I’ll start in Graz. After our break we walked around town again. We saw folk dancers (see pic) and traditional folk music. I also forgot to mention we heard a national yodeler! We got dinner from one of the many, many food vendors. Marsha had some sort of boiled potato pancake with sauerkraut and I had the same but added some sort of sausage with horseradish and bread. See pic.

We had breakfast at the train station because there are shops all over with great pastries. Before we boarded the train we stopped in the post office at the train station and we were interviewed by someone from the train company who even offered us breakfast. We boarded the train to Salzburg. It was an Austrian train and they are very nice. It started to rain as we arrived in Salzburg and since we didn’t have reservations at any hotel went to find one. We decided to stay at the first one we checked and it is nice. The hotel plays the movie the “Sound of Music” on demand all day. Since it was raining hard we watched the movie. The scenery in the movie is what we saw from the train, only more spectacular in person. We are having trouble deciding in what country and city we should apply for a resident visa. By the time the movie ended it was almost 9pm – fortunate the hotel has a nice restaurant. Marsha had a salad with fried chanterelle mushrooms and I had viener schnitzel. Marsha also had dessert- dumplings with plum sauce but I forgot to take a pic. We have heard conflicting weather reports, but hopefully it will stop raining. It is miserable being a tourist in the rain.

It is afternoon and we are sitting in a cafe away from the city center. There must be 200,000 people here because we just went along with the crowd. We took the funicular to the castle- see pic. And of course took a pic from the highest point overlooking the city. The whole town is in party mode! I have taken pics of the cafe – which is off the beaten path – so you can imagine the rest of the town.

I ordered an Aperol spritzer and Marsha had another pink drink. Both are refreshing. Weather has been nice during the day and cool at night.

I don’t have wifi at this hotel so you may get several days at one time.
We boarded an Austrian train early in the am. It had a restaurant car so we decided to have breakfast on the train. See pic of dining car. We both had cream of asparagus soup (see pic) and Marsha had a croissant and I had a roll and butter. The baked good were warm so we enjoyed our breakfast.
As usual we got into Graz and checked into our hotel. We headed for the Old City and went to the tourist info office. They had a pamphlet of self guided walking tours which are very good. We did a couple if them and I took a lot of pics on my camera besides the ones on the phone. The one is a 500 year old double spiral staircase.
We did not realize Graz is having a festival. Everyone is wearing dirndls and lederhosen. Whole families are in traditional dress and there is folk music at several locations in the town. See pic of Marsha and I drinking a local drink. We ordered food from where we were in a courtyard at one of the events. Marsha had a mushroom chili with a dumpling and I had something that had ham, pork, potatoes and other vegetables. There was singing and dancing and everyone seemed to be having a good time. It is like a mini Octoberfest. Tomorrow Graz is expecting 100,000 people to attend the festivities. Marsha and I plan to attend after we see the castle.