We made it to Salzburg! The train trip from Milano to the home of Mozart took over 10 hours, with one transfer in Worgl. The time passed quickly as we met up with a family from Australia. You can be sure we had lots to talk about. It was my first time seeing the Alps, so I was quite interested to look out the window. On the train into Salzburg, we started to see some ski hills and people getting on with their skies. I guess it’s easy to commute to the ski hills when you live in Austria. They should have those facilities in Canada.

At any rate, after 393kms, we arrived at the main train station, about 1km walking distance from our hotel. It was another nice surprise. An newly renovated boutique hotel, located within less than 10 minutes walk to Salzburg’s old town. After checking in and getting some advice of nearby restaurants, we walked over the Augustiner Brau Muln, a historic beer house established in a former monastery. We picked up some dinner (meat, lots of meat!) from one of the food stalls, then grabbed a mug to be filled with beer at the counter. Unfortunately, the only gluten free beverage was a soft drink, so that was my choice. We sat down in one of the many large halls to eat our dinner. We could definitely see the evidence of it being a religious building in the past. The beer hall was located near some of the university buildings. What a great place that would be to party as a student!

The next day, we woke up to the last warm and sunny day we would have for a while. We walked over to see Mirabell Palace, which now serves the city for administrative buildings. The gardens are beautiful and some of the halls are used for weddings and other big events. The details inside are truly elegant.

magnolias in bloom, I wondered how they did after it snowed a few days later

We wandered a little further on the north bank of the river to find Mozart’s Residence. It houses a lovely café and we tried a coffee and shared a pastry (a GF one was available for me). We continued our walk across the bridge to Alstadt (the Unesco World Heritage Site) intending to make our way up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. It is a medieval fortress that sits way up on a hill. Built in the 11th century, it is the largest such structure in Europe. We decided to pass on the funicular and walk up the steep road (how bad can it be? Little children are walking up the hill.). There was plenty to see once within the castle walls with a great number of explanations about how the fortress was expanded over centuries. We did not visit the private quarter of the King, but we spent plenty of time exploring the rest before the long walk down to the Baroque era area. That was probably the last time I was hot in Austria as the weather turned cold and wet afterwards.

We wandered around Alstadt until we found the perfect place for lunch. I had a huge plate of sausages, potatoes and sauerkraut. Just what I was craving. And luckily, we arrived before they closed for the afternoon. Long, late lunches seemed to becoming our habit.

The next morning we woke up to a cold day. It had snowed overnight in the mountains. We made our way to the train station for our trip to Vienna.