Vacation Part 3: Salzburg, Austria

Open scene..."Thhheee hiilllllsss are alliiivveee with the sounnnddd offf mmuussiiicccc!!!"  We were so excited to arrive in Salzburg after a long train ride.  Thankfully our hotel was not far from the train station and we walked to our little historic stay. 

My first tweet upon arriving at Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Salzburg:

Apparently the Haribo gummy bear factory is in Salzburg, and they were everywhere.  There were even gummy bear vending machines on the streets. Crazy.  

We wanted to get out and explore a bit the afternoon we arrived, and then devise our plan over dinner for the remaining 2 days.  Salzburg is known for a lot of things, but the main 2 things it's known for is The Sound of Music (TSOM), and Mozart, both of which I have a great love for.  We discovered that one of the main gardens, Mirabell Gardens, on TSOM was right down from our hotel. We had to go!  

Husband gettin' his sang on. haha.

See any resemblance? 

We only did a bit of exploring that evening, and then went to dinner at a cute little italian diner to try to figure out how the next 2 days were going to play out.  Husband and I had a great plan for not stressing each other out. (We do that sometimes) :) 

When we travel, or are on "vacation," we have two different frames of mind.  Husband wants to wake up at 7am (or possibly earlier), get breakfast, and hit every high point, castle, museum, tour, or what have you, in every city.  I, on the other hand, have a more laid back approach: sleep in till 9 or 10am, get brunch, do a bit of window shopping, or actual shopping, hit a tourist/historic site that I REALLY REALLY want to see, maybe 2 or 3 of them, if they are close by and the afternoon allows for it,  stop for coffee once or twice, shop, sit and people watch....you get the point.  

On this trip since we had about 2, or 2 and a half days in each location, we decided that he would get to plan out a day, and I would get a day.  And we would do what the other person wanted to do on their day, with no whining or complaining, grouching or moaning, and let the person plan and have their own day.  Married couples....this is our secret to being the best travel partners ever, and staying sane.  It was a fabulous plan and we had the best time planning out and enjoying each others "days." 

Salzburg has SOO much to see and do!  We were both very torn about what specific sites we wanted to visit.  Specifically I wanted to, of course, go on the 4 hour SOM tour, and Husband wanted to go on the 4 hour "Hitler's Eagles Nest" tour.  Both of those alone would knock out an entire day, and we knew that we could see more in our time there.  

Turns out that we both threw our agendas away, and came up with the best idea on the trip.  If you ever go to Salzburg you need to purchase The Salzburg Card.  This little baby will pay for itself twice over, get you deals and discounts, lots of free stuff, and you will see a ton.  I would only recommend this for people who have a limited stay in Salzburg.  Anyone staying over 3 days, go have at any tour you want.  

These shots are from our days combined:

Mozart's birthplace and residence

The entire city has a great love for Mozart and his work. 

Salzburg Cathedral in Mozartplatz (Mozart Square)

More sites in Mozart Square.  Boroque Neptune Fountain, and the Sphaera sculpture from Balkenhol

Took the trolly to the top of Festug Hohensalzburg

Great view of the city and the Salzach River

Artist in the square

Below the castle we went through St. Peter's Cemetery and Catacombs.  This was were the Von Trapp family hid in the movie, and Mozart's sister is also buried here.

Salzach River boat tour. 

Went to Augustiner Abbey and Mullner Brau Brewery.  Probably one of the coolest stops on our trip.

Walking back to the hotel at dusk over the Salzach River.

On my day I wanted to do some of the SOM tour stops, but minus the tour.  We made our way outside of town to Hellbrunn Palace.  This stop was a huge surprise for us.  We were just expecting another "castle palace" tour, but this turned out to be one of the highlights of Salzburg.  The palace is specifically known for it's "trick fountains" hidden in the architecture and landscape of the palace grounds. We had the best time laughing with complete strangers over our entertainment of getting soaking wet!

Here is a short video of the trick fountains...

Palace tour...love this shot of Husband, he looks so entertained.

And the final stop at the palace..."You are sixteen, going on seventeen...."(I don't remember any of the other words, so I just sang that line over and over again, haha)

Final meal in Salzburg at Cafe Mozart.  I recently tried to recreate the dish that I had there: penne pesto pasta with sun dried tomatoes and bacon. Yum.

That evening we embarked upon the last and final stop of our vacation, Vienna.