First words. Salzburg is a city steeped in history and time can be well spent just wandering around and exploring the nooks and crannies. Alternatively there are plenty of day trips that can be made to explore the local sights. I can?t wait to go back and see it in spring/summer.
| Dates | Out of Stansted 6.40am Friday, 26 November In to Stansted 10.25pm Sunday, 28 November |
| Airline | Ryanair. This was my first time flying with this low-cost airline and it was not a bad experience at all. The biggest negative (next to having to fly out of Stansted) was unassigned seating! Yikes! It was basically a stampede to get through the gate to get to the plane. |
| Why go? | Go if the Sound of Music, Mozart and Christmas Markets (at least from Nov until Christmas) sound appealing to you. |
| Weather | Mainly cloudy cover but days were cool and dry. |
| The experience | Waking up at 3am in the morning for a full day in another country was going to be tough. But when I arrived at the Salzburg W.A. Mozart Airport (named after Salzburg?s most famous son) and stepped off the plane to be faced with the beautiful mountain-scape and the brisk winter air I knew I was in for a good day. My travelling accomplices were already in Salzburg with Andrew, having arrived the morning before, and Carolyn and Mel, the night before so they were all well settled by the time I got to the hostel. |
| Day 1 was Mozart?s Residence (which has a good self-paced audio guided tour that gives you more information about Mozart than you have room in your brain for), the bustling Christmas markets and the Bavarian Mountains (that?s right when in Salzburg, why not visit Germany??). The tour was average as except for a little time at King?s Lake (K?ssee) and a stop in the town of Berchtesgaden (for the obligatory eat-some-apple-strudel-and-contribute-to-the-local-economy rest break) most of the tour was driving to and around the Alps. More time off the bus would have been appreciated. | |
| Dinner was Wiener Schnitzel (of course) but I won?t go into how much drama was involved in finding dinner. Dinner is definitely not the main meal in Salzburg! | |
| Day 2.The Sound of Music Tour! You cannot go to Salzburg and NOT do the Sound of Music Tour. In addition to learning heaps more about Salzburg and the Lakes District you will hear the true story behind the Sound of Music and some of the secrets behind the making of the movie, you get to visit many of the places the movie was filmed at and most importantly you get to sing sing sing. As an added bonus free Edelweiss seeds (now I know you?ve always wanted them!) are given to you at the end of the tour. | |
| Day 3.The overcast weather from the day before had us planning for a Sound of Music morning (which showed at 10am daily at our hostel). However, the weather was enticingly clear enough for us to venture up to Festung (Fortress) Hohensalzburg. The Fortress is the largest, fully-preserved fortress in central Europe. Those fit enough can walk up to the Fortress but we took the easy way up via the Furnicular. There is plenty to entertain once at the top of the Fortress including the Fortress museum, a marionette museum, a tour of the state rooms, the views and an opportunity to try your hand at cross bow. | |
| Highlights |
|
| Lowlights | Missing out on going to the Ice Caves and The Trick Fountains of Hellbrunn Palace because we were out of season. (Oh well ? a nice excuse to go back!) |
| Final words | I’d go again! |
Geez Grace had no idea you had this little masterpiece going on, great work, but where are the pics of you????
Yea well I’m a little bit shy. LOL. I’ve got some more pics attached to Dusseldorf and NY and you may be able to see one of me in my Paris entry (but you’ll have to look a little more carefully!)