On the 7th Day of Christmas...

This post has the opposite problem from my last one: I have too many pictures to choose from!
It is hard to pick a favorite day out of such an amazing vacation as we had, but if I had to choose one day, I think it would be this one.
We slept in a little bit, but not too late. We showered, ate, and planned the day with Rob and Tasha, who would be joining us on that day's adventure: Salzburg, Austria!
The drive took less than 2 hours, and was, of course, beautiful. We stopped at a traffic light, and I took the opportunity to snap a picture of the tunnel entrance to Salzburg. So interesting!
Once we found a parking place (which wasn't easy), we spent another 30 minutes trying to figure out where we were in relation to where we wanted to be, and how to get there.
We ended up having to walk up an alley (which was not scary- or dangerous-looking) and back down into a courtyard, where we eventually met up with Rob and Tasha.
The picture to the right is of Schloss Mirabell. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to tour it, but it makes for beautiful pictures. There is a picture of it by night at the end of my post.
We met them at an enormous chess board painted on the ground. There were men playing. It was fun to watch them.
There was a statue that looked like evil, but it was supposed to be the opposite. Hmm. It was called "Coat of Peace" by Anna Chromy.
There was a street mime. He was so still if I hadn't seen him change poses, I would have wondered if he were real.
There is so much to do in Salzburg. I had a lot of possible things on the itinerary, but the one thing that was a must-do on my list was to visit Mozart's birth house. I LOVED it in there! There was so much history, and almost everything written was in both German and English. Some examples of different things to see and read about: letters from Mozart and his wife, Constanze; letters between Mozart and his mom; his clavichord and harpsichord; portraits; traveling items--like his dishes and a medicine box with different tonics and potions in it (the small bottles were still labeled!); his childhood violin. Oh, it was wonderful! There was an acoustic room playing his music. I got lost in there. Emily came looking for me and somehow knew to find me there.
I absolutely loved it there! There was a gift shop with so many things using the Mozart name, but the best was the chocolate. It is famous. Mozart kugeln. YUM!
After Mozarts Geburtshaus, the six of us set out to find a place to eat. The first place was so smokey inside
(I miss the non-smoking laws in the US),
I was getting a headache before we could even order. We got up from our table and decided to find another place.
The second place we tried was more of a cafe with drinks and muffins/pastries. Again, we got up from our tables and started a quest for a non-smokey restaurant. Who knew it would be so hard to find?!
The third place was great! Rob and Tasha had been to Salzburg before, so they steered us to this restaurant where we finally ended up eating. We got a table, ordered food, and really enjoyed visiting with each other.
After dinner, we wandered around the alley (I say alley, but it's not quite an alley. Walkway isn't the right word either. Maybe there isn't an English word for it). Because it was still close to Christmas, there was still a lot of Christmas decorations and items for sale. I love to window shop in Europe. I think it never caught on for me in the States.
We passed a music store. Photo op. I love the instruments, especially the red flute!
Rob and Tasha decided to go back home at this point, but the four of us decided to wander around a bit more. We stopped at a bakery pretzel place for dessert. We got a donut pretzel, a chocolate-covered pretzel, and an apple-filled pretzel. We kept them to eat once we got back to Rob and Tasha's house. We also bought chocolates, of course!
I also need to mention that there was a beautiful horse and buggy. I love the clopping noises of the horses. With all the Christmas lights, yummy food smells, and ornaments, it often felt like a scene from a movie. I only got one picture with the horses that turned out. If you look closely at the horse picture below, you can see Jer and Emily standing at the donut shop!
Our last stop was a church named Dreifaltigkeitskirche, or Trinity Church. It was beautiful by day (see the panoramic picture), but breathtaking at night! I LOVE the moon!
We went inside. While I didn't see any signs prohibiting pictures, it sometimes feels weird to take pictures inside a church. I tried to do it without drawing attention to myself. I love how it is decorated for Christmas. I love the murals and paintings on the ceiling. We walked up one side and back down the other. There is always much to look at in these old churches.
We were almost back to the entrance/exit when the lights shut off! Were we the last ones in there? We couldn't tell, but we could see some light coming from the exit, so we all hurried that way. We found ourselves trapped inside the steel gates. Father, let us out, we pray! There were about 10 people in the same predicament wondering what to do. Soon a priest with a key connected to his robes came and opened the gates to let us out. I can't help but think of Purgatory--trapped between the world and heaven.
We got some cool pictures with a weird man-on-top-of-the-world sculpture/statue before we left. We also had the wonderful opportunity to listen to a man playing classical guitar. There weren't too many people around by this time, so his music filled the dome hall. Beautiful. I'm only sorry the one good picture I got of him makes him look like he's not happy. But he was very nice. Jer and I bought his CD. I always like to buy music from local artists of the places we travel. This guy was really talented and I love classical guitar.
We didn't have any trouble finding the car.
Back at Rob and Tasha's house, we heated up the donuts and played games for the rest of the evening. Such a perfect day: beautiful weather, wonderful company, and the promise of another exciting day in the morning!