Travel the World: Salzburg, Austria

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

It takes me forever to edit pictures from our trips. I start browsing through them and I get caught up reminiscing, which I suppose is the whole point of taking those pictures in the first place. Before I know it, I'm buried in warm memories, I want to go show the Mr. and no photo edits take place. Repeat weekly. Last winter we took trains across several countries, including some stops in Austria. One of the cities we stopped in was in was Salzburg.

The mister is camera shy.

On top of a hill overlooking the city is a fortress, Hohensalzburg Castle. The path up to the top is steep at times, but not taxing if taken slow. It's such an enjoyable view, especially at sunrise and sunset.

In the enter of town is Salzburg Cathedral, right by Mozart's birthplace (and the now museum).

There's really quite a bit to see in Salzburg. I'm a huge Sound of Music fan, and I was very happy to stop at both Mirabelle Gardens and Liesel's gazebo ("16 Going on 17") at Hellbrunn Palace.

This bearded unicorn at Mirabelle Gardens. Or maybe it's a goat with a horn, pretending to be mythical. This might be my spirit animal. That's kind of how I feel most days, I'm just faking it until I make it.

Cheese was incredibly inexpensive compared to California prices (this big beautiful hunk of bleu was 2 euro) and beer was cheaper than water, so I had a lot of both, breakfast, lunch and dinner. I stopped to buy a bottle opener, it came in a pack of two; his and hers. With all our walking, I managed to come home five pounds lighter despite my crap diet.

One of my favorite things to do is to stop by a grocery store and just grab some interesting looking things I've never tried. Passionfruit flavored milk whey. Its not the worst thing I've had, kind of like citrus-y watery kefir, or flat kombucha. Oh, have some Mozart balls - Mozartkugel - these dark chocolate covered pistachio marzipan confections wrapped in shiny foil. They're everywhere in Salzburg, and other cities in Austria, you really can't miss them.

A few tips: don't miss the advent night market at Hellbrunn Palace during the holiday season and there does not appear to be many (at all when we looked) Uber drivers, just regular taxis, in the city. I highly recommend taking the convenient and extensive bus system to get around.

Salzburg is one of those cities where I was happy with two days, but I could have also made do with four/five to take in more sights. However really pressed, a traveler could hit the "best of" in a single day if they weren't so Sound of Music obsessed.