Salzburg

Next on my itinerary over Spring Break was the city of Salzburg. As i said before, i took the train from Vienna to Salzburg, which was not a bad trip. However, upon arriving in Salzburg, it was pretty late (around 7 or 8 if i remember correctly) and we were fairly hungry. So we went out in search of a bite to eat, but horribly failed. Then, when we tried to decipher the bus system, we failed again. So we ended up taking a cab to our hotel, which turned out to way out in the middle of nowhere near the airport. It wasn't a bad hotel at all, 3 stars and all that and the owners were REALLY nice. We had dinner at the chinese (yes, sadly chinese) resturant next door to the hotel and then went to bed. We watched some TV, but the majority of it was in German (the funniest part was seeing Troy dubbed in German...oh boy).

Next morning, we got up and checked out. We got a map and figured out the bus system, so we took a bus in after getting a Salzburg Card. This was an extremely good deal, as for 24 hours you get free access on all the buses and free admission to most of the sites. All for 21 euros! So the first site we went to was the Hohensalzburg, the major fortress on top of the hill next to the city. This is the best preserved castle in all Europe as it was never captured. Used by the Archbishop Princes of Salzburg to defend the area from the Germanic princes, the castle was impressive. There was a great deal of fabulous artwork and design, and several fun exhibits, like the Torture museum or the marianette museum. The highlight was the guided tour around the main rooms, but if you didn't know what you were looking for or just stumbled across it, you'd never really know. We only came upon it by chance. It was free though so well worth it. There is a SPECTACULAR view of the area from up on top and a few other fun things.

Aftewards, we went down into the old town and walked through St. Peter's Cemetary and the church. Very elegant and beautiful with baroque detailing. We then walked down the Getreidegasse which is this very narrow street with buildings of 5 stories surrounding it. It was a very cool street with lots of little stores and cafes. We finished up here and then had to go to the trainstation to make sure our train was running (long story, but very quickly, German train workers threatened to strike, so we almost didn't make it to Berlin) which it was. So we then went on to see the Cathedral in the old town, which was drop dead gorgeous. Everything was highly ornate and detailed, with several areas for prayer/communion and the central altar. My favorite feature was that part of the organ was placed at the front of the church along the 4 main columns, which must make an amazing accoustic sound.

Then we grabbed lunch, then proceeded to meander around for a little bit in search of Mozart's birthplace, which we saw but did not go into. Next was the Residenz, where the Archbishop of Salzburg lived, but sadly they were closed for some reason or another. Very sad, as I hear they are spectacular. Instead, we found Mozart's statue in a square and visited an internet cafe. We then crossed the river and went to see the Mirabell Gardens, which were starting to come into bloom, so it was fairly nice. After meandering through, we went in search of Mozart's home, which i confused for the concert hall (EVERYTHING in Salzburg was named for him, i swear). We did finally find the house, but it was a real disappointment. Virtually NOTHING was original. It was all replicas and reproductions, so while it was cool to see how things looked, it was defintely lacking in terms of impressivness.

At this point, we decided we were done seeing all the sights, we went around looking for any last minute gifts we wanted, then made our way back to the hotel, got our bags, came back into the old town to get dinner (I had a good German beer :-) ) then it was off to the trainstation to go to Berlin! We stopped in Munich for about 40 minutes, then got on the train to Berlin. It was a good trip, the couchlette was not that uncomfortable and the ride was quick and smooth. I got up around 7am, woke myself up, then upon arriving in Berlin made our way to the hostel in Berlin, despite the fact that the Berlin metro and buses were not functioning. Which leads me to Berlin and my amazing day of walking. Next time :-)