Day-14 On to Salzburg

We managed to get up, pack, go to breakfast, hop the underground to the train station and still got there an hour early.  That was OK, it gave us some time to figure out what o do with the last of the Florins.  So I decided to get us a couple of sandwiches for the trip and they were 550 Florins each… but I only had 900 and some euros…. I tried to talk to the lady in the shop and she spoke NO English.  There was another customer and I asked if she spoke English and she said a little.  So I explained to her what I was trying to do… which was pay with the Florins and then the rest in euros… but I didn't have that many euros coins either… Hmmm.  Between the three of us we finally figured out that I could use 600 Florins and a two euro coin for the sandwiches and were set, I used the last 300 Florins to get a .33dl coke.  Perfect, I got rid of all of he Florins.

So we finally find our car on the train, the last one, and get abroad.  There are four people sitting there and they all turned out to be from the Dallas, Texas area, and we had a good time comparing notes on traveling.  They used a travel agency to preplan everything and have a car meet them in each city and take them to the train. Come to think about it that is pretty nice.  It is similar to what we did in Prague.  They also had tickets to the Vienna Philharmonic and some other stuff set up for the next day through the agency.  I like the freedom we have to do what we want, but the coordinated tours and connections to the transportation sure would be nice.  Maybe we will have to try that on one of our trips.  We got the name of their travel company… We'll have to look into it some day.

The train ride from Budapest to Wein was the reverse of the trip we just made a few days ago.  But, this time we are on our way to Salzburg two more hours past Wein.  Other than the train and bus trip to Prague this is our longest travel day.  We get in about 3 PM.  The weather has been overcast the entire trip… but we can always hope.  

The more rolling hills… the towns of western Austria are quite nice.  They are starting to harvest the crops… Some of the fields were just starting to get mowed down.  And the days are just a little shorter even after the two weeks we have been in Europe.  I'll check the sunrise and sunset sometime when I get internet access.  Right now I am just blogging on the train.  I just had an interesting experience… we went through one of those tunnels under the mountain and when we came out the other side the sun was out and the sky was blue.  It is like we teleported to someplace totally different.  But, it makes sense that the weather  on one side of the mountains midget be different than the other side… but, what a surprise… to actually see it happen.

We are zipping across the country side at 200 kph, which is a pretty good clip, toward Linz.  The train is two minutes behind schedule….  That may explain the speed up.  Until now the train was doing about 170 kph or less.  This was the first time he really put the pedal to the metal.

Finally, made it to Salzburg, it is overcast again, and i got lost trying to find the hotel. (Hey, there was some construction and there were no street signs visible.) But, we finally made it.  Checked the e-mail.  Skyped Ricky. And asked where the locals go to eat.  The hotel manager said, "Die Weisse" and showed us how to find it on a map.  Just as we stated to go there was a slight misting of rain…. discretion being the better part of valor… Nancy, ran in and got the big umbrella.

Die Weisse was excellent.  They have their own brewery, good Austrian wheat beer, and wonderful Austrian food.

Good thing we went back and got that umbrella it was raining when we left the restaurant…. We came back to the room and crashed.  Tomorrow we take on Salzburg.