We had less than 48 hours to spend in Salzburg! Eek! I don’t know how we managed – but we did actually get around to do quite a lot of things, including fitting in visits to the Aldi for my Dad! Ha ha! Was this the reason Dad fell in love with Salzburg? He even had cause to comment that he was considering a crazy notion of getting a vacation house in Salzburg. Well – who could blame him – Salzburg is just one of those really naturally pretty places.

With our train pulling into the station the weather that greeted us was much the same as what we had when first arriving in Paris – gray and wet. But, just like Paris, the weather did go on to improve much to my delight.

We decided to walk from the main station into the Old Town which is where we were staying. Luckily Salzburg isn’t that huge – and it did us wonders to wake us all up from our long train ride from Paris! I have to make a special mention of Hotel Elefant – although a Best Western Inn its actually independently run and we were well taken of from the beginning. Everyone was very friendly and helpful and even better we were able to be checked in to at least one room straight away.

So what were the highlights of our stay in Salzburg. As I mentioned earlier we certainly got around to a lot of places. On our first day we simply walked around exploring the Old Town, and also set about organising to get on to the Sound of Music tour for the following day (yes a must-do for all.) We also picked up the Salzburg card which we made sure to make maximum use – from free public transportation and to reduced and free entry into attractions.

That night we even found ourselves making our way to the Salzburg Casino! Yep – double whammy of being Chinese and Australian is that gambling is in our blood! The Casino was a bit spooky walking up to – with the mist rising from the ground and the architecture of what I think was a former palace of sorts – it all combined to give a very vampire-esque feel to the area.

The second day was our Sound of Music tour. There are a couple of Sound of Music tours you can go on – I asked to be put on the original one but I don’t think we were as our bus was called the “most unique” Sound of Music Tour . Nevertheless, we still had a good time and saw all the sights we needed to. Plus had the all important soundtrack playing on the bus – Dad loved that! As an added bonus we even stopped long enough to do a toboggan ride down the mountain-side! Dad loved that too!

On the tour we had stops in all the relevant places including Leopoldskron Lake so we could look over to Leopoldskron Castle (the front being used as the Trapp family home), Hellbrunn Castle to see the glass pavillion, driving past St.Gilgen and Lake Wolfgang and stopping for some apple strudel at Mondsee – and any interested could visit Mondsee Cathedral, the site of the wedding between Maria and the Baron. The final stop was Mirabell Gardens.

Here’s the family and their funny posing again!

Dinner was at one of the recommended beer halls. I ordered the pork knuckle and the look on our waiters face when he went to put it on the table in front of me cracked us all up. He actually went to put it in front of Stephen before Dad corrected him. He was shocked. Loves me my pork knuckle!

Our final day in Salzburg was the day that we got around all over the place. We first stopped at Hellbrunn Castle where we toured the famous trick fountains. I can’t give away the trick but suffice to say – wear waterproofs! And that includes protecting your camera or any electronic goods! We then did a whirlwind audio tour of the castle itself – when I say whirlwind I mean less than probably 15 minutes. How terrible! Ha ha. But we had lots more to see that day! The art inside was actually pretty fascinating but its not that huge in there so didn’t take long to whip around.

We then hopped on the bus to get over to Untersburg to get the Cable-Car to the top of Untersberg mountain. I must admit that it was looking a bit sketchy for any sort of clear weather but once we cleared the clouds – wow! We were joined by a bunch of hikers who were hiking down I guess! It was truly a memorable experience for all of us and simply breath-taking.

I had worn my thongs that day and everyone at the top of the mountain was laughing at me – even the army dudes! It was rather amusing.

From the top of one mountain it was back into town, after a bit of lunch, to then climb up to Hohensalzburg Fortress – central Europe’s largest, completely preserved fortress dating from the 11th century. I would recommend doing a tour of the ramparts because then you get to climb to the tallest point of the Fortress for some nice 360 degree views.

After some more tomfoolery that was sadly the end of our visit to the beautiful Salzburg. Off to the train station then to catch another overnight train …