On their last day in Salzburg, the ConVal exchange students spent time with their host families, then came together for a brief walk/hike on the Gaisberg, a 4,200 ft peak in the Salzkammergut Mountains, followed by a farewell dinner.

The dinner was held at the Zistelam restaurant, a traditional old timber building in the Salzburger Bauernhaus style with sweeping views of the Alps. The restaurant dates back to the mid-19th century and has been in the same family for four generations.

Students enjoyed a great traditional dinner that was topped off with strudel for dessert. Hannah Daniels and Whitney Adair gave an awesome farewell speech.

"Maibaum aufstellen" (maypole raising) is a centuries-old festival tradition in Salzburg, Austria, celebrated at the beginning of May that marks the arrival of spring and the renewal of nature. The maypole is typically prepared and decorated on April 30 and raised on May 1.

The pole, usually a tall, debarked pine or spruce trunk, is adorned with colorful ribbons, wreaths of pine needles, flowers, and sometimes pretzels or sausages. Decorations may also include hand-tied wreaths, ribbons, and food items, all symbolizing abundance and the vitality of spring.

The actual raising is a communal event, often performed manually with long wooden poles by groups of men, young and old, dressed in traditional lederhosen. The process is done in stages, with breaks for refreshments. The raising is usually accompanied by folk music, dancing (such as the traditional ribbon dance), and foods like sausages, grilled chicken, and other local specialties.

Maypole festivals are held throughout Salzburg and its surrounding villages, drawing locals and visitors alike to experience this living piece of folk culture. The event is a cherished opportunity for community gathering, marking not only the change of season but also local identity and tradition.

Today, ConVal students visited the "Salzwelten" (Salt Worlds) in Austria.

The Salzwelten are a network of historic salt mines that play a crucial role in the history and development of Salzburg. Located in the nearby regions of Hallstatt, Hallein, and Altaussee, these mines are among the oldest in the world, with salt mining activity dating back over 7,000 years. The most significant connection lies in the name “Salzburg” itself, which literally means “Salt Fortress.”

During the Middle Ages, salt was a highly valuable commodity and a crucial element for preserving food, especially meat and fish. The wealth generated from salt mining in the Salzwelten financed much of Salzburg’s early development, including its baroque architecture and the rise of the powerful prince-archbishops who governed the region. The Hallein Salt Mine, in particular, contributed significantly to Salzburg’s economic prosperity and helped position it as a cultural and political center in Central Europe.

Today, the Salzwelten museums serve not only as a testament to Austria’s ancient mining heritage but also as a key to understanding how Salzburg became one of the most beautiful and historically rich cities in Europe.

Today's travel itinerary of the ConVal exchange students was devoted to a brief visit to Bavaria, Germany.

After spending a thoughtful morning at the Dachau concentration camp in Upper Bavaria, students toured Bavaria's capital, Munich. The Marienplatz in front of Munich's city hall is the central square that has served as the city's main square since 1158. The Rathaus Glockenspiel is the large mechanical clock whose life-size characters rotate out and back into the main tower, re-enacting scenes from Munich's history twice a day.

Students also spent time at "BMW Welt" ("Bayrische Motorenwerke World"), which is a combined exhibition of cars and motorcycles, an adventure museum, and an event venue located in Munich's district Am Riesenfeld, next to the Olympic Park, in the immediate vicinity of the BMW headquarters and factory.

The ConVal-Salzburg exchange program involves so much more than visiting tourist destinations. A major key to its long-standing success is the opportunity to experience a different school system first-hand.

Today, the students from ConVal were invited to join a German class where the assignment was to write a detective story — "The Case of the Missing Vase." This kind of full language immersion helps students become more comfortable speaking and interacting in German. When students attend classes in another language, they don’t just learn new words. They get to see how lessons are taught, what subjects are important, and how students interact with each other in another country.

This exhcange experience helps ConVal students grow as global citizens, ready to connect with people from all over the world.

Hellbrunn Palace is an early Baroque villa located near Morzg, in the southern part of Salzburg, Austria. The group of ConVal students currently visiting Austria had the opportunity to visit Schloss Hellbrunn during a field trip.

Hellbrunn is renowned for its playful and ingenious jeux d'eau or trick fountains, which were conceived as practical jokes to surprise and amuse guests. These include hidden water jets in stone seats and fountains that spray unsuspecting visitors, a mechanical water-powered theater with over 200 moving figures, and whimsical grottos.

The palace’s extensive park features landscaped gardens, ponds, a stone theater, considered the oldest open-air stage in Europe. Hellbrunn Palace is also famous for its connection to The Sound of Music: the iconic glass gazebo from the film is located in its gardens.

The group of ConVal students, who have participated in the ConVal-Akademisches Gymnasium exchange program and hosted the students from Austria last fall, arrived in Salzburg today.

According to Frau Concannon, there were many happy reunions, and the students are looking forward to spending their first weekend with their friends.

Earlier today, U.S. Representative Maggie Goodlander visited ConVal High School and the Region 14 Applied Technology Center (ATC).

She met with school administrators and students to hear about their programming and to discuss the importance of career and technical education for New Hampshire. She toured all of the ATC spaces at ConVal to learn more about how she can support both Career and Technical Education (CTE) as well as the high school's renovation process.

Goodlander is a strong supporter of CTE. In early March, she voted to advance a slate of seven bipartisan bills, which she had cosponsored, including the "Connecting Small Businesses with Career and Technical Education Graduates Act of 2025." This bill is designed to better connect CTE graduates transitioning into the workforce with small business owners, who are in need of their skills, by utilizing Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) and Women’s Business Centers (WBCs).

Maggie Goodlander represents New Hampshire’s Second District. Before she was elected to Congress in November 2024, she was as an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve for over a decade, served as a law clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer on the United States Supreme Court, and taught constitutional law at the University of New Hampshire and Dartmouth.