Today’s festivities include a day trip via train to
Salzburg. That’s right, the city where the Sound of Music takes place and was
partially filmed. I was so excited to travel here and check out the old portion
of the city and also excited to take a trip via train travel!
First up: the train travel. I took the U-Bahn from the Stubentor
station (about 3 blocks from my hotel) to the WestBahn station to pick up the
regional train. There are a couple of trains that travel from Vienna to
Salzburg but from my research the easiest one is the WestBahn train that makes
the journey every hour from Vienna and makes stops along the way. It costs
E23.90 and you simply pay the conductor on the train. I was amazed at how easy
it was and also how clean and efficient the station and the trains were. Take
note, USA. This is how regional train travel should be!
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| My train heading to Salzburg! |
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| And it's in English! |
The trip took almost exactly 2.5 hours and you come into the
main station in Salzburg. Since I really had no idea where I was going I
stopped into the tourist center in the station. Picked up a map and a Salzburg
travel guide and found out that there is a bus that will take you into the old
part of the city. Or you can just walk. I chose the walk option. Turns out it
was simple and about a mile walk.
Once in the old part of the city, it was lovely. I did
spring for the “touristy” horse and carriage ride, only because I hadn’t done
that in Vienna. Although expensive, it was a nice way to get your bearings in
the city. I then walked around, taking pictures and generally just being a
tourist. Take note, the city center (the old part) is very small and really can
be done in a few hours. There are churches and some museums to visit but I didn’t
do any of that. I checked out the Mozart statue and of course the horse fountain
that was in the Sound of Music.
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| Taking a carriage ride |
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Main church in town
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| Mozart: he's the dude here |
The weather was not being cooperative having started as
gloomy and progressed towards drizzly and then rainy throughout the day. I
decided that if I was going to go up to the fortress then I should do it before
the downpour started! I took the tram ride up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress and
was able to enjoy some amazing views of the city! Well worth the trip up!
Apparently you can walk up the mountain but that was not for this girl! It is
straight up about a mile up a very steep mountain and as far as I’m concerned
the E11 that they charged for the ride was well worth it!
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| The horse fountain in the Sound of Music |
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| The selfies are getting better! |
After getting me medieval fortress on, I came back down the
mountain and thought lunch would be a good idea. It was beginning to rain quite
heavily now and just as an FYI when there are cobblestones and rain hits them,
it gets quite slick. Yeah, time for a break! I found a restaurant and had
lunch. Nothing to write home about and I guess that they cater to tourists
quite often. But it was a hot meal and a place to rest while it was raining.
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| The view from the fortress: amazing! |
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| The fortress |
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| They didn't throw me in the tower so I must have been well behaved! |
Another stop on the Salzburg trail was a place called
Christmas in Salzburg. I had done some research and knew that this place sold
handmade Christmas ornaments that were hand painted on eggs. Very delicate and
supposed to be a must see. So after asking about 4 people where this shop was I
found it and spent way too much money there. But I figured that this was a
truly special memento of the trip and was able to justify it that way. Also, I
did buy some for gifts!
Pretty much by that time it was raining hard and since I had
a mile walk back to the train station I headed out and battled the rain to get
back. I probably should have taken the bus but I’m stubborn and it just seemed
like no big deal to walk. It wasn’t a big deal but that would be where another
person would come in handy. One to hold the umbrella and one to hold the
shopping bag of purchases! No worries, a little water never hurt anyone!
Again another great, relaxing train ride home and back to
hotel with my purchases and wet jean legs! I am told that Salzburg gets quite a
bit of rain throughout the year, so my experience should be rather typical. All
in all I enjoyed Salzburg but perhaps was a little underwhelmed, I think that I
thought it would be larger than it was. It was beautiful and I had a good time,
but the rain did dampen my spirits a bit.
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