We have seen several cities during the last eight days, but today's day trip to Salzburg, Austria, from Vienna, was by far the best place we have visited. We have been in big cities since we arrived last week, so an escape to the Austrian countryside was in store.
This city of about 150,000 sits at the base of steep hills. A winding river runs through the city and divides it in half, with the sections connected by various bridges. A fortress from 1077 rests at the top of one of the steep hills and overlooks the city. Life moves at a slower pace, and a myriad of small, narrow streets fill the city. It is home to Red bull, "The Sound of Music" was filmed here, and Mozart called Salzburg home some 250 years ago.
What's not to love about Salzburg? I could see myself spending much more time here, especially in the summer when there are many places to hike, run, swim, kayak, bike and much more. I could easily spend an entire summer here if not longer, and there are not too many places I have fallen in love with so quickly.
A view of Salzburg from the fortress Festung Hohensalzburg.
Just take a look at this view:
Chris and I arrived here around 11:30 a.m. and had about two hours to explore before taking our "The Sound of Music" guided tour. More about that later...
We decided to climb to the top of a steep hill to visit the fortress Festung Hohensalzburg, which has overlooked the city since the mid-1000s. The highlight was climbing to the lookout tower to get a great view of Slazburg.
View from near the top of the fortress.
We found a grocery store to grab some lunch and then went to the tour company office (Bob's Special Tours), as we had booked a four-hour Sound of Music tour to see many of the locations from the musical. We spent the afternoon traveling around in a small bus with a family of six ... four from Australia and two from Connecticut. They were huge Sound of Music fans and we had a blast going around with them as our guide Christian took us from place to place in the minibus while the Sound of Music soundtrack played on repeat. We sang. We laughed. We took posed pictures. It was great. Here are some pictures from the tour:
At the gardens from the musical. The fortress is in the background.
After seeing the sights around the city, we headed into the countryside to the Salzkammergut/Lake district. The drive through the hills was stunning as we left the city. Christian took us to the lake region using only backroads -- roads so narrow that a car had to stop and pull over if another was coming in the opposite direction. As we ascended, the green rolling hills and homes became more beautiful. It was a scene out of a movie, "The Sound of Music."
As we reached the top, we made a stop at a toboggan chute. Chris and I both decided to race down the chutes in the bobsleds. An employee hooked up a device to the back of the sled, which pulled us up the chute. At the top, we walked a short distance and then put the toboggans on the chute to race down -- a curvy descent of almost 60 seconds! It reminded me of racing down the chutes in Gatlinburg when my mom, dad, sisters and grandparents and I went there last in 2008.
Being pulled up to the top of the chute
And coming down
It was such a thrill that we decided to do it again!
We made one more stop at the church of Mondsee to walk the aisle of "The Sound of Music" wedding church before returning to the city. It was a great way to spend the day!
We took a train back to Vienna, had a big dinner at a restaurant called Centimeter and then returned to the hostel to do some more planning for the upcoming week.
Tomorrow, we are visiting Slovakia in the day and then heading to Budapest for the next two days.
Hope everyone is well. We are having an incredible time. Thanks for reading!
Justin
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