Sweet days in Salzburg
Yay, Easter is coming and luckily the Easter Bunny brings some free days along! As my mum got officially retired last year (inofficial is another story :)) and so she decided to invite the family to a city trip - thanks Mum!
After some reasearch we decided Salzburg over the Easter days is our destination and with two cars we made our way from Switzerland to Zurich. It was a long journey, started at 6.15 am and obviously we were not the only one on the road.
But we made it and arrived shortly after 1 pm in our hotel where we checked in and decided to go into town for a first bite.
As we didn't figure out how to get a ticket for the bus we got very friendly help from a bus driver. He explained everything what we should do, where to go to eat, what he recommend and was a great help for our first steps in town.
Starving already, we found a table at the "Innergebirg" where we had our first Weissbier and lunch. It was yummi and the waiter super friendly and fun as well.
After having a stroll in the town, we went to the information centre as we wanted to get the Salzburg Card. I can recommend it to everyone if you are up to 2-3 touristy things in Salzburg as you get free admission on many places, no queue-ing and free public transport. I know cities where such a citycard is more a rip-off than value for money (e.g. Rome), but here I have to say it's definitively worth the money.
By having the card we used it for:
- the bus from and to the hotel (around 3 busstation away from the city centre)
- a visit at the house where Mozart was born
- using the "Mönchsbergaufzug" and walked from there to the fortress Hohensalzburg where we could skip the queue and entered it directly. We didn't go inside the rooms etc. as we would have to queue there and the queue was massive already. Still worth it as you have a beautiful view over the city!
- enjoying a 40min boatride along the river
- visiting the Stiegl Brauwelt close to our hotel. I have seen some breweries before but this one is very well made. The museum is also worth to go through.
- a visit at the zoo before heading home.
There would be even more to do with the card but for the time we had I would say we have made the best out of it :)
Beside the things we did in Salzburg, we also did a trip to the salt mine in Bechtesgarden, Germany. It was a very cool and interesting tour with some action in between too :). To complete the day around "salt" we were heading then to Bad Reichenhall to visit the old saltworks which was interesting too. Bad Reichenhall seems to be a lovely place, we also had a delicious lunch at the restaurant Saline before heading back to Salzburg for the boatride.
I really like Salzburg, it seems to be like the little sister of Vienna, where the buildings are beautiful as well, everything nice and clean but surrounded by mountains which gives you the impression to be still on the countryside. We enjoyed it!
The things we have done without using the Salzburg Card was more or less to eat and drink - here my recommendations:
Before moving to food and drinks, it's worth to stroll around the castle Mirabell - beautiful flower work and worth a visit!
- Innergebirg - I mentioned it before - delicious Tartes (Flammkuchen) and beer!
- Salzach- Insel - Bar - good place for a cocktail
- Afro Cafe - we've been there twice for some drinks, I love the decoration and vibes there. didn't eat there tough but the food on the card looked promising too.
- Die Weisse - a Brewery House, we got it recommended by a Japanese which seems to be a hotspot for Asian people. :) The food was good, I loved the salad which was served with Backhendl.
- ICEZEIT - delicious organic icecream!
- Nagano - sometimes you need a break from the typical Austrian food. Nagano is the perfect place for the change if you're into Asian food.
- Bärenwirt - they state having the best Backhendl in entire Austria. It was delicious! Another note: it is not so easy to find a restaurant for 6 pax on a sunday as many restaurants are closed.
- And obviously you can't leave Salzburg without having tasted the famous Mozartkugel :)
It was a wonderful family trip and I enjoyed every second of it! Thank you all who made it so enjoyable. Back to work now, 4 days more to go until I am on vacation again, heading East....
