i’m rather embarrassed to still be posting pictures from this backpacking trip that i took a year and a half ago, but i’m bound and determined to document these moments for myself [and my brother, in this case] to look back on and reminisce about in the future. so let’s do it! picking up where we left off, we had just left innsbruck and headed to salzburg. [i’m lucky to have my travel journal to remind me of everything…]
it took less than 2 hours to get from innsbruck to salzburg [a beautiful ride], and we arrived in the afternoon on friday, july 3rd. we stayed at the lovely hotel adlerhof, about a ten minute walk from old town. during our two-and-a-half day stay in salzburg, we saw mirabell palace and gardens, went in a couple different old churches, had beers at a monastery-run brewery, explored the famous castle that sits on a hill overlooking salzburg, celebrated the 4th of july by eating a burger, took a tour of the palace schloss hellbrunn and watched a trick fountain show there, and took a boat tour on the salzach river which runs through the city. i know i’ve said this about several of the cities we visited on this trip, but salzburg is such a fairytale city! even more so than the others, i think. i mean, how do you top a beautiful enormous castle on a hill overlooking a city and a river, all surrounded by the alps? it’s every bit as gorgeous in real life as it is in the photos, if not more so.
{where we stayed: hotel adlerhof! the lady at the front desk was so helpful!}
{our cute little room felt so austrian! also, we were THRILLED about that fan over there, because europe was experiencing a major heat wave while we were there and that fan was much needed.}
{how you do laundry while you’re backpacking: hand-wash in the sink, fasten your travel clothesline to the shower, and hang dry. it worked!}
{mirabell palace & gardens}
{insert a smiley with heart eyes here!!}
{these are two different churches in salzburg. the one on the left is kollegienkirche, and it had an all-white interior. the one on the right is st. peter’s abbey. very different, but both very beautiful.}
{this place.}
{you can see the fortress up there on the hill!}
{we went to augustiner braustubl, a monastery-run brewery that’s very popular in salzburg. they serve one kind of beer… you pick a size, pay, grab one of these ceramic mugs, and fill ‘er up. they have a huge beer garden, but it was so packed that we couldn’t find a place to sit and decided to drink our beer inside. it was a pretty neat place.}
{we had a glass of wine at this neat little place, cafe am kai, which was right on the river, nestled against the cliffs. there was lovely patio and a live band playing and we had such a great time… that is, until the server tried to shortchange us 50 euros. luckily we caught her [it was very clear that it was on purpose] but it wasn’t a pleasant experience and it left a bad taste in our mouths. i definitely got the feel that there are often tourists at this cafe and it likely wasn’t the first time it happened, but quite honestly i’ve been to europe many times and have rarely [if ever] had this type of situation. it’s a good lesson to be watchful of your money and how much you’re getting back. thankfully mike was!}
{unfortunately that type of experience where you feel someone is dishonest and purposefully tries to take advantage of you kind of sticks with you. however, we didn’t let it ruin our night [and thankfully since we caught her, we never lost any money] and everyone else was super nice and honest. we still love you, salzburg!}
{…i mean, how could we not???}
{seafood pasta for dinner, then drinks at a local bar.}
{scenes of salzburg}
{a hugo and a mojito}
{and then we went up in that castle up there on the hill, fortress hohensalzburg. we had to take funicular to get to it.}
{up in the castle}
{these views though. i couldn’t get over them! the fortress was really huge – pretty much a whole village up there. we went to the museum and all the different areas of the castle and it was very interesting. the first stage of the castle was built in 180 AD!!!! but it didn’t start looking like a fortress around 1100.}
{and then we got a drink here to relax and cool off.}
{it felt a bit unreal to be sipping a drink in a fortress with this view of the alps and the city of salzburg all around us. a pretty cool experience.}
{i made mike a take a photo of me because you don’t see this every day!}
{austrian cemeteries are some of the most beautiful that i’ve ever seen.}
{the day we went up in the castle also happened to be july 4th! so we celebrated by eating watermelon at breakfast and american food [burgers] for lunch that day. and yes, the burger was about as big as my face, ha!}
{we’re normally the type of people who try to avoid american food when we’re traveling to other countries, but it was interesting to see the difference between american burgers and the burgers in austria. the biggest difference we noticed is the bun. the buns in austria almost looked fake, and they had sesame seeds on them, which doesn’t seem weird at all BUT you surprisingly won’t find this as often in restaurants in america [pay attention and you’ll start noticing that most burger buns served in restaurants don’t have sesame seeds]. they were tasty buns and overall a good burger.}
{fortress hohensalzburg, from the opposite side of where the main city of salzburg lies. we were over here to visit schloss hellbrunn, a palace a little outside of town. we watched a trick fountain show and did an audio tour of the palace – i believe i got photos on my nikon [to come!] but didn’t get any on my iphone.}
{on the left, just another fancy mcdonalds. ;) and on the right, mozart’s old home, turned into a museum.}
{we’re on a boat! this tour was neat, and the cool part was that we had gotten a 24-hour salzburg card for 27 euros, which means that we didn’t have to pay anything to get into any of the attractions of the day [the castle, the palace, the boat tour], plus public transportation was free. it was a pretty good deal.}
{we ate at an austrian restaurant for dinner…}
{…i had pan-fried trout with herbed potatoes and spinach, and mike had schnitzel served with jam [actually a really good combo!] and potatoes. and we shared a chocolate cake for dessert!}
{and then we said goodbye to beautiful salzburg.}
photos from my nikon, coming soon! xoxo