Day 11 : Climb Every Mountain

Those of you that have been following the blog day by day will appreciate that in an effort to immerse ourselves in the local culture, we tried to sample the local food and drink whenever possible. Fortunately for our physique, we have also taken every opportunity to see as much as we can of each area on foot. So today, after breakfast at Hotel Tirolerhof we checked out, packed our bags in the car and spent 90 minutes on the walking trails around Trins at the foot of the mountains. We were accompanied on our trail by locals and visitors on foot, on bikes, on rollerblades or pushing prams. The Austrians are very like Australians in that they love their outdoors. Then it was time to ease tired legs into the car and hit the road for the trip to Salzburg. This time we found our accommodation without too much trouble ; checked in ; then caught the bus into the city centre to explore our new destination - despite rain showers. We were encouraged to see a tourist in a car sheepishly driving out of a pedestrian mall - so we are not the only ones having trouble with foreign driving. Old Salzburg is a walled city, so after lunch and a bit of exploring we ascended countless steps to the cloistered monastery and church at the top of the hill - a very tiring climb - then compounded our folly by taking a trail along the wall that ringed the area, up and down steep steps and through muddy trails that had not seen much tourist traffic at all. A young American followed us in the mistaken belief we knew where we were going, and we knew him quite well by the time we got to the end of the track. Having worked up a thirst, we quaffed a few drinks - beers are served in 500ml glasses in Austria - while the girls sampled local concoctions as well. Tomorrow the girls have booked tickets on the Sound Of Music Tour, so expect a full description in the next post ......