Howling Frog Books

 Our somewhat diminished group was to spend the last day of the trip at Hallstatt, which is a small town situated on another incredible Alpine lake somewhat farther into Austria.  On the way, we stopped at Mondsee and Wolfgangsee for leg-stretching, sightseeing, and lunch.  St. Wolfgang is, in particular, an extremely picturesque town filled with narrow, winding streets and medieval buildings.  There was even a shop that sold lebkuchen year-round, to the delight of one of our company, and to mine too. Mondsee Uncooperative swan Wolfgangsee Town of St. Wolfgang; a terrible photo but it was extremely picturesque The name Hallstatt rang a bell, but I hadn't really thought about it at all until Felix explained.  Of course -- the Hallstatt culture!  Back in the Bronze Age, Hallstatt was a center of this proto-Celtic culture.  And the reason for the spot's importance is that there is a large salt mine in the mountain above the lake, which has been continuall...

 I was really looking forward to Regensburg day.  Regensburg is a little far to go for the area we were exploring, but our trip leader had lived there as a young man and wanted to show it off.  This was great with me because way back when I did an exchange trip to Denmark, my host dad was from Regensburg, and we visited Oma a couple of times.  Regensburg is something of an unknown gem and a wonderful little city.  It was hardly bombed during the war and still has its medieval town center.  The Middle Ages was Regensburg's heyday, as it's located on the Danube river at the last navigable spot and was a center of the salt trade.  For a long time it was known in English as Rattisbon. So we walked around the city center.  Regensburg is dotted with a few oddly tall and narrow towers; back in the day, families showed off their wealth by building these towers as their homes, and some still remain -- and are lived in.  There is a massive and ornate G...