Salzburg-Munich

hallo!!!
greetings from austria. as you may have noticed, we have our pictures up from our most recent journey which was to the great austrian city of salzburg and the german city of munich. we left early last friday to a youth hostel in salzburg where we stayed until sunday. on saturday we did a day trip from salzburg to munich. but first things first. the bus ride out was fairly typical, nothing too exciting other than the gorgeous austrian countryside to look at. as we drew near to salzburg however, the bus pulled into a little stop and we were informed that we could walk down the road and see the house where the sound of music was filmed! as we walked around the pond we caught sight of the back of the magnificent building. we soon found out that they only used that location to film the scenes behind the von trapps house, but it was still pretty damn cool. i actually jumped in the pond just so i could say that i fell in the same pond as julie andrews...well not really, but i wanted to. so then we got back on the bus and headed off to salzburg and the youth hostel. the youth hostel was much nicer than we had expected, it really was like a small hotel with rooms that held up to 8 people. it wasnt too bad at all. i actually thought the beds were more comfortable than the ones here at the kartause. anyways, we didnt stay there long and set off on our tour around salzburg. salzburg is actually the main city in the sound of music, as it is the town that the von trapps lived in. the scene where maria and the children are running around town is filmed in salzburg. so we did the usual tour of churches and historically significant locations. probly the coolest story was about a medieval ruler, archbishop wolf. he held religious and political power, and was a bit of a tyrant. he was very prideful and pompous. on one occasion (and we have many pictures that show these things) he had water channeled down from a mountain stream for him and his horses. the structure was many miles long. if any peasant was caught drinking from this water, they were punished with death. needless to say, the people did not like him very much. but the really cool story goes as follows. wolf was an extremely prideful man and lived in an enormous cathedral-palace in the middle of salzburg (we actually had mass there on sunday). on the outside of his palace, above his main balcany he had a huge golden crown crafted which he placed there, held by two angels. the people of salzburg were not happy at all with this. in retaliation, they commissioned a statue of mary to be build and placed in the main square which his balcony overlooked. the significance of this spot is that as one walks down the main walkway to the square and the cathedral, the two angels lower the crown upon mary's head. it was an incredibly powerful experience to hear that story and experience it as we walked down the path. so that was the coolest part of our tour. our tour ended with lunch and in our free time we just checked out a bunch of different shops. that night we went to an old beerhall called the augustiner. it was a mediveal monastery which is now a brewery. we had cold beer served to us in ceramic, 1 liter mugs. we actually had to get our own mugs, rinse them out in a fountain, and slide them down this counter to a guy sitting by a huge wooden keg. he then filled them and slid them back to us, foam overflowing the sides. it was pretty much the coolest thing ive ever taken part of. and i can honestly say that that beer was the smoothest drink i have ever had. not just the best beer but easily the best drink ive ever tasted. it was amazing. i had a liter of beer, a cuban cigar, and hot roast chicken. catherine was holding the kalpakgians baby, so we were both happy. we sat with the kalpakgians and fr. dave, so we had good food, good drink, and good company. one of the best experiences of my life. we closed the night with a "mozart" concert which was just four old guys playing a mozart tune im assuming, but it was pretty cool.
the next day we set off for munich. munich was more of a tourist city so it was much busier and crazier. we did the typical tour of cathedrals and saw a cathedral which can hold 20,000 people. yeah it was huge. we ended the tour at the world-renowned hofbrauhause, the most famous beerhall in the world. it was pretty cool, more just the feel of the place. the beer wasnt as good as the augustiner's in my opinion and i liked the augustiner better, but thats just my opinion. the augustiner just felt like a medieval dream to me. anyways after lunch we walked around munich looking at various stores and ended the day going to the science museum in munich, which we were told was the best science museum in the world. we got in for free because we got there an hour before we closed. we werent overly impressed, it was mostly older technologies, at least what we saw, but we did see a cool lightning show. we only got an hour in there, but it was fun. then we headed back to the bus' and left for salzburg. saturday night we just walked around salzburg admiring how beautiful the city was at night. it was all lit up and quite a sight.
the next morning we went to mass in the cathedral of archbishop wolfe. it was really neat but hard to follow as usual because it was in german. after mass we had lunch again and spent the last hour or two walking through street markets and checking out different stands. it was fun and a relaxing way to end the weekend. we then walked back to the bus' and left for the kartause.

salzburg was an amazing trip and one in which we had a lot of fun. i bought one of the 1 liter mugs from the augustiner, with words on it (the mugs we drank from there were plain), for only 6.10 euro. so im really happy i did. overall it was a great experience. last night catherine and i watched the sound of music and it was incredible to see that movie again and see the places that we walked through and spent the weekend in. i highly recommend that you look through our pictures from salzburg-munich, salzburg specifically, and then watch the sound of music and see the same places from the pictures. it was an awesome trip and great experience that we will not soon forget. this coming weekend we're off to medugorje. we leave tomorrow night and will be driving through the night. we will be sure to take lots of pictures and get them up for you all to enjoy! until next time!!!

-alden