Salzburg, Austria

Last weekend, I was itching to find another weekend trip for us in November as our next trip is not until the first weekend of December. I lucked out and found a great deal to Salzburg, so we booked the trip!

Originally when we thought of going to Salzburg we wanted to go when it was snowing and we also hoped to have more time so we could venture to the quaint, picturesque town of Hallstatt in the mountains, on a lake, as recommended by Dad. We missed the snow by about two weeks, which turned out to be okay because we were a lot warmer and the hills on the side of the mountains were still beautifully green (imagine Sound of Music). We ventured into the region of Lakes and Mountains in behind Salzburg, which gave us a taste of what Hallstatt will be like. We’ll have to go back; maybe as a Slovenian/Austrian hiking trip. So many things to do…

We arrived in Salzburg Friday afternoon at about 4:30, after a smooth commute to Gatwick and smooth flight. After taking the bus into town, we walked the 45 min from the New Town, through the Old Town and to our hostel. Christmas lights and decorations were going up and stalls for the Christmas markets were being filled. Many stores already had all of their Christmas decorations out for sale and were they ever beautiful! We didn’t feel too bad about missing out on that as we are going to Christmas markets in Vienna and Bratislava in two weeks, and we didn’t have to deal with the hoards of advent tourists and shoppers.

Like Ljubljana, Salzburg is small with only 140K people. Salzburg has a grand feel to it. You could tell the city had been historically wealthy (from the white gold known as salt) with all of its tall, fancy, beautiful baroque buildings. The many churches fill the city with the ringing of bells on the hour. It didn’t take long to tell that Salzburg sells itself on Mozart and the Sound of Music (both of which drove John crazy).

We found a quiet, local restaurant for dinner and enjoyed delicious bacon covered, cheese filled sausages (not healthy but really tasty), wiener schnitzel and a salad with pickled veggies. Then we headed back to our hostel for the evening showing of The Sound of Music. I sat there with a huge grin on my face, humming along to the music and taking note of all the local sights in the movie. John sat there in disbelief, wondering how anyone could make, act in, or watch a movie where people burst into spontaneous song or have conversations to music. He opted for his book.

It was foggy on Saturday morning but luckily it wasn’t raining. We walked the empty streets of the Old Town, peeking inside some of its exquisite churches, waiting for the fog to burn off so we could hike up to the hilltop fortress. It was a steep slope up but well worth the view, and the sunshine that broke through the fog. Mountains, including the peak which housed Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, green fields and hills, trees still full of colour, and the elaborate roof tops of Salzburg’s Old Town buildings. We spent the rest of our morning exploring stores, starting our Christmas shopping, and checking out the food market for our lunch.

We had a tough time deciding what to do for the afternoon. There are two companies in Salzburg that run different, expensive tours of the city and surrounding area; the most popular tour being “The Sound of Music” tour. Neither of us was interested in that, but we did want to see some of the surrounding area. We worried that a tour would be too “touristy” and we thought we should be doing some hiking of our own, even if it was just in the hills right in Salzburg. The other factor was that we didn’t have a lot of energy; John was at the end of a bad cold and my body was fighting it. We ended up choosing to go on a “Lakes and Mountains” tour and it was the right decision.

We met the tour at Mirabell Garden, featured in the Sound of Music. To any gardeners reading, you would have been very impressed at how beautiful the flowers, shrubbery and landscaping were, even in mid-November! Our group consisted of a couple from Spain, a couple from Iceland living in Salzburg studying music, two travel writers from Finland, us, and our guide/driver who was from Bosnia, studying law in Salzburg. Quite the combo.

We drove into the Alps, past breathtaking hillsides (again, picture the Sound of Music) and three lakes. We stopped in three different towns, St. Gilgen, St. Wolfgang, and Mondsee, to admire views, walk along the water or through the quaint towns. Once we left Salzburg, all the buildings were classically Austrian with oversized roofs to withstand the heavy snowfall and beautifully carved wooden overhangs and balconies. I loved them! I can see how the lakeside towns are popular spots in the summer, the green blue water of the lakes (not like glacial lakes but muted green blue from the sun hitting the limestone lake floor) made me want to jump right in!
Driving through the pass between St. Gilgen and Mondsee, we passed a striking Habsburg palace. It was painted bright yellow! Gold was the Habsburg monarchy’s colour. The palace was right next to the deepest lake of the region, 120 metres, deeper than West Hawk, but the lake itself looked no bigger than a pond. Next we passed a large rock face, resembling Squamish’s Chief. It’s called the Dragon Wall because, prior to people knowing what a Woolly Mammoth was, Woolly Mammoth bones were found in a cave there and people assumed it was a dragon.

We arrived in Mondsee and saw the church where Maria and Captain Von Trapp were married, in the movie, and then we hit up a café to indulge in some apple strudel and coffee. Wow! I’m now a huge apple strudel fan.

We got back to Salzburg in the dark and explored on foot a few more areas of the city we hadn’t seen. An outdoor skating rink and Winterlounge had just been set up in Mozart Square. The Winterlounge was so inviting; it had tables and fire pits, it was decorated with evergreen boughs, and they were serving hot drinks. Of course we had to indulge in the atmosphere and drinks, traditional hot alcoholic punches. The atmosphere was worth the cost of the punch; unfortunately, our taste buds could only manage a few sips of the punch. Then we found a healthier dinner and made our way back for quiet evening at the hostel (and yes, I did take in a few more scenes of the evening viewing of The Sound of Music). It turned out to be a great day! A perfect combination of the grand city of Salzburg with the picturesque surrounding lakes, mountains and quaint Austrian villages.

By the time we got to the airport on Sunday morning at 9:30, the fog had burned off and we stood on the airport deck in the sun watching the planes take off and admiring the mountain views.