Salzburg-land-time!

Well, readers, we have safely arrived in Salzburg, Austria! After an extremely hectic travel day (so many trains), great schnitzel at a local restaurant, and a great night's sleep at a temporary hotel, we are HERE. And wow were we welcomed to the city today!

We went out this afternoon in between hostels and explored the old town...Salzburg is quite different from anywhere I've ever been. You go in off the main road, and the town is a series of small streets connected by arched passageways. I could imagine it would be very easy to get lost in the labyrinth, especially at night once they start locking the gates to the passages! We saw some really cool stuff while we explored - a bar in a cave under the hill, the Salzburg Castle, a super-ancient crypt built into the side of a hill, a very fancy graveyard in the middle of the square, great street vendors (cheese filled sausages and chocolate jam covered pretzel...nom), the Salz Dom and the corresponding crypts, and some really sweet views of the snowy mountains!

The night ended with the Vienna Philharmonic concert at the Festspielhaus, and wow...what a concert. The repertoire was amazing - and I even recognized some of it, which is a first! The conductor was fantastic. He was so expressive with and without his baton, it was difficult to believe what I was seeing. He did everything from expressive hand gestures, to conducting the pulse with his body, to showing each individual subdivision with his baton while keeping the beat pattern in his arm movement. At one point, he hugged himself tightly to signify a sudden silence...and the room rang! It was insane.

Even more insane was the guest artist, Joshua Bell. He is normally a cellist, but played tonight on violin. Everything he did was beautiful. He was so into his music that he never stopped moving, and he seriously frayed his bow and just ripped the strands off and threw them on the ground. Did I mention we were in the FRONT row? We could feel the vibrations of the basses through the front of the stage. Unfortunately our only real view was the backs of the viola players and the side of the conductor, but it was seriously beautiful. I am very much impressed by this group of musicians.

Tomorrow brings a Mozart mass in the Salz Dom (5 organs!) and a walking tour of the city. Oh, and Mozart's birthday is on Monday, so there are celebrations of all sorts going on around here! Pictures to come soon.