Salzburg Österreich

Friday morning we woke up early to meet a tour group to go to Austria for the day! We were both SO excited to see Salzburg, a city surrounded by the Alps, especially after the views we experienced yesterday. To make a long story short, we were early to the meeting place but found out there was some sort of time mix up. The tour guide ended up refunding our money, bought us a train ticket and we jumped on a train, with just a map of Salzburg and Rick Steve’s book and we were off! It ended up being an awesome adventure for just the two of us and we were both very glad that it turned out the way it did.

We saw a TON of stuff in Salzburg, which you will see by all of the pictures that are posted below. Sadly, it was our only day of the trip that it was overcast....but I wont complain because we had such great weather the entire time. We found everything with no problem and even figured out how to take the bus back to the train station. Enjoy Salzburg in pictures!!

The famous Hohensalbug Castle in Salzburg, it was originally built in 1077 as a fortress by the ruling Archbishop. All of the Archbishops after that kept adding on. It was SO NEAT to see!

Mirabell Gardens where the famous scenes of the Sound of Music was filmed!

Mozarts house! Mozart actually lived in Salzburg in two different houses you can tour. This was the house he lived in during the later years of his life. The house he grew up in was in the center of town.

Standing in Mozarts garden! We quickly toured his house. It was neat to see all the original pieces of work and pianos they had from the family. No pictures from inside sadly.

The Salzach river that runs through the city. It divides the "new" and "old" parts of the city. We LOVED the view!

The famous Getreidegasse! It is the most famous shopping street in Salzburg! It is recognizable by the famous iron signs that hang outside of the shops. We found some great finds on this street :) I was loving the fact that Austria is famous for crystal!

Salzburger Dom Cathedral in Salzburg. It was originally built in 774! But it had to be rebuilt again in 1628 and 1959 (not much was left after the war sadly). These dates are on the iron gates from which you enter the church (not shown).

It was huge and beautiful inside! Europeans sure do know how to build a beautiful church!

This is a statue that is in the middle of one of the squares. It is so random, just a dude standing on a huge gold ball. And from far away, it looks like a real person standing up there. There is also a GIANT chess set near by. Both works of art comissioned by the city. So random!

Stu & Mozart in the city center!

The Salzburg Glockenspeil! I liked it because it was pink. The streets of the city were made in a crazy circular fashion. We got turned around a couple of times early in the day. We looked for this dang city center for at least 20mins and realized once we found it, all we had to do was make a left turn instead of a right after the church....figures. By the end of the day, we knew couldve given tours of the city we knew it so well!

Our afternoon snack to share. A super yummy sweet apple pretzel. It was amazing. Think portable apple pie! There were stands in Salzburg with any type of pretzel (they are also very popular here) you could imagine from original to sweet to savory! Oh my gosh, so wonderful! And Stu was excited because I found him a mini bottle of Jack Daniels (one of his fav drinks) in a gift shop! It was a pretty great afternoon break if I do say so myself.

We then took this crazy steep tram to the top of the Castle! Thankfully we didnt have to walk this time. The tram literally just climbed straight up the side of the mountain, almost vertical. Pretty crazy!

A view from the top! It was breathtaking!

The city of Salzburg and the Alps. The Alps surround the city on all sides. (I probably have 50 more pictures of the city from different views.) I included a video of the view below.

Inside the Castle. On all of the walls and buildings, there were plaques to tell you when everything was built (between 1100-1400!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

A view from the top of the clock tower inside the castle. That was the inner most part where the Archbishops had the most amazing rooms inside....very elegant!

Love this one. From the tallest point in Salzburg.

Cannon

We made our way back down from the Castle and stumbled upon St. Peters Church and famous cemetery that we were told to see (and tried to find before)

The cemetery was very pretty and unlike anything I had seen before. The landscaping was amazing. What a beautiful final resting place. The cemetery surrounds the entire back of the church.

St. Peters Church. The inside was also very amazing.

After a SUPER jam packed day, our weary legs took us back to the train station for the two hour ride back to Munich. It was a perfect day and we got everything we wanted to! There was another famous Castle of the Archbishops, fountains and gondola ride that we both wanted to do but were closed because of the winter season. Our trip to Austria was amazing and unforgettable!

Once back in Munich, we made our way to the Hofbrauhaus to get us the huge mugs to remember the trip. And we just had to stop by our most favorite beerhaus to have one last Bavarian beer and dinner.

Stu actually found this beer at Specs in Houston yesterday! YES!!!!!!! Although its not as good as it is on tap, it is still pretty great!

He had to get the famous weinerschnitzel in Germany before we left! I had roast pork and potato dumplings....both really great!

Story: The entire dinner there was this drunken man sitting alone at a table with a fully beer next to him. He appeared to be sleep on his hands, then his hand sank a little further and finally his head full onto the table! Everyone in the restaurant was watching the progression. The man was flat passed out! Waitresses, cooks and even patrons tried to wake him up, but with no luck. By this time, they were checking is pulse! An ambulance was called and EMTs with a STRETCHER came into the restaurant. They finally got the man awake and he drunkenly stumbled out of the restaurant into the ambulance. It was crazy to watch....everyone could not stop staring!

I asked the waitress later if this sort of thing happened alot---hey Bavarian beer is delicious and people here sure do drink alot of it! But apparently, this was the first time something like this happened at the restaurant. What a crazy sight to see. Im sure that dude wasnt feeling to great the next day. And dont worry, we only had two beers the entire day :)

Stu found this beer at the airport and just had to try it. Its pretty funny. (Duff is the beer from the Simpson's) Not bad!
As you can probably tell from all of the pictures, we were super tired by the end of the day. It was an amazing trip and I am so glad that we went! The next day (Saturday) we toured the Dachu concentration camp and had to fly home. Stay tuned. Happy Wednesday everyone

all meine Liebe

Salzburg