Europe Day 15 – Salzburg, Austria
We got out of bed, had breakfast, and headed for the train station. There are several trains that go from Munich to Salzburg, but I found one that went non-stop so the ride was only 90 minutes instead of the normal 130 minutes. We found a nice first-class cabin to ourselves and played cards for most of the way down. Vanessa took a quick nap for the last half hour of the ride. We walked out of the station and I turned right and started walking down the street in confidence, not because I knew where I was going, but because I felt lucky. I was lucky and it turned out we did go in the right direction.
I found a city map after about a mile and we were right next to the first thing I wanted to show Vanessa. There was an amazing garden just across the street that had statues, fountains, flowers, grass, and the castle (Hohensalzberg) is in the background. We walked into the garden to find dead trees, no flowers, and covered fountains. Oh yeah… winter. Oops. Vanessa did the best to use her imagination. From there we crossed the river on a bridge. Now that I think about it, I don’t even know the name of the river. This is the older part of town with cobblestone streets, churches, fountains, etc. There is a lot of shopping in this area. Vanessa and I walked around doing a little window-shopping and trying to find a place to eat.
In Europe the menu is posted outside of the restaurant 99% of the time, so it’s easy to see if you will like something and how much it will cost. After looking at 150 restaurants, we still weren’t inspired. I walked into an information center and asked if they could recommend a place to eat and the girl responded by handing me a tourism magazine that had some restaurants listed in it. We found one that looked good and walked about 4 blocks to get to it. It was closed until January 10th. We finally gave up and decided to eat at the castle. I read a couple of days ago there was a restaurant up there that was just redone in the summer.
We found our way to the base of the hill that the castle is built on. There is a tram on rails that climbs the side of the hill. We bought tram tickets and up we went. We found the restaurant and it turned out to be a good move. We each ordered a steak, covered with mushrooms. Yummy! Afterwards we walked to the tour entrance for the castle. It was another Audio tour where you hold a little recording up to your ear and walk through in a group. This one wasn’t very good. I’ll give you an example: “You are now in the torture chamber (everyone starts taking pictures). This wasn’t ever actually used as a torture chamber, but this is where the torture camber would have been. Now look at the shackles on the walls (everyone starts taking pictures), these were never used in this room but if this were a torture chamber these are the types of devices which would have been used.”
That’s about the point I stopped listening. The tour was worth the price just so I could get some amazing photos from the top of one of the towers. After the tour we headed back down the hill on the tram. Vanessa had read the oldest documented restaurant in Europe was not far from where we were. We cut through an old graveyard where Mozart’s sister is buried. Oh yeah, Mozart is from Salzburg, so everything in town is about him. His birthplace, his second house, statues, chocolates, etc. We found the restaurant which was founded in 803 AD and no I didn’t forget a “1”. We ordered an Apple Strudel, Cheese Strudel, and two cappuccinos. It was nice just to get off of our feet.
After lunch we went back to the cobblestone shopping area where we purchased some things we had seen earlier, but didn’t want to carry all day. We jumped on a bus back to the train station and made it to our train with only seconds to spare. This was a slower train with many stops. We played cards for most of the trip. We went back to Marienplatz to do some shopping and have dinner. Afterwards we went back to the hotel. We needed to pack and go to sleep.
Tomorrow we will be waking up early 6:00 am to finish packing and catch a subway to the airport. Our plane leaves at 11:30 am and it will be a 12 hour and 30 minute plane ride.
I found a city map after about a mile and we were right next to the first thing I wanted to show Vanessa. There was an amazing garden just across the street that had statues, fountains, flowers, grass, and the castle (Hohensalzberg) is in the background. We walked into the garden to find dead trees, no flowers, and covered fountains. Oh yeah… winter. Oops. Vanessa did the best to use her imagination. From there we crossed the river on a bridge. Now that I think about it, I don’t even know the name of the river. This is the older part of town with cobblestone streets, churches, fountains, etc. There is a lot of shopping in this area. Vanessa and I walked around doing a little window-shopping and trying to find a place to eat.
In Europe the menu is posted outside of the restaurant 99% of the time, so it’s easy to see if you will like something and how much it will cost. After looking at 150 restaurants, we still weren’t inspired. I walked into an information center and asked if they could recommend a place to eat and the girl responded by handing me a tourism magazine that had some restaurants listed in it. We found one that looked good and walked about 4 blocks to get to it. It was closed until January 10th. We finally gave up and decided to eat at the castle. I read a couple of days ago there was a restaurant up there that was just redone in the summer.
We found our way to the base of the hill that the castle is built on. There is a tram on rails that climbs the side of the hill. We bought tram tickets and up we went. We found the restaurant and it turned out to be a good move. We each ordered a steak, covered with mushrooms. Yummy! Afterwards we walked to the tour entrance for the castle. It was another Audio tour where you hold a little recording up to your ear and walk through in a group. This one wasn’t very good. I’ll give you an example: “You are now in the torture chamber (everyone starts taking pictures). This wasn’t ever actually used as a torture chamber, but this is where the torture camber would have been. Now look at the shackles on the walls (everyone starts taking pictures), these were never used in this room but if this were a torture chamber these are the types of devices which would have been used.”
That’s about the point I stopped listening. The tour was worth the price just so I could get some amazing photos from the top of one of the towers. After the tour we headed back down the hill on the tram. Vanessa had read the oldest documented restaurant in Europe was not far from where we were. We cut through an old graveyard where Mozart’s sister is buried. Oh yeah, Mozart is from Salzburg, so everything in town is about him. His birthplace, his second house, statues, chocolates, etc. We found the restaurant which was founded in 803 AD and no I didn’t forget a “1”. We ordered an Apple Strudel, Cheese Strudel, and two cappuccinos. It was nice just to get off of our feet.
After lunch we went back to the cobblestone shopping area where we purchased some things we had seen earlier, but didn’t want to carry all day. We jumped on a bus back to the train station and made it to our train with only seconds to spare. This was a slower train with many stops. We played cards for most of the trip. We went back to Marienplatz to do some shopping and have dinner. Afterwards we went back to the hotel. We needed to pack and go to sleep.
Tomorrow we will be waking up early 6:00 am to finish packing and catch a subway to the airport. Our plane leaves at 11:30 am and it will be a 12 hour and 30 minute plane ride.
posted by Page at
7:46 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home