Change of plans

Woke up yesterday morning and had to put the heat on. It's going to be the same thing for the next few mornings, I think. Winter is coming. 

One of the rigs parked near us is huge. You don't see them often, but you do see the occasional large motorhome here in Europe. It's not only the Americans who build large RVs. Anyhow, we were watching the owner yesterday morning, and at one point the entire rear panel of this big motorhome started sliding upwards.

Because when you drive a motorhome that big, you need a smaller vehicle to get around in...

Crazy!

Ruth looked it up. The motorhome is a Concord Centurion. They sell for upwards of €350,000 ($505,000 CAD, $405,000 USD). Even if we had that kind of money, it's just not our style. We're quite happy with Max and a couple of bicycles!

Speaking of bicycles, we took them for a ride yesterday. It took me a few minutes to get them ready because I still hadn't put air in the tires or installed the pedals from when we had them shipped over here. And it turned out we have a minor problem. 

Ruth's bike has hydraulic brakes. It seems they didn't handle the flight very well and somehow both front and rear now have some air in the lines. We'll need to find a bike shop to get them bled. They still work a little bit, so she can still ride it, she just has to be extra careful.

It was a really nice bike route back to central Salzburg. We decided not to get the Salzburg tourist card just yet. There was still enough free stuff to keep us busy.

The river has this modern hydraulic dam with these big concrete things.

And huge pistons to operate things.

Lots of interesting churches in Salzburg.

The gardens at the palace.

There was hardly a cloud in the sky almost all day. So nice to see the sunshine and blue sky again! It was still pretty cool though, with a high of only 14C (58F).

Lots of people out enjoying the day.

Looking back at the fortress.

The palace gardens.

See the people sitting on the left in the photo above? Some of them have brought there own wine and are sitting having a glass of wine and enjoying the flowers. Apparently that's a thing here, just sit out in the public and enjoy a glass of wine. What a civilized idea!

Speaking of wine, we stopped in at the Salzburg Sturm festival. It's where local growers showcase their wine and food products. It's only on for two weekends in the fall because that's the only time they make sturm. Sturm is a quickly fermenting wine that celebrates the fall harvest. They don't bottle it because it would explode the bottles, so you have to drink it right away. 

Here is a good article about sturm... https://www.kcblau.com/sturm/

Red and white sturm in the big jugs.

It was pretty busy.

We had to show our vaccination certificates to get in.

Enjoying the sturm!

€3.00 ($4.30 CAD, $3.50 USD) each.

It's not bad, but I think we'd rather have a glass of real wine.

From there, we went and wandered around some more.

Interesting wall.

Statue.

Lots of people out and about.

Lots of wall ornaments.

The whiskey museum was closed!

Scenery along the way.

Salzburg Cathedral is huge!

I'm always amazed at how they built this stuff so many years ago.

The organ pipes.

Big fountain.

The Salzach River.

Supposed to be another nice day today, so we are going to ride our bikes back into town and visit the fortress and a few other tourist places. 

But then we are changing our plans. 

We had thought we would do a nice leisurely route south through the mountains, but there is some bad weather in the forecast from Monday night through Saturday. Even calling for snow at higher elevations. So we are going to buy a toll pass and take the main toll highway. It will be about a three hour drive for us on Monday. That will get us south of the mountains where the weather is supposed to be much better. We should be in Slovenia by Wednesday.

It turns out that winter is coming to this area faster than we thought it might. But, that's why we have a flexible schedule. If we exit Slovenia into Croatia sooner than expected, it will give us extra time in Greece. 

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