Day Three was Sarah’s birthday. We had planned to drive from Munich to Passau and then up along the border with the Czech Republic to see areas where I used to patrol. But I had been talking about seeing Ramsau for a while because it’s one of my favorite webcams and is often featured on this blog. Sarah suggested we head that way and swing up to Passau later. So off we went. The ride to Ramsau was pretty spectacular. We avoided a traffic jam thanks to the excellent navigation system in the Mercedes and wound down through some really tight roads which ran along a river gorge into Ramsau. This is not a place you want to accidentally go off the road. It’s a long way to the bottom of the gorge. The scenery reminded me of Colorado.

When we got to Ramsau, the sky was brilliant blue with some clouds moving in.

It was well past lunchtime and we were starving, so we stopped in at the Gasthof Oberwirt for an excellent lunch.

When we came out after lunch, the clouds had started to move in, although there was still some blue showing.

Here’s the webcam responsible for so many awesome sunrise images I’ve posted here.

And here’s the famous webcam view, taken this time with my own camera. This is the view I came to see.

Of course we couldn’t resist getting in the image ourselves.

Ramsau is famous for hiking and cross country skiing and, of course, stunning views no matter which way you turn. The buildings on the hill are some vacation rentals.

Here’s Ramsau other, less famous church. Still very picturesque.

There was a small park in Ramsau with this rather unique “inhalatorium” where water was filtered down through branches which then gave off supposedly healing fumes.

Behind the church in Ramsau is a rather elaborate cemetery. Oddly enough, most of the graves are dated within the last 30 years or so.

The interior of the church is pretty impressive for such a small structure.

We left Ramsau and drove the short distance to Berchtesgaden. I wanted to see the Eagles Nest, Hitler’s WWII mountain retreat, but the early snow had closed the roads up there, so we had to settle for a picture from the village below.

Then, again at Sarah’s suggestion, we decided to drive the very short distance into Salzburg, Austria. It would prove to be the best decision we made during our trip. Salzburg is amazing. We parked the car and found ourselves right at Mozart Platz. After seeing the city up close for just a few minutes, we knew we had to stay here for the night.

We went and found a room for the night and continued exploring. Salzburg screams history everywhere you look. There are cathedrals with huge squares surrounding them and museums and grand architecture around every corner. After a magical evening stroll through this timeless city, we returned to our hotel and booked another night.

We didn’t book a suite, but there was one apparently custom made for me.

The hotel was within easy walking distance of the center of the old city. It was a very comfortable place with a great breakfast every morning. It’s called the Altstadthotel Kasererbräu. I highly recommend it for anyone staying in Salzburg.

So that was Day Three of our trip. Another very busy, but highly enjoyable day.