Salzburg and Berchtesgaden

Salzburg

We now caught the train to Salzburg, about 2 hours by train from Munich. Although we had left some luggage with Gordon, walking to the tram station, we realized we were still taking too much stuff.  And Shelly, who had opted for a duffel bag, was missing the rolling feature of the suitcases. Too late now, though, we had to work with what we had.

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We got to the Hauptbahnhof via the tram, not messing with the U-Bahn at all. Once we got our tickets, thanks to the DB people who helped us out, we had breakfast and got on the train.


It was a nice ride, and as we were pulling into Salzburg station, we saw our hotel, right next to the tracks! This concerned us at first, but it turned out to be a blessing! It was only about a 10 minute walk to our lobby. With our luggage situation, that was really fortunate.


After checking in, we went for a stroll. We had lunch at a very small cafe off the main drag, then entered the old section of town. Salzburg really feels crowded, and it is the most crowded around the old section. Lots of little souvenir shops all over the place. The more I see of those, the less I feel like buying anything! (They seem to have the opposite effect on Shelly!)


Eventually, we got into the Palace area which features a wide open area, and a huge cathedral. We wandered around here for a while, finding a restored water wheel at a small bakarie which was pretty cool. Overlooking everything is a fortress, sitting atop a hill. There is a funicular, a tiny inclined train that runs up to it, but we tried to hike up. Did I mention the heat? Boy, it was starting to get hot, and humid, so when we got up to the first gate and found an entrance gate which charged about 7.50 euros, we decided to pass for now. It looks like you can hike up to the top, so we'll try that later.


Even so, the views from where we got to were striking.

We walked back through town to our hotel via the Mirabell Gardens, which were featured in the "Sound of Music". Some of the sculptures are instantly recognizable.


Finally, back to the hotel. We decided to have dinner at the "Gastgarten" attached to the hotel. The menu was varied and not too expensive, and the beer, Stiegl, was excellent. Especially the dark wheatbeer.


Day 2 began with the breakfast at the hotel restaurant. The inside dining area was too stuffy, so we went into the Gast Garten, the same place we had dinner the night before.


It is a self serve breakfast which offers juice, coffee urns at the tables, eggs and meat, and a selection of muesli, yogurt, fruit and breads. Bread with lunchmeat and cheese is a popular breakfast here.  Really nice and convenient. Most of the food is very good. We wish we had this at Munich.


After breakfast, we were picked up at the hotel by the sightseeing group for the "Sound of Music" tour. We were brought to an area just besides the Mirabell Gardens, which is featured in the film. Shelly and I had already explored these the night before. The guide said to meet at the bus in about 10 minutes, and in the meantime, just look around the gardens because they were featured in the Movie. Well, so much for insightful commentary.


The guide was a pretty interesting fellow though, he mentioned that most Austrians and Germans were pretty unaware of the film, yet it has probably brought Salzburg millions of dollars through tourism.


We were soon on the bus heading out to the suburbs of Salzburg for the first stop. Along the way the guide pointed out the real Von Trapp house, it was mostly obscured by trees. We finally got to another place, on the grounds of which is now placed the gazebo from the movie. The film makers presented the gazebo as a gift to the town after the film. It suffered through a couple of moves before finally being placed in this garden.


On our way to the next stop, the guide mentioned we were pacing the house used for the front of the Von Trapp home 'over there'.  We craned our necks and maybe spotted it, but too late for a picture! Oh and that's the Abbey on the left with the 'red roof', but too many red roofs to tell.  On to the lake where the boating scene took place. The closest you can get to that is from across the lake. Well, you can see it alright, but its  a little distance. This was where the Gazebo was originally placed.

The Wedding Church!

It was now off across the country side to the Mondsee. The drive was really beautiful, I was getting more from that the the tour itself! We finally arrived and walked to the church where the wedding scene took place. This is really a stunning little church on the inside. It's in an interesting place, too, but we didn't have a lot of time to explore. I was able to grab a nice piece of cake with raspberry and cream topping from a bakery.


Then back on the bus and back to Salzburg.


I suppose if you don't have a lot of time, this tour would be better than nothing, But if you can spend a little time and investigate a few things, you could easily do this yourself.


It's starting to get hot in Salzburg. We strolled around some more, then found a laundramat to wash some clothes. We met a couple from Laguna Beach there and had a nice chat with them. Then back to the hotel and dinner.

The Eagle's Nest.

The next day's tour of the Eagle's Nest near Berchtesgaden was more interesting. We had a lady guide who drove us up in a small van. The drive was through some great mountain roads, some very narrow ones indeed.