Sunny and warm weather today. We spent today taking the optional side trip southeast into Austria to visit Salzburg. There is nominally a border between Germany and Austria but we were waved through without having to leave the highway or even slow down. Salzburg is where "The Sound of Music" was filmed so we watched the first part of it on the bus TV. Upon arrival in Salzburg we were met by our local guide Gabby. Their annual 5 week Opera Festival was to start the next week, so the city was busy in preparation. We walked through the gardens, across the Isar river, through the marketplace, past the opera theatre then past Mozart's home (museum) and his birthplace. Walked through the cemetery and later the beautiful Catholic cathedral. We rode the incline up to the castle for breathtaking views of the city and countryside. We lunched on sausages with mustard and fresh ground horseradish bought at the marketplace.
On the bus back into Germany, we made a side trip to the "Eagle's Nest". This is a building high on an Alpine mountain built for Hitler's 50th birthday as a place for conference and recreation. It has no bedrooms, but several of Hitler's inner circle had homes nearby. All the homes were destroyed after the war. We were dropped off at a bus terminal halfway up the 6000 ft peak, then rode special busses up switchbacks to a transfer area below the building. We debarked, walked into the mountain through a long tunnel then 400 feet up in a square elevator with capacity 40. The road, tunnel and elevator were all original and all were used by Hitler himself. From the building we walked up a path for beautiful views of the Alps in all directions. Not much time to contemplate, as we had to make our way back down to the bus. Watched more of The Sound of Music on the ride back to Munich. We proceeded directly to a country inn for dinner. No sooner had we settled on the patio and ordered beers, when a thunderstorm struck and all had to dash inside for a warm, humid and sweaty dinner of goulash with potato and break dumplings. Delicious desert of Bavarian cream with kiwifruit. Skies were already clearing by the time we got back to the hotel, so Bob, Pete and Nancy took off on foot for downtown beer halls. We visited two, a Schneider pub for weissebier (wheat beer) then across the street for Paulaner. Cool and very pleasant walk back to the hotel, about 15 minutes.