Charming Salzburg

We took the two-and-a-half hour train from Vienna to Salzburg, and were pleased to discover that Austrian trains have “family-friendly” cars and “quiet” cars. You can guess which one we selected. Although we enjoyed Vienna, we found it a bit sterile. Maybe it was all the grand, elegant palaces and former palaces, or the cold that set in during our visit. Whatever it was, Salzburg was quite the opposite. Perhaps because of its much smaller size and the way it is embraced by the nature around it. We were immediately impressed by the change of scenery. The temperatures didn’t improve much though.

We hiked up to the Hohensalzurg Fortress (above on the hill), which overlooks the city from the top of Mount Festungsberg. It was built in 1077 and expanded over the centuries. It is the largest fully preserved castle-fortress in Europe and the museum within provides a bit of information about Salzburg’s history as an independent region. We were amused by the museum’s explanations, which we speculated were written by a 4^th grader. Regardless, we learned a good amount, including that Salzburg, like Dubrovnik, was wealthy in part due to the salt trade. Here are a couple of photos of the fortress from the very top, as well as the view of Salzburg from there:

Salzburg is known as the home of the Von Trapp family and the location of the Sound of Music. We did not take any tours centered on the movie – Jeff might have jumped in the river after only 10 minutes of random people singing, but we did enjoy a few of the sites, including the Schloss Mirabell gardens.

We missed out on a few museums because our visit coincided with All Saints’ Day – Nov. 1. But we were happy to be outside in the brisk, autumnal weather. Our last day we stumbled upon an amazing local market where we purchased all the fixings for a picnic for the train ride back to Vienna. And we learned that schmuck does not only mean “idiot,” which is Yiddish, but it means jewelry in German.

We’d recommend a visit to Salzburg if you get the chance. Unfortunately, with 8 million visitors a year, you will likely be sharing this small town of only 150,000 people with lots of other tourists.

Auf wiedersehen,

Shana & Jeff