Salzburg, Austria

The week before Thanksgiving, Paul and I got to take a trip to Salzburg, Austria! We spent 3 nights in Salzburg. As a general overview: The first day we explored Salzburg, the second day we went on a Sound of Music tour in the surrounding area and went to a dinner & Mozart concert at the Hohensalzburg Fortress, and the last day we drove to Hallstatt and toured a salt mine there. It was a great trip! My mom was kind enough to stay in England with Charlotte so we could relax a bit more on the trip. The only bummer was we both caught terrible colds at the start of the trip, so we coughed and sneezed our way around Austria -- yuck!

We had an early flight out of Stansted, but were there a little earlier than necessary so got to enjoy a sit down breakfast at the restaurant called Giraffe. Our flight was uneventful and we arrived in Salzburg by mid-morning. We got the Salzburg card for our stay, which was just barely a good deal over the course of our stay -- but nice because it gave us free bus rides! The best way into the city it to take the bus from the airport, which we did. It was pretty easy to find our hotel, which was located across the river from the old town of Salzburg and at the far end of a small shopping district -- about a 15 minute walk from the main sights. 

Once we checked into the hotel, we headed out to do a self-guided tour of the Old Town ("Altstadt") with our Rick Steves guidebook. It was pretty and quite scenic! The old town is dominated by the castle on the hill -- the Fortress Hohensalzburg -- and a huge number of churches. They were completing the set-up of the Christmas market when we arrived, including an ice rink and lots of gluhwein stalls.

Salzach River

Mozartplatz

Pastry shop at the Christkindlmarkt

Interior of the Salzburger Dom (Cathedral where Mozart was baptized)

Kapitelplatz outside of the Cathedral

Former horse-washing station in the Kapitelplatz, now used only as a decorative fountain. Festung Hohensalzburg on the hill in the background.

Cemetery where the Von Trapps hid from the Nazis in "The Sound of Music"

Old doorbells for the various flats in the building above

We grabbed currywurst to-go from a popular alley stall, and ate it while people-watching on the Getreidegasse, one of the popular shopping streets in Salzburg. Afterward, we took the funicular up the steep hill (mountain?) to the castle overlooking the city. We didn't do the tour of the state rooms, but enjoyed the view overlooking the rural areas and the city. It was clear enough to enjoy a view of the mountains in the distance!

Views of the mountains from the top of the hilltop castle

View of the city of Salzburg, with the Salzach river running through it

Enjoying the view!

We went back to the hotel for a bit to rest before heading back out for dinner. We ate at a burger joint near the old town, which was good. I saw there was a sink with paper towels against the wall of the restaurant, which seemed odd -- maybe they know their burgers are a little messy? But after having dinner out at other restaurants, we saw the same thing -- it is a city-wide oddity. My tour book says that Salzburg has always been known for hygiene, and was in fact one of the only major cities in Europe to escape outbreaks of the plague. I guess it's a carry-over!

After dinner, we wandered the Christmas market and watched ice skating at the rink, to the sounds of mostly American Christmas music. It was so pretty!

The next morning, we met downstairs in the hotel with 3 British ladies whom we had met the previous day as we were checking in to the hotel. We were all picked up in a small bus and transported to the location where our Sound of Music tour bus was departing! The tour was super cheesy but a blast. We rode around throughout the countryside to a lot of the filming locations from the movie, all while listening and singing along to the soundtrack with our tour guide and 50 of our new friends. A very unique and enjoyable experience if you're a fan of the movie, which we are :)

Leopoldskron Palace, where the boating scene was filmed

The gazebo, rebuilt at Hellbrunn Palace, where "16 Going on 17" was filmed

The house that was used for the "front" shots of the Von Trapp home

Nonnberg Abbey, where Maria was a novitiate before becoming the Von Trapps' governess

Gorgeous lake in the Salzkammergut (Lake District) 

The church in Mondsee, Austria, where the wedding scene between Maria & Captain Von Trapp was filmed. The interior the church was beautiful!

The downtown scene of Mondsee

At the end of the tour, the bus dropped us off at the Mirabell Gardens in downtown Salzburg, where "Do Re Mi" was filmed. We hopped around on the steps for a bit, and ran down the archway of  vines a la Maria, but then it started raining so we headed back to the hotel :)

That evening, we walked back into the city for some hot chocolate near the ice rink before taking the 6 pm funicular ride up to the castle again.

We had booked a dinner & concert at the castle. Dinner was in a restaurant within the castle walls, and the concert was in the Golden Hall up several flights of steps in the castle. Dinner was delicious, and the concert was magical -- a little bit of Mozart (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik) as well as some other Baroque pieces. Unfortunately my cough got the best of me a few times, despite massive numbers of cough drops, and I had to sneak out the back so as not to disturb the other attendees. We then went back to the hotel to rest up for the next day!