On the way to Salzburg

I flew Aer Lingus from Ireland to Munich. It was a short flight and I was surprised to learn that you had to pay for most of your drinks (even mineral water). (I think coffee was free.)  It was an uneventful leg of my trip and soon enough I was getting on the train to get from Munich to Salzburg. The landscape was very familiar, but I can never resist taking pictures out of the train window.

We passed a lovely lake most likely Chiemsee.

Soon enough you could recognize the region by the famous onion domes on the churches and of course the ever-present mountains.

 

I'm always interested in the people on the train around me. They seem to try hard to be inconspicuous, even when their demeanor or dress screams for attention.  

 

When I got into Salzburg, my friends Pia and Jim met me at the train station and then we decided to go get something to eat.  We chose a little place called Shrimps which wasn't far from our new apartment, but they were severely understaffed  and it took FOREVER to get our food. Jim never did get his.  What I got was great (or maybe I was just so hungry by the time I got it that anything would have been like Manna from heaven, but it was visually pretty too.)

 

So afterwards we went to a little metal bar and Jim got to drink his dinner.

 

 

On the way home we experienced the most torrential rainstorm! It was funny and miserably cold at the same time.

Over the next couple of days we met with the teachers for the study abroad program and tried to square away program details. Here is our Art teacher at Cafe Fingerlos.

Here is a German teacher at the cafe near the train station.

I also had the tremendous pleasure of meeting with one of my old students, who is now married and living in the region (while working on her Masters thesis.)



We spent the afternoon together and had coffee.

 

I had an Esterhazy Schnitten, something I love very much, but it tasted off and little did I know, but I was coming down with one of the worst colds I have had in my adult life.

 

Luckily we took advantage of the day and walked around salzburg, visiting the Mirabell gardens and reviewing old times.

 

Here's the fortress that dominates the valley in the background of the Mirabell gardens.

 

 

It took us a while to find them, but eventually we also managed to get to the garden with the stone statues of dwarves. (There was construction that prevented us from following the usual path.)

 

It was an absilutely stunning day, to be followed alas by the depths of sickness, which really got me off on the worng foot in terms of preparing for the arrival of the students.