Theresa and My World-Wind Tour: Visiting Vincent, Munich, and Salzburg!

After Paris, we headed back to Stuttgart for the night to wash clothes and get ready for out adventure the next day to safer, more familar (for me) territory; Vincent's house! For those of you who don't know, Vincent and I are an item now and this was the first best friend approval meeting. Haha. This was also my opportunity to show Theresa Munich and, my favorite so far, Salzburg, Austria. The first day we were in Prien was time for Theresa to see Prien am Chiemsee and get to know Vincent. We went out to a traditional German restaurant for dinner with Vincent's dad, Marcel, and the whole day was quite lovely.

Day two, we toured Munich. Well, I should say tha we tried to tour Munich. We had a long list of things to show Theresa and things that I hadn't seen either, but most of them were outside activities and the weather had a completely different idea in mind. It rained, hailed, and stormed while we were there. Although we saw the city center, the market place, and got a little shopping in, we ended up going back to Prien early because the weather was just too terrible to see the gardens and fantastic things we had planned. Oh well, another time! But! We had Weißwurst (white sausage), pretzels, and beer for dinner...so the day wasn't a total waste! Haha.

The next day was also awful weather which was really sad because we were planning on going to Herrenchiemsee; the island with a castle on it in the middle of Chiemsee (the lake) that Prien is on. That was sad because that was our only chance to show Theresa Herrenchiemsee. Oh well, she'll just have to come visit again! :P But we spent the day doing things just hanging around together like shopping and cooking....and we even talked Vincent into doing a peeling mask with us! Hahaha.

The next and last day, on the other hand, was totally beautiful! Hooray! We spent the last day touring Salzburg, Austria which is one of my favorite cities that I have ever visited; possibly ever my VERY favorite. Anyway, we did the usual tour that I do when I go there. First, you go thru the beautiful tree park right off the main street from the main train station and into the flower garden with old statues (my personal favorite place in the world). By the way, part of my favorite flower garden was one the the places they filmed Sound of Music. You know, the part where they ran around the fountain singing "Do Re Mi"? Well, being the musical geeks that we are....we did just that! We couldn't help ourselves!

Then on to the old street and house where Mozart was born, the markets, and then the collection of HUGE, lovely churches at the end. Here is Theresa in front of Mozart's house (the yellow one).

Since I have done all those things several times, we also planned something that I had never done before. We visited the castle on the top of the cliff: Hohensalzburg Fortress.

It's a very impressive castle that was started in 1077 and sits atop the cliff overlooking Salzburg. It's rather amazing ot think about all the things that happened there in the close to 1000 years that it's stood it's regal ground. Apparently it's one of the very largest medieval castles in Europe and we toured the whole thing....or at least what you're allowed to go in. There is a cable car that goes straight up the cliff to the castle, but we decided to hike it. (We also made notes-to-selves later to take the cable car next time! Haha. Hey, it's a VERY steep cliff!) Anyway, it was just gorgeous with snow still on the ground and the warm shining all day. The view from the castle of the Alps and over the city was so incredible. Afterwards, we ate Weiner Schnitzel for dinner at a cafe right down the hill from the castle and Theresa got to drink her first Radler (half beer, half lemonade). It was closing time in the cafe and they were so nice to give us all a little dessert for free before we left. Anyway, it was a great visit overall and Theresa gave her best friend approval to Vincent. (Well, that's an easy one...but Vincent still needs the brother approval in July. Good luck Vincent!) Anyway, now I'll hush-up and just show you pictures like you're all dying to see. Haha.

Theresa and me hiking up to the castle. (See? I wasn't kidding! It's steep!):

Vincent and me at the front of the castle, overlooking Salzburg: