Adding in Salzburg to injury

 Salzburg

After schlossing it up (that means castle), we set our sights on Salzburg, throwing in one last visit to a castle on an island along the way for good measure.  When we arrived in Salzburg, it was dark and rainy, and our hostel was a wet half hour walk from the train station. Our backpack rainflies and rain jackets are starting to get some serious kilometers on them!

Edgar recommended we stop in Salzburg before going farther east to Vienna. We took advantage of two of self-guided walking tours to get a taste of Mozart’s hometown and the setting of The Sound of Music.  We quickly learned that Mozart is big in Japan, as we fought our way through posing tourists holding up peace fingers to take a look at the statue in Mozartplatz.  We visited the cathedral, St. Peter’s Church, and St. Peter’s cemetery – a small winding cemetery that abuts a cliff side monk dwelling.  Interesting fact: in Austria, gravesites are rented, not owned, so someone has to continue payments for their relatives in order to keep them at the cemetery. We also learned that despite what some tour guides may tell you, this cemetery was only the inspiration for the cemetery scene in the Sound of Music, but it was actually shot on a sound stage.  We did get to check out some real scenery from the movie at Mirabell Gardens and by following Rick Steve’s awesome advice to wander through an open unmarked side door to end up practically on stage at the Festival Hall where the Von Trapps sang Edelwiess. We also did some window-shopping at the Altermarkt, the farmers’ market, and on Getreidegasse, a medieval street with wrought iron signs
for each shop.  Even McDonald’s has one!

We meandered up the hill to Monchsberg, the cliffs on the Southeast part of town.  Our original aim was to visit the city’s famous castle, Hohensalzburg, but here Rick Steves failed us, as it is no longer free to walk the grounds without a ticket to the interior. So, we went with Plan B, which ended up being our favorite part of the visit.  We walked all the way along the top of Monchsberg from the castle. We got some great views of the city below, the castle, old buildings and bridges, and some of the random modern art exhibits that have been installed annually around the city for the last few years.  And our finish line was Salzburg’s Augustiner brewery (a different Augustiner than the Munich brew), which was definitely worth visiting.  The monk-run brewery seats 1,000, and by the time we left it was starting to get pretty hopping (pun intended). The mugs are set out on shelves, you take one, rinse it under a fountain, pay for your beer, and then finally take your mug up to the Hirschenkeg (giants wooden beer barrel) for your drink.  The whole floor is wet and sticky from all the rinsing.  They also have a beer warmer – a tub of warm water that you let your mug sit in until your beer is nice and luke warm!

After the road trip, we were glad to stay put for a couple of nights, and had our first real home cooked in the hostel kitchen and watched their showing of the Sound of Music.  But we were glad that our last night was in fact our last, because we had a new batch of roommates, and they were stinky!  We walked back to our dorm expecting it to be empty, but while we were out 5 people moved in. The room was a humid stinkchamber that surpassed what we had in Stockholm. David opened a window and we had an emergency meeting (mutually agreed upon through a panicked glance) in the bathroom to decide if we would be able to make it through the night. Unfortunately, someone had just been in the bathroom so it smelled even worse in there. David doused himself in cologne and Robin wrapped a scarf around her mouth and nose and we said our tough good nights.  Sal long, Salzburg!

Best Eats:

Getreidgasse: A hot dog vendor down an impossibly small alley selling hotdogs with onions for about $2. After they prepare  your order, they put it in a metal hotdog holder like you’d see for ice cream cones.

Augustiner Brewery: We never figured out why, but the day we visited the brewery there was a special menu where everything was discounted in the cafeteria style food court. We had a whole rotisserie chicken and a couple liters of beer for about $10.

Best Sights:

Walking across the top of the city to get to Augustiner. We saw old medieval fortified walls and crossed a bridge from the 1100s and went in an old church not listed in any guidebooks from 1604 and heard the organist practicing.

Best Laughs:

We found a cardboard box outside a retail store, perfect for mailing home some souvenirs. It was larger than our daypack, so with some clever clipping and folding, we were able to attach it to the backpack, but it stuck out 2 feet on either side.  We got confused, sometimes angry looks from people as David walked by and bumped into people forgetting it was there. After carrying the box for our nearly 14 hour walk, we ended up seeing a very similar box outside the hostel.