Blogs from Austria, Europe - page 258

Vienne... read more

It’s Christmas Eve in Salzburg, Austria. It feels different, no doubt. We went back to the Christmas Market in old town and did some shopping for our tiny Christmas morning tomorrow. The narrow streets were filled with holiday shoppers from all over the world. After lunch we visited the Festung Hohensalzburg which is the fortress on the hill above Salzburg. It is basically a small village inside a gigantic wall with guard towers, cannons and even a torture tower. Amazing that people had to live that way 400 years ago. Unfortunately it was too foggy (what's with all the damn fog?) to see any of the town below. Around 4:00pm we drove to Oberndorf to see and hear the performance of Stille Nacht (Silent Night) at the St. Nikolaus church. Silent Night was written in that ... read more

I rented a car today. The rental company was 5 miles from the hotel. That meant I had to find my way back. Turned the key, car jumped 5 feet. STICK SHIFT! I haven’t driven a stick in 10 years. None of the signs made any sense, but Jerry and I made it back without incident. After a scrumptious breakfast at our hotel (King’s Center, highly recommended) we wandered back down to the old part of town. There are hundreds of little streets (strasse’s) that are filled with shops of all kinds. One square had a farmers market, and all of the squares this time of year are serving sausages, sauerkraut and spiced wine. For lunch we made the mandatory trip to the Hofbrau Haus. What a fun place. Lots of people including locals in traditional ... read more

Well Austria is certainly a little chillier than Italy! We got very excited on the train with all the snow everywhere but by the time we arrived in Salzburg it was all gone :-( Never mind, Salzburg had a great Christmas atmosphere with markets and outdoor ice skating so we spent our time wandering around checking out all the decorations. The markets are also full of special Christmas punch and glüwein, a sort of hot mulled red wine, and there were people drinking throughout the markets. One of the big thing of course about being in Austria was the Wiener Schnitzels, Nick was in heaven, and initially planned to have one every day! The other thing was the beer halls. Following the map we found the street and the entrance, however the lack of noise made ... read more

After breakfast, the 3 of us headed toward Linzergasse on the other side of the Salzach River. This area is on the "new" side of town, but quite frankly, their "new" makes most of what is old in the U.S. look like it was built yesterday. The shops here are more practical for the people who "live" in Salzburg - but also have some of the more "high end" shopping for those seeking it. I found a store that sold Lithium batteries for my camera - I've been feeding regular AA batteries for the camera after every 30 pictures or so - that's about twice a day or more. Linzergasse was OK - but without the charm of the Getreidegasse across the river. We took a 4 hour "Bavarian Alps and Lakes" tour with Panorama Tours, ... read more