Salzburg

Salzburg. 

we loved you. even though you were cold and rainy and gray. 

and NOT snowy like we'd hoped you'd be.

we fell in love with your cobblestoned streets, and how easy it was to walk everywhere.

how rich with history and heritage you were

...even though, true to form, we didn't do a whole lot of history-buffing around. 

we visited the Festung Hohensalzburg and that's about it. 

and yes, i did have to google that just now to remember what the heck that fortress was called.

i learned that January is a terrible time to visit a garden. 

Schloss Mirabell, I'm sure you're lovely, 

but you sure looked depressing without any flowers 

or von Trapp children frolicking about. 

my picture in front of the gate looks quite different than Sarah's or Liz's, sadly.

we stayed at the Hotel Stein, and the view of Salzburg from our window was breathtaking

drank plenty of Austrian beer

enjoyed cocktails served on Hotel Stein's rooftop terrace (indoors, of course)

discovered my inner nun at Nonnberg Abbey

and thoroughly enjoyed delicious meals pretty much everywhere we went

one of my favorite things about Europe is knowing that, for hundreds of years, people have been walking the same streets you're walking now. i feel a connection with history and humanity that is difficult for me to generate in the U.S., where most of our oldest stuff is still only about 200 years young. (it would be remiss of me, as a Floridian, to leave out the exception, which is of course, St. Augustine, FL...settled by the Spanish conquistadors in the 1500s. (: )

so even though it was actually colder in San Antonio than it was in Salzburg during the time we were there (in an unfortunately ironic, cruel twist), it was a great place to kick off our trip.

i'd go back there in a hot minute.