Photo of the Day 451

Sailplane Pilot, Innsbruck, Austria, 1961

Photograph by Volkmar K. Wentzel

A sailplane pilot over Innsbruck, Austria, glides above the Inn River between cloud-topped ranges. Warm winds that flow in from the south make the mountain valley ideal for soaring.

(Photo shot on assignment for "Tirol, Austria's Province in the Clouds," July 1961, National Geographic magazine)

Photo of the Day 252

Churches and Steeples, Salzburg, Austria, 2004

Photograph by Bob Krist

Snow rimes the classic dome- and spire-studded skyline of Salzburg, Austria. This elegant city's unique architecture is the legacy of a long line of prince-archbishops, powerful ecclesiastical rulers who used profits from the city's nearby salt mines to turn their seat of power into a little piece of Baroque Italy transported to the Austrian Alps.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Salzburg in Winter," November/December 2004, National Geographic Traveler magazine)