“Ahhh, very chocolately.” That was the response of the breakfast manager when we asked for four hot chocolates rather than tea or coffee.  That’s us… very chocolatey.

From where I left off – first thing in the morning the boys took us to the palace to explore the library.  Truthfully we were already there because breakfast is served there.  I’ll try to remember to post a picture of the breakfast buffet room – does anyone recognize it?  Did Maria perform a puppet show here?  She certainly tipped over in a boat out in the back yard… and the library was fantastic. So beautiful – we returned in the afternoon to sit and read and enjoy the surroundings.

It was Sunday so we went to church.  The website said it began at 0930 but no one was there.  We went to sit down and were soon joined by another American family.  They left their home in June to travel for a year.  You could see they were quite tired – at least the kids were.  The parents were full of energy.  They’ve been to many countries. They had hoped to visit her sister in England but I guess it is still too difficult to enter the UK.  We met one other American family who had spent the week in Austria and were headed back home on Monday.

Church started at 1000 because it was their stake conference.  We thought they had exceptional speakers and noted that a couple of them used the mountains as reference to make their point.  How could they not when their life is surrounded by such grandeur?!  They were friendly and welcoming and the translator did a great job for us.  The only talk he struggled to translate was the wife of the mission president who did not yet speak German.  She had written out her talk and read it but the translator obviously had trouble knowing what she was trying to say.  

There was a kind man who came to meet us.  He had served a mission in Provo, UT many years before.  We asked him for some quiet Sunday activities and he recommended Gaisberg – on top of the mountain overlooking Salzburg.  We walked back to the hotel after church (10 min walk), changed our clothes and went to find Gaisberg.  Apparently coming up this mountain is a popular Sunday activity.  There were many paraglider taking off from two different points and lots of people picnicking an just sitting to watch.  It was a nice day but there was a haze over the city.  It just reminded me of what amazing weather we had enjoyed at the Eagle’s Nest.

Back at the hotel Greg and Jackie had to take their Covid tests in order to get back into the USA.   This has been a bit of a stress ever since we planned our trip but Greg found some do-it-yourself tests that the airline approves and it all worked out.  We were also a little stress because I’ve been feeling rather poorly for a couple days.  There is no reason to suspect Covid except that this seems to be the illness of choice lately.  So I assume if they are negative so am I and our trip can continue.

We went to explore the palace library and other rooms.  There was some sort of reception on the back patio but when they had left we enjoyed the sunset outside.  

With just a few hours left we decided to go and wander through Salzburg at night.  It was beautiful with the churches and castle all lit up.  It was nice that most stores and restaurants were already shut down so that the crowds were also missing.  The moon was out.  It was a nice ending to our visit in Salzburg.