I Left my Heart in Salzburg, Austria

Currently listening to: “Sinfonia Concertante in E-Flat Major for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra, K.364 (320d): II. Andante” - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

After 3 quasi-heavy blogs, I figured I should lighten things up! And what better way to do that then to talk about my very favorite thing: traveling. My wanderlust adventures will be a big part of the story I tell on this blog. While I don’t get to fly off to new and different places as much as I’d like to, when I do, my heart is the fullest and happiest it ever is or can be. Wandering the streets of somewhere new and different, taking in the smells and the architecture and the history and the food and the culture of an unfamiliar place… it breathes life into me like I can’t explain. And it’s even harder to explain the magic of a place with just words and photos, but I’ll do my best.

This time last year, we were getting ready to set off on a 15 day trip to Central Europe: Munich (mostly to check out Neuschwanstein Castle), Salzburg, Český Krumlov, Prague, Vienna, and Budapest. To say this trip was wonderful would be the understatement of the century. Every city was charming in it’s own way, each place rife with great history, culture, and people. But if I had to pick (and it would be a very difficult decision), the city that left me the most devastated to leave it’s enchanting borders was Salzburg, Austria. Vienna, another great Austrian city, was also extremely special to me… but this one. This one is dedicated to to Salzburg. And this is the story of how I left my heart in Österreich.

Fair warning: the post will look super long, but it’s mostly photos (ok, it’s at least a good portion photos), so fear not! This one has been a labor of love…not wanting to miss any special moments, wanting to share everything… then realizing that that’s a lot to share. And then realizing I don’t care ’cause this is my blog and I’ll post 1000 photos if I wanna. 😉

Salzburg

Salzburg was my favorite of all the cities we visited during our epic Central European adventure. There was just something about it – a magic that emanated it from its cobblestone, opera-filled, pretzel-scented streets. My boyfriend, Phil, called it the “Disneyland of European cities.” And maybe that fits. Maybe I loved it so much because it encompasses all the things that I imagine in a beautiful, historical little Austrian town…  a place full of romance, history, and music.

Salzburg (literally meaning “Salt Castle”) is the hometown of Mozart, the setting for The Sound of Music, and a masterpiece of architecture and history set against the stunning backdrop of the Austrian Alps. The moment you roll into this relatively small town by train, you can feel immediately how magical it’s going to be.

The enchantment just continues from there, my friends. The clean little streets are surrounded by age-old buildings somehow now sporting shops and restaurants with electricity and televisions. The river runs idly through the town, spanned by numerous bridges that connect the old town to the new. And above it all, against the framework of green hills and towering Alps: the castle of Hohensalzburg. It all takes your breath away, to say the least.

The First Salzburg Sights

After we had put our things away in our great little boutique hotel (Hotel Auersperg in case you were wondering), our first stop was a darling little cafe called Fingerlos. This is where I quickly found out that “iced coffee” in Austria really just means ice cream with coffee flavored stuff in it.  I wasn’t particularly mad about it, though.

After our lunch at the quaint Fingerlos cafe, we met up with our tour guide, booked for us by our tour planning company, Go Real Europe. (Side note: cannot recommend them more – they took the logistical nightmare out of our 6 city tour, and enhanced it in myriad ways.) Our tour guide, whose name I regrettably cannot remember, was great – her English was almost perfect and she not only humored our excited, slightly obnoxious jokes and questions, but encouraged them with her own sense of humor and willingness to fan the giddiness of 2 people high on wanderlust. Not to mention her knowledge of Salzboorg (as she pronounced it) was vast and her love for her hometown contagious.

As we walked, we learned about the complicated and fascinating history of Salzburg. I won’t inundate you with all the details, but the general gist of it is that after the Celts and Romans left the town (not yet known as Salzburg) in ruins in the BCs and early century ADs, it began to again grow and gain prominence due to a bishop named St. Rupert, who is credited with the city’s rebirth. Rupert chose the city as the site of his basilica, renamed it Salzburg, and went about spreading Christianity. The name “Salzburg” derives from the barges carrying salt (from the nearby salt mines) that would travel the Salzach river. So basically St. Rupert built that city on rock and ro-…sorry, he built it on salt and Christianity. But I digress!

We walked and learned, and the beauty of the place struck us time and time again. The time of year was perfect for seeing these magnificent blooming of the magnolia trees, which we immediately played tourist amongst.

From there she took us to the Schloss Mirabell (Mirabell Palace), which is the site for one of the most famous dancing scenes in The Sound of Music.

 

After Mirabell we crossed the river via the Makarsteg Bridge, which was covered in locks with lovers names on them (a la Paris.) The views are stunning.

Old City

After passing over the Makartsteg Bridge, we crossed into the side of the city that is considered the “old” and “charming” part. I don’t know what kind of old/charming scale these Austrians use, but guys, the whole town is pretty damn old and charming. Upon entry into the Old City (Salzburger Altstadt), waves of charm and delight instantly assailed us – quaint little streets, beautiful old buildings and churches, and by God, the birthplace of mothereffin MOZART.

The picture above is of St. Peter’s Abbey, and in the far right corner, barely visible, is the oldest restaurant in Europe (or they claim it as anyway!) The restaurant is called Stiftskeller St. Peter, and it is a beautiful little spot with very old charm and great food. The Stiftskeller will show up again in this story, don’t you worry.

Epic Views

After the tour ended, our guide strongly encouraged us to take the funicular up to the Hohensalzburg Castle/Fortress. HOLY MOLY, thank goodness we took her advice. The views were spectacular. The first photo from the blog is from up there, and here are a few more. If you ever visit this city, I highly recommend grabbing a cocktail or glass of wine and just sitting and taking in the view. It was breathtaking, and definitely one of the highlights of the whole trip. It was so beautiful, we kept asking ourselves “So this is real, right?” I also decided right then and there to move to Salzburg. (I have yet to do so, but I haven’t given up on that dream… A girl can hope!)

 

After we left the castle, we decided to walk the river after the sun went down, have dinner, and head back to the hotel early so that we could watch The Sound of Music before our tour the next day, because *GASP*, Phil had never seen it. So here is a photo of the first of many wiener schnitzel’s we enjoyed during our time in Central Europe. (By halfway through the trip, all I wanted to eat was salad and fish tacos.)

Day 2

We woke up the next morning, slightly refreshed, slightly weirded out by the weird European beds (no sheets except the fitted sheet and no blanket…just a duvet cover on two twin beds pushed together… WTH!? Side note: we were also weirded out by the toilets in Austria- they had SHELVES. Guys, toilets shouldn’t have those. Poop is not an elf, it doesn’t belong on a shelf.) So we hit the hotel’s awesome complimentary breakfast hard, and set out to tour the city on our own before we joined…you guessed it, a Sound of Music bus tour. 

As we walked around Old Town on our own, we bought some to touristy-ass stuff, but no regrets! Got a little painting from a guy selling prints by the river, true Salzburg-ian salz (salt) from a really cool store, some of the best gummies I’ve ever had from a gummy-candy-only shop called Bärenland (highly recommend the gummy brains), some other odds and ends, and of course, some original Mozart chocolate from this place called Fürst Chocolate. My wallet paid dearly for my love of Salzburg – I wanted ALL THE SOUVENIRS. And I pretty much let myself have them.

Before the tour, we decided we need to try this world-renowned Austrian cake called a Sacher Torte. A Salzburger and a Viennese Austrian will argue to the death about where it was invented, but we thought we’d have it from the supposed original home of the torte…the Hotel Sacher. I mean…it’s in the name. They had to be legit, right?

We were in a hurry to catch our SoM bus, so we got a piece of it to go and hurried along. I gotta be honest, though… I was underwhelmed. The cake is sort of thick and dense, and not very sweet. I had heard that it’s better “mit schlag” (with whipped cream) but we didn’t have time for that. So maybe that was the issue. But either way, I let Phil eat most of it, because Sacher Torte was just not my jam. Which was probably for the best, because apple strudel most definitely was.

Then…we were off to see Salzburg through the eyes of Fräulein Maria and the Sound of Music. (Our tour company wrote a great article about all the spots in Salzburg that were shown in the movie.) Now, don’t get me wrong, we were weary at first at how campy and touristy this tour was going to be. But it ended up being so much damn fun! Turns out the hills ARE alive and they without a doubt will fill your heart with the sound of music.

The Hills are Aliiiiiiveeeee

We visited a number of the locations from the movie (the gazebo where Liesel and her nazi boyfriend had a moment, the church where Maria & the General get married, the house where they filmed the falling into the lake scene, etc, etc.) But the best parts of the tour for us were these: 1) They played the movie in between times when the guide was giving background on the movie and Salzburg. And it was a SING-A-LONG. We got to sing a long to the movie with a bunch of strangers on a bus while passing the very spots that the movie was filmed. Surprisingly fun and really special. 2) The tour took us way outside of the city and into the outskirts of the area surrounding Salzburg. We got to see small, sweet hamlets tucked into green hills and blue lakes, old churches, and many cute little Bavarian towns. We even passed the headquarters of Red Bull. Betcha didn’t even know that Red Bull was Austrian, let alone HQ’d near Salzburg!

Interesting little story we heard about why it’s called Red Bull! – When the Hohensalzburg Castle was under siege at one point in its long history, someone had the awesome idea to try to make it look like they had more food and provisions than they actually did, so that their enemy would get discouraged and give up. At this point the castle was home to only one last bull, and once it was gone, they’d be royally screwed. But the enemy didn’t know that! To fake them out, every day they painted the bull a different color: one day it was black, one day it was white, one day brown. So it looked to the enemy like they had many animals living up in the castle, but really, it was just the one last bull, painted daily to make it look like many cattle. It worked! The enemy fell for it and ended their siege. Cool, huh? Not sure they ever painted the bull RED…but you get the idea!

 

 

After the SoM tour, we decided to head to mount Monchsberg to get another great view of the city and get our quasi-hike on. It took about an hour and it was worth it:

After sunset, we walked back down and toward a very important stop when you’re in Austria: a beer hall! And this one is the oldest in Salzburg. I’m not much of a beer girl, but the Austrian pilsners were great. It was also just really cool to sit in a place where centuries ago monks were making beer (because it was safer to drink than water), and that since then, has been a place where people have been drinking and enjoying themselves. A beer hall is a sacred place to an Austrian (or German), so it was a must-do to see this extremely old one, called the Augustiner Bräustübl. You just pick a tankard off the shelf and then have it filled with beer that is made in the monastery. Tale as old as time.

It was tempting to stay and just drink beer all night, but we had a lot more to see the following day, so we headed out and decided to walk the mile or 2 back to the hotel. This ended up being a pretty great decision because we got some stellar night river views and also found a playground to channel our inner 6 years olds on for a few minutes. Proud to say he spun me as fast as he could on one of those spinny things and I didn’t even get close to puking. Whoop!

Third and Final Day

One more day, my friends! We’re almost there. Like the castle siege story I told earlier…this blog, too, shall end.

Day three was supposed to be the day that we did a hike on an Alp (Untersberg), but alas, it was rainy as all get out. So we decided to start the day at Hellbrunn Palace and see if it cleared up enough to go hiking (spoiler alert: it did not.) Hellbrunn Palace was actually one of the stops on the SoM tour, but only for a short time to see the above-pictured gazebo, which is located right outside it’s gates. But Schloss (palace) Hellbrunn is pretty special, so it required a much more thorough viewing.

Long story short on Hellbrunn: a prince archbishop named Markus Sittikus was part playboy/part funnyman and had Hellbrunn built as a place for his epic summer parties. This is in the days archbishops could totally be playboys, ’cause the Church was pretty untouchable, and even more so if you were also a prince. Now Markus didn’t just want any old palace for his parties…he wanted a playground of sorts, complete with games and practical jokes… at his guests’ expense of course! So Markus conceived of a series of waterworks and fountains (created only with gravity…no electrical water pumps existed in those days) that were hidden in different areas, and would come on when guests least expected it to shock/soak them. Notable features include stone seats around a stone dining table through which a water conduit sprays water into the seat of the guests when the mechanism is activated, and hidden fountains that surprise and spray. Other features are a mechanical, water-operated and music-playing theatre built in 1750, and a grotto that houses a crown being pushed up and down by a jet of water, symbolizing the rise and fall of power. At all of these games there is always a spot which is never wet: that is where the Archbishop stood or sat (the wily tour guide uses that spot nowadays.) All in all, it is a super fun tour to take, and even more impressive considering the feat of engineering it must have taken to create these water features without modern day engineering.

 

Visiting an Alp

After Hellbrunn, we decided to take the bus to the end of the line to take the funicular up to the top of Untersberg. Even though the weather wouldn’t allow the hike, we wanted to make sure to at least get to experience what we could of an Austrian Alp. One day I’ll see other Alps, but for now, I’ve at least been to one!

Funny side story: it was on this bus ride that we noticed that the German word for “journey” or “travel” is “fahrt.” You know where this is going. Even our 30-something selves could not help but laugh for 20 minutes about taking a one-way fahrt to Untersberg! I, in particular, was especially amused, and laughed way too hard on way too many occasions about this word over the course of the trip. I even tried to get Phil to agree to having our official trip hashtag be “Ash n Phils Euro Fahrt” but he just wasn’t having it. A year later, I still think it would have been an awesome hashtag.

We made it to Untersberg just in time to catch one of the last rides up the mountain. The visibility wasn’t great, but it was snowing at the top, so that was pretty special! It was cold as a witch’s tit, so while Phil frolicked around the mountain for a few minutes, I got some superb hot choclate and french fries inside the cafe at the top of the mountain. #priorities

 

 

Last…but Certainly Not Least

As we fahrted back to the hotel on the bus, a large dose of sadness hit me. (I’m sorry, I’m sorry… one day I’ll stop thinking it’s funny. Today is not that day.) It was our last night in Salzburg, and I was already majorly, totally smitten with the place. But we had saved a pretty special experience for the last night there. We were going to attend a Mozart dinner concert in one of the gorgeous rooms above Skiftskeller St. Peter (that oldest European restaurant I mentioned previously), with the food supplied by the restaurant.

 

We got dressed up a little fancier than normal, and headed out to St. Peter’s Abbey. I was a little worried that the event was going to be “touristy”, for obvious reasons. And ya know, maybe it was, but the experience was unforgettable. Listening to the music of Mozart in the city in which he was born was truly amazing. It was so easy to sit in the 1600+ year old, candlelit room, and imagine listening to his music in the 18th century when it was first being played. The musicians were costumed in the dress of his time, and the food presented in a way meant to be reminiscent of how they would have served it then, as well. The food was great, the ambiance was stunning, and the musicians were magnificent. it was just a really great way to end our time in this city of music and magic.

 

On our way back, we realized we hadn’t seen the Mozart statue yet! So we took a little night tour, and then headed back for one more sleep before we headed to Český Krumlov.

So there it is, my clearly patient friends. The long-winded tale of how and why I left my hopelessly romantic heart in Salzburg, Austria. If you’ve gotten this far…wow, well done! I hope these stories and photos have left you at least a tad-bit inspired to visit this city that I loved so much.

Stay tuned for at least 5 more way-too-long accounts of other Central European cities I fell in love with on this same trip. But for now…I leave you with this last picture of this beautiful city that still lives vividly in my dreams…

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