By: MJ + PJ
We were surprised at the diversity of things to see and do in the Salzburg area. Take a look at our PHOTOS: Austria album to see what we mean!
It was twelve hours on six trains to get to Salzburg, where we had an Airbnb booked for nine days. Since Leaving Tunisia, we had been moving to each location fairly quickly – averaging about five days per city if you write off the transit days. This pace was a bit faster than we desired, but we still had a lot of places we wanted to see! We were testing the balance of ‘stay longer and see more in an area’ versus ‘stay shorter and see more countries’. During the latter part of our trip, the last three countries before meeting up with family in Italy, we decided to book longer stays in each location. This gave us a chance to have a good look around at three very different places… and not have to pack and unpack as frequently. Hooray!
After arriving around 9:15pm in Salzburg after crossing Germany, it was no surprise that the next day (day one in Salzburg) was going to be a pretty slow day. Besides getting some groceries, and working on the website, we did not do a whole lot. The Airbnb had a dry sauna, which was quite unique for an Airbnb – a bonus for PJ at the least! AJ met the son of the owners (who lived upstairs) and was able to visit a few local parks with him and have some play time both inside and out over the week we were there.
Wandering into town the following day we deciphered the city’s tourist deals, strategized, and subsequently bought the Salzburg 48 hour pass. The next 48 hours was go-go-go as there are a lot of places to see with that pass! Most of the places are a short walk from each other in the older part of the city, but some take a bit of getting to via bus. The other tickets we bought that day were for a local football (soccer) match being played in a few days time… much to MJ’s absolute excitement.
The gondola to the top of the very local Mt Untersberg was a different way to arrive at the first major location. The last time we had been in snow at altitude was at Mt Ausangate in Peru in October, but we had to hike with our packs. And the last gondola we were on was the public transport system in La Paz, Bolivia. This mountain didn’t involve us carrying packs! What a relief!
The views at the top were tremendous, and it was an absolutely gorgeous clear and still day to stand on snow and take photos of the surrounding mountains and the farmlands below. The hills were alive to the sound of everything but music. The path to the summit and cross has you zig-zag over the German border a few times. It was mild enough at the summit for MJ to sport a T-shirt. The melting snow was ‘slickery’ enough to slow us down and give AJ some faux-skiing fun on the way back to the gondola building.
Catching the gondola back to the valley floor and then the bus back into town, we found and took the MönchsbergAufzug. This is also known as the elevator in the stone wall to the top of the Museum der Moderne Monchsberg. We could only afford a quick look around there as the Museum was closing. Great views of the city looking upstream to the south from this vantage point. We caught a local bus (free with the city pass) and walked the wrong way several times (thanks to MJ’s phone) to eventually find Stiegl-Brauwelt (an industrial scale brewery). We had arrived too late for the tour but had a bite to eat… and forgot to claim the free beer sample from our city pass! It had been a long day – we caught the last scheduled local bus home.
Getting a fairly early start the next day, we took the train-bus combo to the Summer Palace and Trick Fountains. We found out it was daylight savings change day along the way. The actual name of the place is Schloss Hellbrunn… which is a cool sounding name. It was built in about 1613 by the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, who was clearly not a secular leader. The interior of the palace is interesting as there are no bedrooms – it was a day palace only. The palace has a place in the music history of the day (debuting several concerto pieces of the era) and has a special octagonal chamber adjoining the main hall.
The main attraction is outside the palace buildings! Apparently trick fountains were a novelty for entertaining guests in the palace’s heyday, with this location having the last remaining trick fountains from that era. It is still a very ‘surprising’ and effective form of entertainment! This tour has a timed entry – a guide is necessary to make sure you get the best ‘experience’. The fountains are fed by a natural spring of warm water that maintains its warmth during the winter. Archeological findings suggest early human migrants in the area were aware of this natural feature.
Once back into Salzburg via bus, we took a quick look at the Christmas Museum. This reminded us a little of our visit to Casa Noel in Ohio many years before, but obviously with a darker serious European perspective! It is worth mentioning the many decoration shops that are in the main city streets. Because it was close to Easter time, The main display items were decorated, lattice-worked eggs of every imaginable style and pattern! These are the kind of shops where parents get nervous! Many of the other pieces are Christmas oriented, but there is certainly a lot of other variety.
After a brief stop at our Airbnb we walked to the Red Bull Stadium where we watched the local FC Red Bull Salzburg team soundly beat a visiting team 5-1. Red Bull’s world headquarters are located a little east of Salzburg at Fuschl am See. Red Bull is an Austrian product with a strong presence in the city. AJ was pretty excited about this fact, not because he drinks it, but because he is a sucker for their branding and extreme sport sponsorship. It was fun to see a quality football game at a reasonable price, in a pristine European stadium, with a home side win!
Squeezing another location into the last few hours of our 48 pass the next morning, we headed into the city and made our way to the Fortress Cable Railway. We got distracted briefly by the fresh baked smells wafting from a small bakery next to the Wasserrad (waterwheel). It turned out to be Stiftsbäckerei St. Peter, the oldest bakery in Salzburg. We felt it was necessary to buy some of their bread, and we were not disappointed. Distractions aside, we took the cog railway up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. After looking around the grounds and admiring the views to the northeast, we took a tour inside the fortress. The stages in which the fortress was built were particularly interesting, these being shown in models in a large room during the tour. There was also a marionette museum within the fortress, which was interesting but just a bit unsettling.
Once back down at street and river level, we came across giant bronze pickles/gherkins, small gnome-like characters, and an unusual little cheese shop tucked under an old archway (we felt like we were in a hole of Swiss cheese). We took a look in Mozart’s Birthplace in the Main Street, but were not allowed to take any photos inside. We then stopped in a toy store to see what interesting memories we could stir up from our childhoods, and for AJ to get persistent about obtaining more Lego. Then we crossed the river and hung out amongst the pink flowering trees in Makartplatz in front of Dreifaltigkeitskirche. (We didn’t give that name to AJ for spelling practice, but appreciate the spectacular combination of letters!) Walking around the city we made it to the toy museum only to find that it was not open, and so headed back on the train get some groceries and to bed at a reasonable hour.
We then took two days to explore some of the German sights in the Bavaria region, namely: Munich and Neuschwanstein Castle. See our upcoming Germany post!
After two very long days in Germany (a two hour commute to and from Munich daily), we were due for a rest day. Not much happened except getting some groceries, AJ visiting the park on a scooter with his Austrian friend, some website updating, and bookings for our upcoming countries. These rest days are essential, and besides getting you off your feet and not having to make ongoing decisions about where, when and how regarding the day, you get to pretend you are spending less money.
In deciding where to visit in Austria, MJ had pinpointed the famous Eisriesenwelt (ice caves) in the area.They were not due to open until May 1st… which was a full three weeks after we departed the region. We had decided on Salzburg as it was in Bavaria, and close to places in southern Germany we also wanted to visit. Salzburg also is home to Mozart and The Sound of Music, so we figured it would be hard to go wrong!
Salzburg means ‘salt castle’, so it would be weird to not visit something in the area related to salt. The Salzbergwerk Berchtesgaden (salt mine) is one of several salt mines in the area, this one being an active mine with underground tours. It is a hour train (or bus) ride from Salzburg to the town of Berchtesgaden – a picturesque small town tucked away in a mountainous valley due south of Salzburg. The town and mine are actually in Germany, not Austria. We took a cold walk through the town from the train station to the mine, and then organized a tour.
The tour took us deep into the mine on a rickety train in winding tunnels, where we then slid down a wood miner’s slide, walked through salty tunnels, checked out mining equipment, and drifted silently across an underground salt lake on a cable boat. Yeah, you bet we did! This salt mine was very different to those we had seen in Peru (small evaporative cascading mountainside pools from mountain saltwater), in central west Bolivia (the gigantic salt flats), and on the coast of Portugal (evaporative large ponds near the ocean from seawater). At Salzbergwerk they pump water into a salt cavity (‘mud-flush drilling plant’ is their term) and progressively add fresh water that dissolves the salt. The brine is then pumped out and refined to obtain the salt. This method is called wet mining. Interesting stuff.
Once back in Salzburg we returned to the Toy Museum (which was open this time!) and afterwards took a walk along Getreidegasse to find ourselves in Red Bull World (store not a theme park). Then we walked around on the east side of the Salzach River, explored St Sebastian’s Cemetery (which is in a somewhat secluded courtyard), and then looked outside Mozart’s residence (we did not go in – it had closed for the day).
On our fist day in Salzburg we had walked past a placard sign that advertised a Street Food fair. Having been to a few of these in Colorado, we thought it would be certainly worth a visit given the cuisine we knew of in this region. Ironically, the “street food” was American Fair/Carnival type food. We were disappointed, but we did get an opportunity to walk some new areas in the city, see the event centre, and walk more of the riverside path.
Being more organized on our last day, we had chosen a padlock from our luggage that we had used rarely to place on the Markartsteg Bridge. This is the footbridge that connects the two oldest and opposite parts of the city. As you can see from the photo, this particular bridge is weighed down with shackles of love.
While in Bavaria, we had searched, asked, pleaded, and explored many streets looking for a bakery or cafe that sold Bienenstich. PJ’s grandfather loved this particular desert and she used to buy it for him on special occasions. Despite our efforts, we could not find it anywhere, and storekeepers seemed to think it was out of season. 🙁
Transit day started a little differently this time. We packed up in no hurry, and caught the train into the central station of Salzburg. There we showed our tickets, being bound for Prague, and got to enjoy the OBB first class lounge for breakfast. Not long after we boarded the train bound for Linz then Prague.
