The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Salzburg

On a very hot and sunny afternoon, Zach and I arrived in Salzburg. Let me just say that Salzburg really does look like The Sound of Music with all the green, rolling hills. The river that runs through the city is just as beautiful. After making the trek to our hostel and after getting settled in, we decided to go find somewhere for dinner. Our trusty Frommer’s Austria guidebook had some recommendations and we found a nice pizzeria. We had our first vegetables in days and just enjoyed strolling through Salzburg’s narrow streets. It’s a quaint little town and is filled with tourists yet it still holds its historic beauty.

The hostel gave us a map which had a walking tour of the city on it. We knew we wanted to explore the city and also go see the fortress. The next morning we woke up and got ready to take over Salzburg, We stopped at a bakery for breakfast which was fantastic. In all my time here in Europe, I had never been to a bakery just for breakfast. It was so good and now I wish I would have gone to bakeries more often.

Salzburg as a town is beautiful. It has kept all its old architecture and charm. The river, Salzach is so blue and clear. It’s the prettiest river I have seen in Europe. All around Salzburg are hills and hills of just green. That’s all the eye can see and combine that with blue skies and a clear blue river, you have basically perfection. There were sights to see in Salzburg, but Zach’s and my favorite thing was to just walk around and take in the beauty of this city. There were so many gardens as well! We just saw different squares, gardens, old buildings, shops, cafes and bakeries. I even had my first pretzel since being in Europe. It was fantastic to say the least. We also saw some old churches and even a cemetery.

We made our way to the fortress and took the gondola up (we did not feel like walking!) and just walked around. It was a fairly good sized fortress for as small a city as Salzburg. We did a tour of the living quarters and were able to see some old torture devices and watch towers, you know, typical medieval stuff. We came up one of the towers and looked out over Salzburg. The view was, well, indescribable. Just look at these pictures.

The chair they would strap you to

They would drop this metal wheel on your legs

After the fortress Zach and I went back to relax. Lucy, my friend from Graz, was in Salzburg with her friend and sister from back home and was planning on meeting us for dinner. We went to this great Austrian food place where the service was bad but the food was great! Zach was able to try schnitzel again and he loves it, of course. It’s some of the best food in the world! It was nice to see Lucy again one last time before I left Austria for good. Zach and I were both pretty tired after our long day of seeing the town so it was an early bedtime for us. 

The next day we had to check out of the hostel but were able to store our luggage there. Since Mozart was born in Salzburg and Zach is a fan of classical music, we thought we’d do a Mozart tour (self-guided of course). We saw Mozart Platz, Mozart’s birthplace, and Mozart’s house that he lived in when he wasn’t touring. It was pretty cool to see despite the fact they were just houses.  With the need to get to the train station on time and make sure we had everything ready to get to Munich, Zach and I came back to the hostel to get our things and get ready to go to Munich. We met Lucy and her travel mates in the lobby of the hostel and they helped us to the train station.

I will say this about the Salzburg train station, it was crazy. They were doing construction so everything was confusing. The people working there were pretty grumpy as well. By the time our train came, I was ready to get out of the place and out of Austria. I have loved my time here but the people and all their grumpiness, I just do not understand. But finally Zach and I said goodbye to Austria and hello to Germany and we arrived in Munich on Wednesday. Heini, my aunt’s friend, picked us up and the adventure began!

Love,

Sara