AUSTRIA - DAY 5

Another wet miserable day but we ventured forth in spite of the weather. This morning we headed to Stiegl-Brauwelt (beer brewery). There we wandered the museum learning the process of beer making before having a chance to sample three of the beers Stiegl make. Now we thought that these samples would be a small shot glass, but no, they were a normal size beer glass. The first beer was disgusting. It was not clear more an opaque colour. Grandad was the only one who drank this one, plus mine as well. Pasqual refused that one and asked for three different ones altogether. I tried Pasqual's radler and it was very nice, so Grandad and I ordered this one next. It was really refreshing, could hardly taste the beer in it (only 2% alcohol), it contained grapefruit. For the final beer I ordered another radler while Grandad order the Stiegl Gold Braun.

We wandered out of the brewery sloshing with the amount of beer we had tasted and headed back into the old town and up the funicular to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. The cable car has been running since 1892. At that time transportation up and down the hill was made possible by a simple physical principle: water. Water was pumped into the train inside the upper station until it was heavy enough to carry the partner in the lower station up the hill. It was not until the sixties that power took over.

The fortress was started in 1077 by Archbishop Gebhard and for the following 600 years it was expanded and further developed until attaining its present appearance. We toured the inner rooms with its Golden Chamber and marvelous majolica tile stove from the year 1501.

Next we entered the world of marionette puppets as we saw an exhibition showcasing marionettes from bygone years. The girls enjoyed trying to make the marionette walk properly.

Finally we joined a tour which took us up to the highest point of the fortress, the observation tower. From there we got impressive views of the Alps which surround Salzburg and the city spread out across the valley.

We left the fortress and headed into the Dom. It was very impressive. After wandering around we sat down and waited for the lay Clerks of St George's Chapel Windsor Castle to sing. They were truly amazing. The group consisted of twelve men and a conductor who sang a variety of religious songs unaccompanied. It was beautiful listening to the sound fill the Dom. They finished up singing three British folk songs which were great.