Salzburg, Austria

Goodbye Nuremberg...Hello Salzburg!

We woke up early today so we can catch our 7:10 am train from Nuremberg to Munich and then from Munich to Salzburg.  We bought the Bayern Ticket (29 euros can be used for up to 5 people very good deal if you are in a group of 5!) which covered regional trains from Nuremberg to Salzburg. We arrived Munich at 8:54 am and as usual bought our favorite sandwiches at the train station. From Munich, we boarded the 9:42 am train to Salzburg and it was a good thing that we board the train early.  The train quickly filled with people and there were people who had to stand!! The train ride was 2 hours and as we were approaching Salzburg, we saw Salzburg's old town and the castle....this is Salzburg, the city where Sound of Music was filmed!!

Salzburg Hbf was renovating and there wasn't clearly marked signs to guide us the way to the old town.  We walked around the outside of the train station for few minutes until we figured out which direction to headed to. Good thing that I printed a map from google of where our hotel located so we were able to figure out which direction is the old town. The walk to our hotel which located next to the famous Mirabell Garden was about 10-15 min walk from the train station. After we checked in, we walked directly to the Mirabell Garden. The view of the Hohensalzburg Fortress from the garden was amazing, it looked like a background from a movie!

From Mirabell Garden, we walked toward the castle direction and shortly we crossed the river to the Old Town of Salzburg! The Old Town was much smaller than I thought but it has it own charm. We passed through the center of the old town and saw two guy playing chess, very relaxing lifestyle here.

We went straight to Hohensalzburg Fortress before the tours arrive; we got the castle + funicular ticket for 11 euros per person. The line for the funicular wasn't bad, we got up to the castle at no time! The view of Salzburg was the best from Hohensalzburg Fortress. The river split the old town from the new town of Salzburg and the city was surrounded by mountains.

Hohensalzburg Fortress consisted of many towers and buildings like a little village on its own. We went into a building where the prisoners were and where the king lived.  Not as extravagant as other palaces but simple and unique.  We also climbed the tallest tower in the fortress and the view was well worth the walk!

Some displays inside the fortress.

There wasn't much inside the fortress so we went back out and took more photos.  We climbed up this tower and had a beautiful view of its surrounding houses and mountains.

We spend around an hour and a half in the fortress and took the funicular down. The ride down was steep but very safe since we were inside a cabin.

Once we got down from the fortress, we did some souvenir shopping...the famous Mozart chocolate (forgot the official name of it).  Most of the stores in the town were selling chocolates! We found the cheapest was right down from the fortress from souvenir carts. I bought one for 50 cents euro to try it out and it was pretty good so I got 3 boxes to bring back home!

Then, we saw a street filled with old style signs, this must be the famous Getreidegasse! This street was very crowded with tourists but it is a must to take some photos of the old style signs!

We passed by a cafe/coffee shop and the view was truly amazing so I had to capture the moment!

Afterwards, we walked back to the river bank to take pictures of the old town and the fortress. There were two pedestrian bridges to reach the old town, we walked to both to take pictures, I preferred the one that was further to the fortress! There were many shops on the river bank too but mostly are home-made crafts which were pricey.

On the way to the other bridge, we came across this 4 performers.

More photos of the old town:

We went back to our hotel to take a break and had dinner in the hotel. We waited sunset and went back to the old town again for some night photos! There were many students along the river bank having "parties" so be careful and avoid them as possible! The night view of Salzburg old town was very nice, great opportunity for some nice night photographs!

Seeing Salzburg in half a day was fine with us, would be better if have a whole day but that was the sacrifice we made in order to go to Hallstatt tomorrow! Also I heard Sunday many shops will be closed in Salzburg so we took a day trip out of town.