Salzburg, Austria 7/21 -7/26

So we checked into a hostel that was a loooong hike from the city, and with the amount of stuff we have acquired at this point, not easy, but we were rewarded when to my surprise it was located inside of an old fortress that had an overlook of the entire city.  First day we just did laundry and shopped for food, getting ready for my mom and her friend Diana's arrival the next day, at which time we would join them in some hotels and countries for 18 days in a trip planned by Diana to coincide with our country itinerary.

Next day they arrived and we met them at the lobby of hotel sacher, a pretty amazing hotel, and my mom was extremely happy to see that we were still alive and not taken hostage.

We all went on a driving/walking tour the next day that took us through the history of Salzburg and Mozart, who was born here, and gave us some of the history of the town including the famous Salzburg red limestone, Mozart's house, red bulls headquarters, and the sound of music(which was filmed here).

The amount of sound of music tour buses was ridiculous BTW. It's a huge attraction apparently. Also, apparently Mozart was very short and ugly. :)

The next day we were taken on a drive of the alps and Salzburgs mountain lakes on our way to the largest ice cave in the world. They were amazing. It was a 20 minute hike up steep mountain trail, through a cave, up a gondola, 20 more minutes of hiking, and we were at the tunnel mouth that was blocked by a door. Some of us were given old gas lanterns, a tour guide grabbed about 40 of us, and the door was opened and cold air came rushing out so hard it almost knocked everyone over.

We were ushered in and the door (which preserves the tunnels temperature of below freezing, since outside was above 50) was shut, and our lanterns lit.  Pictures weren't allowed, so naturally I took a lot of them, but none of them came out anyways as it was dimly lit and my camera sucks in that situation.  We went up and down 700 stairs while the guide explained the different formations. Very awesome.

On our last day as we got in a car to take us to Fussen, our next destination, we made a pitstop at the eagles nest, Hitler's old home that was gifted to him by the Austrians(although he didn't like it). The view was spectacular.