Austria - Salzburg

8th November 2014

Another day trip from Munich! Salzburg is a city at the western border of Austria. It is the birthplace of Mozart, so you would find quite some monuments or attractions that are related to Mozart.

We bought bus tickets to Salzburg because it was less than half the price of train tickets. Just 5€ per person. BUT, we missed the bus!!! -.- The central bus station was really far from the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), and we had some trouble finding it. Turns out, there is an S-bahn station called Hackerbrücke, which is right beside the bus station. Sigh.

So we ended up taking the 11.30am bus instead of the 9.30am bus. And wasted 10€. We went over to the Marienplatz to shop for shoes, since my sports shoes couldn't be worn in rainy weather.

I got these for 25€ (original price was 35€), which is pretty decent. I just needed to get a cheap pair to last me for a month!

We arrived at Salzburg at about 1pm. I was so exhausted that I slept throughout the entire bus journey. The Salzburg train station is about 20 minutes from the Old Town by foot. The city is not big, so there wasn't any need to take a bus. There is a Salzburg Card which allows free entry into most museums and includes free rides on public transport as well. We didn't get it though, since it was quite a short day for us and we didn't have time to visit so many museums. Most of the attractions closed at about 4pm or 5pm.

We had Subway for lunch, then headed to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. It was the most recommended destination. Along the way, we passed by quite some points of interest. It was a bit too cloudy for me to get nice photos though :(

Mirabell Gardens

The fortress was clearly visible from most parts of the town. 

The walk up to the fortress from the foot of the hill took about 20 minutes. It wasn't a very steep climb, although you could always take the cable railway up if you're lazy (11.30€ in total) :P The entrance fee was 8€ and it included a free ride down on the cable car.

The fortress, was quite literally a fortress. I found its structure to be quite complicated and I couldn't really find my way inside... But maybe it's just me. Hahaha.

I find these little houses really cute

Lc bluffed me that this is a famous 百年老树! And I believed him!!! -.-

The walk up was so worth it! The view was really amazing, and we could see the Alps! The weather was pretty kind to us, and the sun was out by the time we got up there.

Inside the fortress, there are displays regarding its history. The construction of the fortress began in 1077, almost a thousand years ago!

We left when the sun started to set, and by the time we reached the Old Town, it was dark again. I hate it that days are so short now!!

There was this cone that looked like a mini Louvre :D

We strolled around Getreidegasse, Salzburg's shopping street, and came across the Mozarts Geburtshaus (Mozart's Birthplace)! It was seriously very inconspicuous, and looked like any other building next to it. It was already closed by the time we got there, so no chance to take a look inside.

The street was bustling with life! I liked the ambience there. We had dinner at the 中国楼, as you can see in the picture above. It was a buffet for 10.90€ during weekends, and 9.90€ during weekdays. No drinks included. The selection of food was alright for the price, and surprisingly it tasted pretty good! Meat was very tender and well-cooked, and there were big prawns as well. I ate 3 plates of stuff :P I liked the 酸辣汤 too. Drank 3 bowls!!

I was super satisfied from the dinner, and we slowly (I was way too full) strolled back to the train station. Luckily our train wasn't affected by the strike. Lol. Oh yeah, we booked train tickets back to Munich because there weren't any bus timings after 4.30pm for some reason...

I think Salzburg would make a nice day trip or 2-day trip, but not any longer. We would probably have gone to Hallstatt if we had another day!