Hellbrunn to Home

 Here is the breakfast room at the Turnerwirt. German and Austrian hotels (or gasthof, gasthaus, or pension) have great breakfasts and usually great breakfast rooms to go with them. Even the scary place we stayed in Munich in 2006 had a great breakfast room--it was like two baronial rooms in a zombie building.
 This room is all decked out in music and I'm a huge sucker for it. And the breakfasts are great too!
 After we'd filled up on breakfast, we loaded onto the bus and headed out here to Hellbrunn, the archbishop's palace. Salzburg isn't usually so hot, but every time we come we hit a heatwave, so we love this place. I think it was the Disneyland of its time. It's filled with trick fountains.

Our kids and students hopped right up to the table to get a seat. They love it. And then they didn't worry too much about when they got wet during the rest of the tour.

 The grotto.
 Joss spent the tour in another wheelchair, but this is still an improvement over his 2009 trip. Joss got sopping wet at the first station and then sat wailing until Rob took him out (we realized he hadn't eaten much of anything, so the two of them went to the snack bar and filled up). Joss didn't think much of the squirty moose head.
 The kids got along in brief moments. You take 'em where you can get 'em. Even in decorative baroque alcoves.
 After the water tour, most of us went through the palace, which, like the Turnerwirt has grown on me each time I've visited. Of course this time I got to see more and read more since I wasn't juggling a baby. Learned what Mannerism is (transitional period between the Renaissance and the Baroque) and even how the traditional Hellbrunn fountain works (just like the kids' waterworks at the Rec Center).
 We went to see the Sound of Music "I Am 16, Going On 17" pavilion that the producers didn't want to pack home to LA graciously gave to the city of Salzburg, probably as a warning shot for all the crazy Americans we'd be sending over in the coming years. Rick Steves says "Edelweiss is not actually the Austrian national anthem" and our student said "Yeah, that was a heartbreaking day when I realized that."
 Maddie, post-jet lag meltdown at the Landzeit. 
Blood sugar is real, folks. 
Also, sleep.
 The view at the rest stop in Mondsee. I wish there were even one view like this at a rest stop on I-80 between SLC and SF.
. . . and a picture of me at the Schwedenplatz Eissalon. It's there in the photos, so it must have happened, but what was I thinking?!?! And why did I get two scoops?!

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