This morning got off to a better start right off the bat. When I went down the hall to take my shower, they had hair dryers! I cannot express my delight. I felt much more like myself once I had washed and dried my hair properly.

We got breakfast downstairs and tried to video chat with some friends while we ate . We finally got ahold of Ann Ordway and the Hyunhs via Skype. They could see us, but we couldn't see them. Apparently we missed Khim dancing. That's probably a good thing.

Then we headed through town and back to the Mirabell Gardens, because I wanted to see them less crowded. They were great. We took more time than yesterday walking through and really appreciating all those flowers. I told Bryan that if I lived here I would walk through the gardens every day.

Next we crossed the river, went through old town, and started up the hill to the fortress that sits above the city. The fortifications are from the time period when cannon balls were used, so the walls were extremely thick. The best part were the views back down on the city. We snapped more pictures and then hiked out to a park nearby. It was forested and quiet and had more views of the city. We arrived at an old city wall (much older than the castle). About that time the church bells began to ring and we headed back down to where there was a free concert in process.

We listened to a few traditional Austrian songs by a five piece band and then wandered back up the street to do some window shopping. By this time we had been on our feet and walking for quite some time, so we found ourselves a nice cafe and sat down to some tea and hot chocolate. Directly in front of where we were sitting was a street performer with his back towards us. We happily people-watched as group after group of tourists happened upon this "floating Mozart." (Look for him in the background of our cafe picture below.)

After relaxing like this for a while, we mailed a couple postcards at the post office and decided maybe we wanted something to eat. So we went to where we had seen sausages sold earlier. I chose a spicy sausage with mustard sauce for us to share. It was delicious! But then our throats kinda burned, so we had no choice but to go get some gelato. ;)

It was then time for a short side trip out of town....

What a difference a day made. We were able to put behind the mishaps of the previous day and just relax and enjoy Salzburg. Following tips in our guidebook, we were able to gain free access to the fortress by hiking up early in the morning - there is a charge later in the day or if you ride the funicular.