I'm in Salzburg! What a beautiful town, even in the dreary European winter! Thursday morning I left Vienna at 9:40am and arrived in Innsbruck about 4 1/2 hours later. I only spent a few hours checking the place out but I'm glad I dropped in. It is a lot bigger than I originally thought and bustling with 20- and 30-somethings, entire streets dedicated solely to late-night dance clubs, REAL bike lanes and pedestrians walking the streets wearing snowboard boots and/or with snowboards, skis and ski boots in tow! (There wasn't any snow on the ground, either!) It wasn't even just one area of the town that skis and snowboards were being carried around - it was everywhere!! I couldn't STAND being there any longer the ability to show off my gear, too, so that's probably why I made an early departure. My overall opinion of the place was great, though, and while I was walking around I thought about what apartment building might be good to live in... ;)
I left Innsbruck on the 17:30 train and hit Salzburg right at 19:30. I had looked up some hostels online before I started my trip and picked out the YOHO as a good potential spot. Following some directions I'd written down, I found it pretty easily from the train station and it only took me about 10 minutes to walk there. My 8-bed dorm room was €17 per night and includes free nightly screenings of The Sound of Music. Dinner on-sight was €6 and all-you-can-eat breakfast for €3 in the morning. I could eat wiener schnitzel forever - love the stuff!! Tonight I'm going to try the Potato Gröstl, some kind of potato thing.
After breakfast this morning I climbed Kapuzinerberg, a big hill that
rises directly above the city. It was a pretty good hike and had me
huffing and puffing towards the end, despite me THINKING I was in good
shape. The views were spectacular, though, and totally worth it. Here
is a view of the Hohensalzburg Castle ("Festung") from my hike - and
yup, I went up there, too!
Here it is looking back at the hill I was on earlier.When I got back into the old town area, there was a little pretzel stand with some huge pretzels and I decided that sounded perfect for a quick lunch. Low and behold, the pretzel stand was owned by the Reiter family who have been making pretzels for generations! Obviously it's unlikely they are the same family as mine, but it's still neat to see Reiters everywhere. I don't think I've ever met another Reiter in the U.S.A. who wasn't in my family.
After that, I hopped onto bus 25 which took me to the Hellbrunn Castle - the location of The Sound of Music's famous gazebo! Definitely checked that out and the park I was in was absolutely gorgeous. The whole place is open and free of charge so I was able to walk around and enjoy the little walkways, ponds and greenery.
Tomorrow morning my plan is to get up, have some breakfast and check out, then head to the Leopoldskron Castle just south of town. Leopoldskron was the Von Trapp mansion in The Sound of Music. I'll be taking pictures! After that I'm going to get back on the train and head to Linz to check out the situation here. It looked pretty neat just going by on the train and I've never been there so heck, why not?! Hopefully I'll be able to track down the Mauthausen concentration camp memorial, too.
After several hours in Linz I'll probably get on the train again and return to Vienna - hopefully before dinnertime. (The train system is SO great here - I know I keep saying that but for example: I purchased a round-trip ticket from Vienna to Innsbruck when I got to the train
station yesterday morning and I can take up to two months to complete it! So I can get on, get off, get on, get off, etc., etc., as long as I'm along the route. Pretty awesome!) Anyway, so getting back to Vienna tomorrow afternoon will work out nicely because spending the ENTIRE weekend on the go can be exhausting.
I guess that's all the news so far, I'll be sure to update again when I get home tomorrow. Tschüss!
