12 o'clock

I love 12 o'clock in Salzburg. There are tons and tons of churches and cathedrals here and at 12 all the bells start ringing. Some have little songs, some just gong for what seems like 5 minutes. I haven't heard one yet that just rings 12 times and stops - or maybe  have and all the other bells drown it out. The clocks on the bells aren't all in sync either, so different bells start at different times, all adding to the cacophony of bells. I love it.

The bells do go off at other times too.  There is one right by my room that strikes once at 15 past, twice at 30, three times at 45, and I have no clue what it does at the hour. But it is twelve when everything in the city goes off. I think that they do the same thing at other hour as well, but it's definitely not everyhour and it is always at 12. Love it.   Makes me wish I had all those churches at home. I reall like churches. I like the quiet peaceful atmosphere, the bells, the music, the fact it's twenty degrees colder inside then out. I wish I could have all that without the actual religon that goes along with it. One of the world's most beautiful things combined with one of the world's most destrutive things. Why is it always like that?

Salzburg overall is a lovely little town. Lots of older looking buildings (some of them not that old - but they still look it), quaint streets and cool little shops. People walk or ride their bikes almost everywhere here and many of the streets in the main part of town are closed off to cars completely.

The McGeorge group took a bike ride to a lake for a nice swim/hanging out time the first day that I got here.  Easy ride for me, hard ride with my friends. It's hard traveling with others sometimes. I have no issues with walking every where, climbing up hills or stairs, or running across the street to avoid cars. Others turn a 3 mile bike ride (a 10-15 minute ride) to an hour + ride and then say what a great day of exercise. I kept my mouth shut. but there are some times when I just want to GO, go, go, go, go. And others don't. Oh well, at least i have my morning runs.