Salzburg, Salzbergwerk and Hofbrauhaus

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Geo: 48.1391, 11.5802

Up, out of the hotel and on the #4 by 8:30. We had decided to leave the car and take the bus to old town Salzburg so we would not have to navigate the city streets and find parking.

After arriving, we searched for a sit-down breakfast cafe. We were striking out and just about ready to go to Starbucks when we noticed the Afro Cafe. It was perfect! We had coffee from a press, ham and eggs, waffle with fruit and cream and cake. Everything was great, both service and atmosphere.

We then visited the beautiful cathedral. It was originally built in 774 by an Irish Bishop; burned down several times; current structure built in 1628, an aerial bomb in 1944, demolished the dome and Mass was not celebrated again until 1959. It is a magnificent twin spired church with a humongous main alter below the central dome, four side alters, and a two story pipe organ. Brennan says Ulm's cathedral is bigger, that may be debatable.

After visiting the cathedral, we went to Cornelius's office located behind it. We asked for him and he came down to greet us. We were taken up to the second floor where the Archbishop lives and where his team of six meet and greet the public as well as carry-on the administrative duties of the diocese. The rooms are really impressive and we were shown all the rooms other than the residence.

Cornelius' office, also on the second floor, is massive. There we screened a short video of the Archbishops' Camino, that will be made public next week. Cornelius translated it and it was quite powerful. In the film, we found out that the Archbishop said the Pilgrim Mass on Oct. 7th, in Santiago, but since he cannot speak Spanish, he was allowed to do it in Italian, the language of Rome.

We then strolled across the plaza to Cafe Glovkenspiel where we had coffee and some amazing pastries. Since Cornelius got a Moon Cake, so did we. It was a cake with a poppy seed cake layer, topped with whipped cream and a raspberry top. Yummy! Brennan got a different cake with several layers. We had a wonderful conversation about the Camino and had to depart because of our tight schedule.

Back on the #4 to our hotel parking lot. We drove to the Berchtesgaden Saltwerks for a 1:00 tour. We were given mining clothes to put on and were told to get on the train "horseback" style. We rode the train deep into the salt mine and had many stops where they described the process of salt mining. We had two steep, fast, slides, a ferry ride and two train rides. It was a fun, informative tour. A couple amazing facts: they have been mining salt (white gold) here for 500 years, after pumping fresh water into a drilled shaft, it takes 30 years to create a cavern that turns to salt brine, and that one of the German crafted pumps lasted nearly 150 years.

We bought some salt, salt and pepper shakers and an Edelweiss flower to plant in Montana.

Back on the road and headed to Munich. We were able to avoid the toll and autobahn all the way to Munich. We stopped for lunch in a little village at a grill (the typical places were not yet open) and Brennan had a cheeseburger with fries and we thought we were sharing a schnitzel, fries and salad but ended up with two. Lots of fried food!! Brennan tasted our schnitzel so that he had it six consecutive days!

Lots of traffic on the tiny back roads to the Munich Airport. We found the Novotel Hotel, unloaded the car, fueled up and took the rental car back. Since there was a navigation system in our car and since the portable one we rented was outdated, we got our 60 Euro back.

We bought a family pass to use the S Bahn for 23.50 euro and rode downtown to the Christkindle Markt and Marienplatz. The market was bustling and we bought some German ornaments. There were also some great NYC style window displays.

After searching for the Hofbrauhaus, we finally followed a group of young guys and found it! It was packed and we could not find three places (and did not have a lot of time) so we stayed for one polka tune and left. We took the S Bahn back to the airport and were lucky enough to walk out the door and catch the bus to the hotel. It was after 11:00 when Brennan got to sleep. We packed our bags and settled in for a good night's sleep.

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