Day 9 Salzburg

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Today was the first day of my retirement and it felt pretty good ?

We woke up to rain ? and the forecast was for it to rain all day - luckily it was just drizzle and stayed dry whilst we visited the massive castle overlooking Salzburg - the Fortress Hohensalzburg. Quick ride up the funicular, (via the oldest bakery in town for a snack! - couldn’t resist the amazing smell - their flour ground by a waterwheel! ) to the fortress - and what a fortress! Various Archbishops had added extensions to the original basic castle over the years - each outdoing the previous it seems, until the fortress you see today dominating the city from a great height. The audio guide was helpful to understand how the castle developed with each Archbishop - seemed defence was their key goal in life - taxing the peasant farmers to help fund their building projects ??

There also was an excellent exhibition of puppets (lonely Goatherds and all that...) and also a set of rooms that took you through late 19th century up to WW1 wars in Central Europe with some brilliant art and exhibits. Some great views of the city from the top of the castle keep - including a great view of schloss Leopoldskron with lake ( home of the Von Trapps in the film)

So in spite of the weather - we had a great few hours there - it did rain harder in the afternoon so we retreated to the hotel via a visit to the cathedral - and later, borrowed an umbrella to venture out to a proper beer Keller ( Sternbrau) .

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