The last days of my European vacation

Here are some pictures from my last two days in Europe. The last post of this trip ended with Harburg Castle. After a stop at the castle, we continued up the Romantic Road to the midieval city of Rothenburg. Rothenburg is said to be one of the best preserved from its time, complete with a wall still intact around the city.

You can see Rothenburg and its surrounding wall behind me in this pic.

Best Friend and I figured that we would share a romantic embrace under a heart in celebration of the Romantic Road. (Best Friend, how much do you think those losers we met in Savannah who tried to pay us to kiss would give us for this shot? Silly, stupid boys!)

A view within the city.

Was this in a James Bond movie or something? It seemed so familiar to me!







We took a little hike outside of the city walls and down a narrow little road. We passed a super creepy church on our way down. And then we made it to this very old bridge built in the 14th Century and resembling a Roman viaduct. It spans the Tauber River.


Once we climbed the steep, winding road back through the gates of Rothenburg, we visited one of my favorite places--the Midieval Criminal Museum! They had it all from comfy furniture like this to...




sexy underwear to...







to cool Halloween costumes...that is, if you want to be an authentic executioner for Halloween and wear this mask worn by executioners in the Dark Ages. (Just a note: they also had all the accessories you would need to pull of such a great costume such as the robe, sword, and axe!)

Seriously, isn't this the scariest looking thing?

Later that evening, back in home-sweet-Munich, we discovered yet another fountain to take pictures of. I think I have an obsession with fountains and cathedrals as they make up about 50% of all the photos I took on this trip!




We also were obsessed with the Hofbrauhaus! We dined there once again with our roomates and new friends. M. from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is seated next to me and S. from Vienna, Austria is next to Best Friend.

(M. and S., I miss you girls!)

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Our final day...
Welcome to Salzburg, Austria! It's the city of music, birthplace of Mozart, and where "the hills are alive with the sound of music"! I am standing on the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Salz River and joins the new town to the old town. The old city of Salzburg is behind me. The white castle-like fortress above the city is called the Fortress of Salzburg.


This was taken looking up in the dome of my favorite of all the cathedrals I visited, Dom zu Salzburg. It was so beautiful to me that I emptied the last of my Euro coins from my wallet to give for its restoration.




Part of a cemetery below the Fortress. Mausoleums lined the wall by mountain on the left and graves were scattered along the walkways by chapels.





Since I can't speak or read German very fluently (or at all), I have no idea what this beautiful building is. I am thinking that by the looks of it, that it must have something to do with the famous Austrian Horses. But weren't those horses all white?




One of the narrow streets in Salzburg's busy shopping district. We never ran into large crowds of people anywhere, except here in Salzburg. It was still a very pleasant experience and I loved this city very much.









Finally, we fought the crowds to the most crowded place in town, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart! I was really looking forward to seeing it, but counting how many times someone stepped on me or bumped into me, it seems so was everyone else. Where there are large crowds, I don't tarry long!







So we moved right along to the beautiful grounds and gardens of Mirabell Palace. This was my favorite view of Salzburg across the gardens. You can see the domes of the cathedrals all the way up to the fortress.

After leaving Salzburg, we traveled further into the Austrian Alps. This is Lake St. Wolfgang. We came into the town of St. Wolfgang where we took a nice boat ride across the lake to another little town.

On board the boat. Goodbye, St. Wolfgang!







On the other side of the lake. It was then time to say goodbye to Austria and then the following day goodbye to Germany, too.

I'm not too sad since I know I will be coming back...well right after I visit Italy, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and Switzerland!