On the seventh day of Christmas markets...

...my true love gave to me, seven haus a dining.

The church bells rang this morning at 8:45 for some reason - for a very very long time. Not sure what it was about, but I needed to get up anyway. No good nights of sleep yet on this trip and we slept last night with the window open. It seems like the heat is just "on" and adjusting it isn't an option. We were downstairs having breakfast and the options were lovely. Guy had an omelet and I have a variety of other little goodies. We had no particular schedule today except to walk all over Salzburg, which we did.

Our first area to explore was going to be Old Town, which we saw last night, but we wanted to see it during the day while the shops were open. Before we got that far we came across a huge market. More of a farmers market as it mostly consisted of food and vegetables, floral items, socks, clothes and meat....lots of meat, including lots of raw chickens and farm eggs. We took about 30 minutes to explore the goods and the area was packed with locals. As we moved down the street we popped in and out a few shops and made a few quick purchases. As we made our way toward the pedestrian bridge we decided today would be the day we would ride the funicular to the castle (ok, so they call it a fortress, but still...). We decided to go ahead and go up today because the weather app on my phone says that it may clear off about 3pm. However, the girl at the desk said no, "cloudy until Tuesday", that is like 5 days away. But she did say snow was in the forecast, so bring it!

On the way to the funicular we came across an old cemetery that was so eye-catching we had to stop. There was what appeared to be an old church-looking area chiseled into the cliff, which are catacombs that you could go in and see. Google says the Petersfriedhof Cemetery is the oldest Christian graveyard in Salzburg, dating back to 1627. But most people come here to see where the Von Trapp family hid in the Sound of Music (yes, I'm ashamed to admit I've never seen the entire thing, but it was filmed in Salzburg). Mozart's sister is also buried there...apparently a talented musician in her own right. The cemetery is maintained by family members and the people of Salzburg and the pansy is the flower of choice on many of the grave sites. It was definitely worth a look. Eerie and amazing all at the same time.

We made our way to the funicular and bought tickets for the one minute ride. It beats the walk up I can tell you that. Guy read where it takes 30 minutes to walk down...so X3 at least for the hike up. No thanks. The ride was nice and not too scary. At the top we began our self guided tour of the fortress. We walked every inch and went through all the museums. It was nice. The view was great, but would have been amazing if we were not socked in by clouds. Still. Lovely.

We did it again...it is 2:30pm and we have decided we were hungry, which means we won't be hungry for dinner. But we saw a hoppin' old restaurant on the square and thought we'd give it a go. It was the Zipfer Bierhaus and the staff was exceptionally nice. We sat at a table for 6 with another couple, but they were at the other end and it didn't seem awkward. They were not speaking English, so there was no conversation happening between us. I ordered cheese dumplings with onions and Guy ordered pork schnitzel and boiled potatoes. The food came out promptly and it was good. My "dumplings" had a bit of a funky smell, but tasted good. I'm sure I was getting a whiff of the cheese that was on it, but really there was nothing that could be wrong with it *hopefully*. So to end the suspense of the intro to the blog, I think this bierhaus is the 7th haus we've dined at on this trip. They are plentiful and have all had great food.

After lunch I went back to the main market to check on a few items, plus I wanted to test out the "time-lapse" option on my phone. It is really cool, so I did a time lapse of the Christmas markets. It also has a slow motion option that I've done some cool things with. Twice I videoed the horse and carriages today, but I can't quite get the timing down. I'll try again tomorrow.  - After my photo experiments we headed back to the hotel with a pitstop at a train store Guy wanted to visit. While he did that I went back to the little Christmas market by our hotel and picked up a few goodies. Back at the hotel we visited with this really super cute employee who was assisting us with dinner reservations and ideas for tomorrow. Guy asked him if the Eagle's Nest was closed and he said yes, but even if it was open the only thing there is a place for tea and a group of Chinese on the left and a group of Taiwanese on the right. Not very PC, but he was cracking us up. He gave us dinner suggestions and made us a reservation for tonight at 8pm and a list to review for tomorrow night. We went to the room to drop off our coats and went to the club room for hot chocolate and a cappuccino (or two). We Trip Advisored the suggestions he gave us and chose one that sounded very traditional Austrian and fun! So Guy went down to have them call for a reservation. Apparently the restaurants are all booked during the time of the Christmas markets, so reservations are a must. At least they take credit cards. When Guy arrived downstairs the desk was busy, so they are supposed to call when they can. Fingers crossed. The restaurant tonight is a seafood place. He said it is an Italian restaurant, but they are known for their seafood and if we wanted Italian to go somewhere else. Love the brutal honesty of this one.

I think we may have decided to take tomorrow easy. I'm pooped and the thought of sleeping in and lazying around the town sounds fabulous. Maybe tomorrow we'll figure out how to do a well-timed lunch so we are hungry for our last meal here. But we don't seem to be very good at that. LOL. We've hit the highlights and have enjoyed our time here, so if we had to choose a day to "take the day off" it would be here. In this hotel. In the suite. With unlimited snacks. And movies.

So I'll report in on dinner shortly, but wanted to get the blog going as I see my eyes closing much earlier tonight.

Ok, so dinner was interesting. Anytime I say "I'm not going to take my camera to dinner" is code for "you are getting ready to see something really cool". Just an FYI for future reference. *sigh* We headed out the door to the Pan E Vin, the Italian place with the good seafood and not so good Italian food. We took a different route and foot bridge to get there. As we were crossing that bridge and looked back at the beautifully lit bridge that we normally go across, it was a beautiful night time shot. I took a pic with my phone, but it won't be as good as my little camera. Anyway, it was worth the walk just to see that view. Maybe I'll catch it tomorrow night. Anyway, we find the restaurant and we are unsure if to eat upstairs or downstairs. Downstairs is their Cantina, more casual and consisted of two guys smoking at the bar. The upstairs was the restaurant part that was quiet and fancy, with really no customers. So they said they were expecting us, but we asked to see a menu to both places. Since Guy was there for seafood, there were only about 3 options and the one that sounded the best was the seabass (can't go wrong) but it was close to $50 US. It also didn't help that he had just read a really bad review on Trip Advisor. So combining 1). the place had no business on one of the busiest nights of the year, 2). the atmosphere was that of a library and 3). there are not too many fishes in the world worth fifty bucks. We left.

Neither one of us were really that hungry, so we were in no rush to find a place to eat, and since we'd need a reservation anywhere we went (except Pan E Vin) we were prepared to wait. We went by a few places we had seen yesterday, but all full, so we headed back to the restaurant we ate at last night as we threw in the towel and went for the world's most famous default. Pizza. We had to wait for a table but that was fine. When they did seat us it was at the same exact table we ate at the night before. Funny when you know how big the place was. I didn't mention it last night, because Guy wouldn't let me take a picture of another tables food, but the pizzas are so big they are hanging off the plates. Obviously they know this as they give you a circle of paper, like a placemat, when you order the pizza. Since we split one, they gave us our own plates, but it was still hanging off the side. Funny.

Now back at the hotel Guy said I hope our guy doesn't ask us how dinner was. He said don't make eye contact and we'll walk straight for the elevator. He won't holler across the lobby because he isn't American. We did as planned. No eye contact. B-line for the elevator. Just about to push the button...."How was the restaurant?" we hear coming from the desk. Busted. We go over to explain what had happened and he felt SO bad he had led us astray with his recommendation. We assured him that it was fine, the view from the bridge was worth the trip, and we were sure we'd like the restaurant tomorrow night. We told him we hoped the restaurant wouldn't be mad at him and he said of course not. This guy is just a kid, but is incredibly helpful. We felt so bad.

Back to the room there are chocolates on the bed and our laundry had been delivered. We needed just a few things washed up, including some of Guy's underwear. No need to be bashful here folks, we all wear them. (well most of us) but the best part of the story is they were delivered neatly folded on a wicker tray on the bed. We first thought it was a gift of some kind, but um, no! Underwear in a basket. We laughed.

So off to bed. Long day today and looking forward to a bit of R&R tomorrow. There will still be markets and food and stories to be told...but at a much slower pace.