The night of July 4th, thunderstorms rolled through Munich, and the forecast for our trip to the Eagle’s Nest and Salzburg did not look good. When the next day arrived, we lucked out with the weather as the storms seemed to be spent. Preparing for a long day away from the hotel, we once again loaded up with various rolls and pastries from the buffet and then got on the bus to head south. By 9am, we were closing in on the Bavarian Alps, experiencing clouds but no rain.

As we headed closer to the mountains, we noticed the storm clouds lingering from earlier that morning. When we had taken an earlier tour group to Mount Pilatus in Switzerland in 2016, we had similar weather conditions, and we ended up surrounded by a cloud at the top of the mountain.

At the base of Eagle’s Nest, we got off of our tour bus to take a shuttle to the top of the mountain. In theory, from this spot we could look up and see the mountaintop.

While we waited for the shuttle, I noticed a traveler from one of the other schools acting suspiciously interested in a pallet of rocks. Knowing something amazing was about to happen, I got out my phone to quickly take a video.

A day or so earlier, one of the parents in our group had noticed that the traveler in the video had been collecting large rocks and storing them in his backpack, which was fast becoming the literal immovable object. We aren’t sure how this got started, but at Omaha Beach, our Tour Manager did mention that we might want to collect some sand as a memento.

Among our group, we wondered what would become of these rocks when we got to the airport to fly home. At the Munich Airport the next day, while we were waiting to check our bags, we found out.

Back at the Eagle’s Nest shuttle stop, we finally boarded our shuttle and went up the windy road to the top. On one side, there were sheer drops, and, even with the clouds, the views were spectacular. The shuttle ride ended at a tunnel that took us to the elevator, which would ascend to the house sitting at the summit, just over 6000 feet above sea level.

A quick elevator ride later and we were at the Eagle’s Nest. As tourists exit the elevator, there is a restaurant, and then people can tour the house. But all of our travelers headed outside to go to the summit of the mountain so they could see the views of the Alps. Once outside, we could see the wildflowers and grasses of the region where parts of The Sound of Music was filmed. To the mortification of some of our student travelers, earlier on this trip, the sights had inspired several of the adults to start singing songs from that film.

From the area right around Eagle’s Nest, we could walk through a rocky area to the peak of the mountain.

The views of the mountains were incredible, and the clouds actually added to the effect.

And we just didn’t find rocks, views, and clouds at the top of the mountain – there was also:

Just over the summit, there was a trail that went all the way down to the area where we caught the shuttle, which was several miles, and we took that trail a little ways down before turning back. The rock formations were even more amazing on this side of the summit.

Before we knew it, it was time to return to the elevator to go down to catch the shuttle.

We rode the elevator back to our tour bus and continued on toward Salzburg. We crossed into Austria and traveled through the Austrian Alps. On the way, one traveler, whose identity will remain concealed to protect the innocent, observed that our Tour Manager, Peter, sounded a lot like Stewie from the show Family Guy. We will let you be the final judge of this Stewie-Peter comparison. Here is Stewie:

And this is with a voiceover by Peter.

With Peter/Stewie narrating our journey, we drove along the Salzbach, a river that has a bluish color due to the salt deposits in the water.

The river flows through Salzburg, a city named for the salt mines located in the region. When we arrived in Salzburg, we got off at the Mirabelgarten and strolled through the gardens on our way to the Old Town section of Salzburg.

In Paris, there is the famous Lovelocks Bridge, which started the tradition of couples putting their initials on a lock and locking it onto the bridge, throwing the key into the river to symbolize the permanence of their love. As we had already seen across Europe, this tradition has spread like wildfire. There was a European pandemic of locks.

This bridge, the Makartsteg, provided excellent views of the city and river.

We navigated through the narrow alleys and streets and found a place to meet later in the day. And then we had that rarest experience on this fast-paced tour: free time.

We now had a chance to explore Salzburg, and the Old Town had many shops and restaurants.

There were so many choices. Travelers could see 500 year-old squares and monuments, like the Residenzplatz.

Travelers could see famous monuments like the statue of Mozart, since Mozart was born in Salzburg.

Travelers could eat pastries and the Sacher Torte, a chocolate cake invented in Salzburg with a layer apricot jam in the middle.

Travelers could inexplicably opt not to eat the excellent Austrian foods.

Or travelers could buy a battle axe.

By this point in the tour, most people were on fumes, tired both from sleep deprivation and constantly being on the go. Consequently, when we passed by the fortress of Salzburg, most travelers could not even muster the energy to take a picture.

Too soon, it was time to load up on the bus and head back to Munich. On our way back from Austria to Germany there was a police checkpoint. Even though we were crossing between two European Union states, they still stopped our bus and questioned the driver.

We weren’t sure if the police were on the trail of our repeated theft of breakfast buffet items in hotels across the continent. Or it could be that word of the illicit photos of Queen Elizabeth’s crown in the Tower of London, that one of our travelers may or may not have taken, had spread to Central Europe. Fortunately since Brexit, cooperation between European police agencies is dysfunctional enough that the alleged Crown Jewels photo bandits are still safe. Chris navigated the police checkpoint to get us back to Munich, where we had a dinner of all of the things we had not manage to eat in Salzburg.

Somehow, in our journey through Germany and Austria we had managed to miss having a meal of schnitzel. That was rectified on this night, and the schnitzel was served with a popular side dish.

For dessert, we had Kaiserschmarrn, a kind of “scrambled” pancake, often fried after it was scrambled, topped with powdered sugar and fruit.

Although it was late at this point, we wanted to prolong our touring with one more stroll through downtown Munich. Who knew what we would find?

Or, less disturbingly: