The Magic of Salzburg

July 10th, 2015

We woke up early hoping to get to some of the main attractions before the crowds of tourists. Our hotel has a terrace so we were able to enjoy our breakfast overlooking the mountains and city. We could get used to this view every morning! We headed to the Hohensalzburg Fortress and took the funicular up to the top. When we got to the top we decided to walk in the opposite direction of the main entrance where everyone else was headed and made our way to the terrace facing away from the city itself. We were greeted with the most spectacular view of the Alps and towns all around us. It is hard to describe how truly breathtaking Salzburg is, and there were some views that looked straight out of a movie. We sat here and enjoyed the most spectacular view for quite a bit before our tour group caught up with us and the selfies began, we knew it was time to move on.

We walked back to the main bridge and began a walking tour of the old center. We saw Mozart’s birthplace (the city is pretty obsessed with Mozart), Residentplatz, the Salzburg Cathedral. We came across a still running water wheel that is still used today to power and small bakery where we went in and bought sweet bread for 1 euro. We continued walking to St. Peter’s Church and Cemetery, and this was a beautiful cemetery. We wandered through the streets and ended up at the Universitatplatz, which has an outdoor market. We grabbed more sausages and beer for lunch (this is already becoming our food of choice here) and found a stall selling smoked sausage. Chuck made the mistake of asking the worker which was her favorite, and to our surprise she pointed us to a different vendor. She led us to buy the local variety (pork and horse meat). Anna very reluctantly tried it as well. It actually tasted fine and if we didn’t know what it was it would have just been an oily sausage.

We walked over to the Mirabell gardens and enjoyed some time just sitting and relaxing for a bit. We found it fun to watch the American tourists recreate scenes from The Sound of Music to take pictures. The garden was calm, mostly quiet, and beautiful (of course, it’s in Salzburg). We came across a children’s park that was huge and Chuck recalled being at a similar park as a child in Germany.

For dinner we headed to the Augustiner Braustubl. Apparently the brewery was started and is still run by monks. Here you pay for your mugs, grab them off a shelf, rinse them in a fountain, and then head to the bar for a beer. They only had one kind of beer and it was delicious. We found some food and a table and enjoyed the setting. Then, we decided we had to try their dessert (shocking, we know) and more beer and found a new table to share.

We ended up sitting with a family from Germany, near Köln. We sat with a couple and their daughter who were all on vacation together. We ended up chatting the entire night, until the lights went out and we were kicked out of the beer garden. We discussed everything from our backgrounds, to jobs, to politics and history. It turned out to be such a fun, random night and we had a blast! We were again reminded that one of the things we love so much about traveling is meeting new people from a variety of backgrounds. Everyone has been so open and welcoming that we have come across, and we are excited to continue that as we go on to more new places.