On Thursday morning we drove to Salzburg and parked underneath the Mönchsberg. As we walked outside and felt the sun on our faces Everett announced “I’m chocolate hungry.” So we crossed the street and went to one of Carrie’s favorite chocolate stores for some treats. It’s a very neat shop because of the variety of the variety of chocolate, the conveyor belt that brings by samples in small metal boxes, and the fountain at the front door. Afterward we walked around the city and picked out a new shirt for Everett from our favorite children’s clothing store in the world. Soon after that Carrie went home to meet Anna. The three of us walked to a market and had some meat treats, then to Stiftsbäckerei St. Peter, the oldest bakery in Salzburg (800 years), St. Peter’s church and cemetery (including the tour of the catacombs), and finally we hiked up the hill to the Hohensalzburg Castle. Our tentative plan was to see the castle and then hike across the Mönchsberg to the Augustiner by the time they opened about 3pm. But we spent so much time in town in the morning that this no longer seemed possible. So we decided to go to the castle and then see how the rest of the day worked out. The castle was even bigger inside than it appears from the outside. It feels like you could spend at least half a day exploring it. We managed to see most of it except for the final 30 minute tour to the parapet – everyone was too tired even after a rest stop for beer, milk and sachertorte. We had promised Everett a ride on the funicular so we left the castle and rode back to St. Peter’s, and then strolled through the city and along the river to the Augustiner while Everett collected chestnuts. Our readers may recall that Everett is a collector. On this trip he started collecting the chestnuts that are very plentiful this time of year. He filled his pockets with them, then filled Dad’s pockets and finally started filling bags of them. At the end of the trip we explained to him that it’s not legal to bring them back to the US, so we left them at Carrie’s house.

For dinner at the Augustiner we got two steins of beer and an assortment of meats and snacks. Everett had two wieners with ketchup and what appeared to be a small pile of shredded cheese, but in fact was horseradish. He put a handful of it in his mouth and immediately had a look of concern, followed by alarm. “Get it out of my mouth!” He spit it out and settled down, and then we told him funny stories about the time Dad almost passed out from eating too much wasabi. After dinner we took the bus to the Salzburg Hauptbanhof, and then the train to Anthering where Armin picked us up on his way home from work. When we got on the train Everett and Chris each had a Duplo chocolate bar. Before our first bites we touched them and said cheers. An Austrian man on the train saw this and started talking to us. Once he realized we didn’t understand him he switched to English and said “In Austria we have a saying that happiness is for the parents and the children,” a reference to the Haribo slogan.