Salzburg, Austria

We checked out of the hotel in Vienna at 7:15am. We grabbed a free croissant from the front desk (why didn't we see those before?!) and took the metro to Westbanhof station for the train to Salzburg. If we were doing this trip again, I would look into the Westbahn train service which is much cheaper than the OBB service and both use the same tracks and take the same amount of time. We got an espresso and breakfast in the train station and our train was off to Salzburg at 8:30am!

We arrived in Salzburg just before 11am which was too early to check in to the Sheraton. The train station in Salzburg was full of police due to the heightened border checks in the migrant crisis. It was a 15 minute walk to the Sheraton, who kindly secured our bags so we could go explore. We bought a Salzburg card from the front desk for 36 euro (48hr option). Our first stop was a walking tour at 12:15 which met in Mozartplatz. We didn't know the name of the guide but he was wonderful and the tour lasted 1 hour, going through Old Town and past many churches and sights. We had lunch at Zwettler's Wirsthaus for a delicious platter of meat, rice and vegetables. I had seen it offered at several places with outdoor seating so I'm not sure if it's a Salzburg thing.

We walked around a bit in Old Town, Peter and Paul's Cathedral, Cemetery, and up the cable car to HohenSalzburg Fortress. We took a guided tour with an audio guide which was just OK but had nice views of the city. We took the footpath back to the city and hotel. We walked through Mirabell Gardens where much of the Sound of Music was filmed. We checked into the hotel and found out we were upgraded to a Junior Suite...our room was HUGE!

We walked to the Green and Clean laundry since we had no luck the previous day. It worked well and was a little cheaper than Vienna...8 euro for both wash & dry, 48min cycle total. It was a little rainy on the way back but we had put all the clean clothes in our rolling suitcase so they stayed dry. After putting away all of our clean laundry, we had dinner at Barenwirt which was delicious. I got pumpkin cordon bleu (pumpkin stuffed with an herb cheese and ham then deep fried and served with balsamic reduction and cranberry sauce), and Myron got Styrian beef. We both got delicious Augustiner beer. Very good food, prices and service!Read more