they seemed to have no clue that people were sleeping. John, of course, slept right through it.We met our local guide, Kathleen, at 8:30 this morning. She was so cute in her pretty dirndl. You may be thinking, "'Kathleen' isn't a German name." It's not. Her father was a GI who stayed after the war; thus, the Irish name. Also, her English was very, very good, with hardly a trace of an accent. She took us on a walk from our hotel through the city to the Residenz. Our first stop was the square in front of the new Jewish ... read more

Geo: 46.5588, 7.8929I didn't realize till I looked in the mirror this morning that I got burned yesterday. My chest and two little bits of my forehead are all red. It didn't even occur to me that I would need sunscreen at 10,000 feet in Switzerland! I put some on today though.Speaking of 10,000 feet, the webcam of the Schilthorn this morning showed that it was all socked in, proving once again just how lucky we were yesterday. In fact, the mountains across the valley that were so brilliant and clear yesterday were dim and foggy this morning. That was soon to change, however.After breakfast we took the cable car back down to Stechelberg, and Rene took us by bus down to the Truemmelbach Falls. I didn't see the falls when I was here in 2010, ... read more

Geo: 46.5588, 7.8929One of these nights I will sleep all the way through till morning. Still, I'm improving: I managed to stay asleep until 3:00 instead of 2:00. Fortunately, I also was able to get back to sleep fairly quickly. Yesterday's spa experience must have helped.Before breakfast, I went down to the street to take a picture of the hotel, but there was a big green delivery truck in front. Teeny-tiny cobblestoned lane, great big truck. It's amazing how large vehicles actually fit down such old streets.Breakfast was quite the spread, with the usual muesli, yogurt, cold cuts and cheese, fruit, eggs two ways, bacon, sausage, rolls, croissants (and Nutella!), and also beans in tomato sauce, porridge, and a couple of other things that remained a mystery.And then we had to leave the nicest hotel I've ... read more

Geo: 49.7688, 6.64948Surprise! We kept the dlan box for one more day, so that's why I'm able to post. And you thought you'd have a day of respite!We were out of the hotel by 8:15 this morning for our guided walking tour of the town. We met our local guide, Helga, at the Porta Nigra. The Porta Nigra was the northern gate of the Roman and medieval town and is the only surviving example of a Roman gate north of the Alps. It's called "nigra" because it is sort of a black color, but not because it was ever burned or from pollution. There's a green moss that grows on the stones and when it dies, it leaves a black stain.Across the street is the house where Karl Marx spent his childhood, though there's only a ... read more