Salzburg

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Lindsay and I took our time making our way back to Austria from Northern Italy. We stopped off at a scenic lake for a sausage lunch (of course!) and got off the highway a few times to take the smaller roads.

We arrived in Salzburg after about 4 hours of driving and checked into our hostel, the Institute St. Sebastian, which is a women’s religious student dorm during the school year, but rents out some of the rooms during the summer. They had lost our reservation because another person with the exact same name had checked into the hotel the night before using our reservation information. So, now we’re here for two nights instead of three (they didn’t have a room for the third night), but luckily we were able to add another night to our stay in Innsbruck. The hostel is very clean and functional and we get woken up by a loud chorus of church bells at 7:30 in the morning, so there’s no need for an alarm clock.

Salzburg is one of my favorite cities we’ve been to this year. It is on the bluish Salzach River with a fortress overlooking the town, one really large cathedral and a bunch of churches, and mountains off in the distance. Other than the beautiful setting, Salzburg’s claims to fame are that it is the birthplace of Mozart and that The Sound of Music was filmed at several sites in the area.

On our first morning in Salzburg, Lindsay and I used a divide and conquer strategy to plan the day. She checked out the Cathedral and Mirabell Gardens and I visited the Hohensalzburg Fortress (how gender typical of us).

The fortress in Salzburg was done fairly well. They had everything they’re supposed to have like dark dungeons, suits of armor, cannons, torture chambers, and plenty of large gift shops selling castle paraphernalia. A good side-perk of the castle was the view of Salzburg and surroundings from the top of the tower. Lindsay tells me the Cathedral and gardens were nice as well, but I’m sure they were not nearly as cool as the castle.

In the afternoon, we met back up and took a road trip to visit some nearby lakes and the UNESCO World Heritage town Hallstatt. This was one of my favorite parts of our trip so far. The drive around Salzburg was perfectly scenic with little towns, green rolling hills, mountains in the distance, and bright blue lakes. We made a stop in Hallstatt, a lakeside town with traditional houses with flowers on every window sill and a few small churches. The town was pretty touristy, but still had a good time.

- Jason

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