September 9 - from Fussen GM to Salzburg AU

In the morning we went to visit Innsbruck. It is between high mountains with Nordkette in the north, Patscherkofel and Serles in the south, it is an internationally renowned winter sports center, and hosted the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics. It is going to host the first Winter Youth Olympics in 2012.


The older pedestrian district of Innsbruck has the famous landmark Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof) and the Alps in the background.  The Golden Roof actually is the three-story balcony on the central plaza at the heart of the Old Town. It was constructed for Emperor Maximilian I to serve as a royal box where he could sit in luxury and enjoy tournaments in the square below.

With so many elite shoppers in our group, we have an important item on our itinerary that is “Visiting Swarovski”.  The first part is to visit the headquarter of Swarovski in Innsbruck’s Old Town.  It was decorated with lots of beautiful crystals in different designs.

We walked around the Old Town and then we walked by Hofburg: Hofburg (Imperial Palace) and passed thru the Bundesgarten Hofgarten and we had a lot of fun taking photos.

The next stop was to visit the Swarovski Kristallwelten, which is the factory and outlet of Swarovski.  Several of us had the best shopping time in Kristallwelten and help out the Austria’s crystal industry. 

In the afternoon, we arrived Salzburg and checked into Hotel Europa. Salzburg is the 4th largest city in Austria. Salzburg's "Old Town" (Altstadt) with its world famous baroque architecture is one of the best-preserved city centers north of the Alps. The city is noted for its Alpine setting. It is the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the setting for parts of the musical film the Sound of Music, which features famous landmarks in Austria.

We visited Mirabell Palace and its magnificent garden, the famous fountain in the Mirabell Gardens, which was seen in the Do-Re-Mi song from the Sound of Music. There is an outdoor stage in the garden and we were able to put on a show to entertain ourselves along with other tourists.

We also saw the Salzburg Cathedral, Nonnberg Abbey, and the Getreidegasse. Getreidegasse (also known as Grain Lane) is a busy shopping street in the Old Town section of Saltzburg. The house at no. 9 Getreidegasse is where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born and lived until he was 17. We also saw the stairway in the escape from theater scene in the Song of Music.