Wednesday 3/18: We paid Ruth 20 German marks per person per night, then headed towards Salzburg. Jim was driving, and unfortunately he was speeding. More unfortunately, he got caught. None of us spoke Czechoslovakian or German but the officer made us understand that we could either pay a fine now or appear in court later. Appearing in court seemed like a bad idea to all of us, so Jim opted to pay the fine. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough Czechoslovakian money - he was one koruna short. Across the language barrier Jim kept trying to get the officer to accept the amount he had, while the officer kept raising one finger and saying "Ein", which is German for "one". He wanted that extra koruna. Eventually we agreed to drive to the next town, go to a bank, convert his cash into korunas, and pay the officer, who followed us all the way. When we left, Jim and Randy agreed to let me drive until we got out of the area, because I had a reputation for going under the speed limit; they both had other reputations.
The mountain road was full of hairpin turns and the guys had a hard time putting up with my overly-cautious driving, but we soon crossed into Germany. When we crossed the border we stopped almost immediately to go shopping at four crystal shops, set up there, just for tourists. We bought a crystal mug, marbles, candle dippers, a Christmas ornament, and a beautiful vase with an orchid design. For lunch we stopped at Aldi and bought water, cheese, smoked salami rolls, and chips. Then one of the guys drove us to Salzburg, where we checked into the hotel Steiglbrau. Randy and I ended the day walking around town and having beer and tea.
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