Opulence, nature, Disney - and a rant on the abuse of power.

Can I just say that I love hearing church bells? Or that at least I did before staying in old town Salzburg. They don't begin until 7am, and there are three churches we can hear from our room. The problem isn't the occasional DONG! It's when three churches at once lay into those bells like they are saying the town is on fire. For five minutes solid.  At 7:50 in the morning!  . . . . Ok, got that out of my system.

it was 8am when we walked out of our hotel this morning, and the street was deserted. Normally it is full of tables from restaurants and lots of people - not to mention the kamikaze bikes zipping down the narrow lane. Today, nada. Completely quiet.

We met up with our tour group, loaded on a bus (first time for a bus tour on this trip - and all I have to say is, just shoot me if I start thinking bus tours are a thing in my life) and headed out of Salzburg. Our Aussie tour guide did a great job chatting about what we saw as we drove, and soon the mountains which had been dim and distant became clearer and larger. And LARGER! 

Our destination for the day was Berchtesgaden, Germany and Hitler's Eagles Nest. We picked this tour because it is a quick trip to a high peak with great views. The knowledge that Hitler used slave labor to build it, and plotted evil within it appeared to be a distant memory for most. In the museums we have visited here, and even up at the Eagle's nest, you don't see or hear his name hardly at all. We did not see any image of him there, either. None of the souvenir shops have anything remotely connected to that time. Still, it was a creepy background to an otherwise stunning location. 

Our pictures of the mountains simply do not do them justice. We were just 100 yards from the nearest one, and it was absolutely stunning. 

One of the downsides to our tour is that on tours you live by their schedule. We had less than an hour to wander the trail to the highest lookout point and by the time we got up there, hoards of other tourists  had arrived - all chattering away in different languages and grinning at their selfie sticks. 

Back on the bus we headed down to the little town of Berchtesgaden for lunch. We avoided the recommended restaurant and found a little braut shop and had delicious brauts and pommes (fries). My favorite thing about this guy's little place was that he gave me a LARGE coke light with at least 8 pieces of ice. Wow! We also got to chat with a really nice young guy stationed somewhere nearby and travelling on his own. 

Again, we only had a short time in Berchtesgaden and then back on the bus and back to Salzburg. Totally worth it, though. We've now been to Germany and seen the Alps! For Mark, this was a bucket list kind of thing - check that one off!

Berchtesgaden

Back in Salzburg, we visited the home Mozart grew up in and went through the museum. We previously visited Beethoven's home in Baden. Mozart is pretty much a god in Salzburg. We spent some time later in the afternoon sitting on a bench near the Mozart statue and it appeared to be a pilgrimage of sorts. Selfie sticks were everywhere. In fact, they sell selfie sticks in the Mozart gift store.

Next was the Dom, which was the residential palace of the prince archbishops. They were also the ones who built and expanded the castle fort over the years, and controlled all the trade in the region. I have to admit, this whole "spiritual leader is also the political leader" thing has been a real challenge to get my mind around. Salzburg was a bit of a boom town, and its salt mines made it rich very quickly - and that partially explains why the Dom, the home of those in control of the wealth, was a palace in every sense of the word. Gilded details, murals on all ceilings, statues, golden crowns, jewels, inlaid everything, and on and on. So if a guy wanted to, say, put in the only toilet in the castle, he could. Or if he wanted stars in his ceiling, no problem. Last year's golden hat going out of style? Add rubys to this year's model. And if that pesky peasant threw off your groove, there's always the dungeon and torture chamber. And by the way, when you get out of the dungeon, be sure to show up at the cathedral for church on Sunday. 

I realize I sound cynical, but room after roomful of gold wears on you, especially when you consider the church tie-in and the general living conditions of the time. The entire thing has me thinking of the nature of power and its abuse. It does put into perspective the whole separation of church and state value that the states have attempted. Imperfectly, of course. And yes there are abuses of power everywhere including the states. And yes, we ourselves are in the top .5% of the world's wealthy, so there is our own abuse of power to consider - and believe me, after this trip I am considering it.

There's so much of the history of this part of the world I don't understand well - I feel the need for some additional reading! The Austrians and Germans have a lot to be proud of - this a beautiful area of the world, and they have kept it so. Their houses are a beautiful addition to the landscape, their homes and farms are neat and well kept, and they recycle like madmen. Seriously - at the Haus we recycled EVERYTHING - even orange juice containers that are paper except for the plastic pour spout? We pulled those off and recycled them separately. They don't do air conditioning - at all - anywhere -and so consume less energy. The one place I have found air conditioning was at the museum today where items needed to be stored at a proper humidity.

At many points in this trip, we have found ourselves realizing how well Disney captured the look and feel of old Europe in some of their attractions, and how some of the places we visited have been a little Disney-fied. Case in point was leaving the tour of the castle yesterday and ending in a gift shop. What ride at Disney does not end in a gift shop? And then this evening as we strolled we saw that a concert was about to begin and we sat down in the courtyard to listen - it turned out to be a local choral group - A barbershop style men's group and a Sweet Adeline group. Here we are in the land of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, and Strauss and the only live music we hear isn't a symphony, it's a barbershop quartet singing American tunes in German.

And, just like Disney, Salzburg has it's own Starbucks. Of course it does. We will have to see what the weather does tomorrow. We'd like a highwire cable ride, but rain is promised. We'll see how it goes. We couldn't have asked for a better trip or better weather so far, so no matter what we get, we can't complain!