Wednesday, January 2, 2019: St Wolfgang to St Valentin: 

            We awoke to snow! Last night there was heavy rain so when the temperature dropped, it became white!  It is still snowing this morning.  After breakfast, we walked around St Wolfgang again, this time taking photos in the snow. There were no distance photos, due to heavy snow.

View from our Hotel

Carved Figures in the Snow

Our Hotel on the Right

            From St Wolfgang we continue to drive toward Salzburg, stopping at the villages of St Gilgen, Fuschl, and Hof, before driving into the center of Salzburg.  We parked in a parking garage, so we did not have to worry about parking time. 

            We Googled the Free Walking Tour of Salzburg and followed it as we walked throughout Salzburg. The Centrum covers a relatively small area, so we saw a lot in a short time. We saw several Sound of Music locations, several churches, several shopping areas/Christmas markets, several square/plazas, and several locations dealing with Mozart. Salzburg is still marketing Sound of Music! 

Horse Washing Area

Christmas Market

McDonald's

Farmers Market

Austrian Pretzels

French Cathedral with its tall Pillars

It seemed to be getting darker somewhat earlier than usual, but we didn’t think too much about it.  However, while in the Mirabell Castle, we glanced outside and saw a blizzard had just begun.  Blizzard is hardly the word for it!  Everyone was covered in white very quickly, and we still had to walk back to the car. We did dash inside several more locations before getting to the car.

Oldest Restaurant in Salzburg - 803

Cemetery from Sound of Music

Where the Van Trapps hid behind tomb stones

Salzburg Dom

Ancient road through the Alps to Italy

Damage on wall where an American tank tried to enter, WWII

Mirabell Castle

Salzburg Castle from Mirabell

Staircase in Mirabell

Mirabell Marble Concert Hall

            We had a hotel reservation in St Valentin, approximately 90 miles west of Salzburg, on the A1 autobahn toward Vienna. Due to the heavy snow, traffic eastbound was congestion for more than an hour. The streets and highway were snow packed for at least 40 miles east of Salzburg. We finally had open highway.