Salzburg & Vienna, Austria

It was difficult to leave Switzerland. The places where we stayed could have provided the kind of relaxation that, at this point in our journey, we certainly needed. However, we pressed on, if not for the sake of seeing new places but also to get away from the ridiculously high cost of everything there. Our direction was east to Austria, and our first stop was Salzburg. Within walking distance to the German border and an hour’s train ride to the Bavarian Alps, Salzburg and the surrounding areas were the settings for the timeless movie “The Sound of Music” and the Clint Eastwood classic “Where Eagles Dare.” We arrived at the tail end of Oktoberfest, and even there we could see people dressed up for the festival hopping on a train toward, or off from Munich.


We arrived late in the evening and had a bit of a difficult time reaching out hotel. After a few turns on a bus and a few miles walking through neighborhoods, we finally found it. We actually had to stay in two different hotels during our time in Salzburg due to price fluctuations. The first was nothing much to speak of, but the second was in a building constructed in the fifteenth century and was very charming. It was nice to be in a more homely setting for a change. Our first full day in Austria was actually spent in Germany, in a small town called Berchtesgaden. Located in the Bavarian Alps, the town was the favorite holiday residence of the Nazi party and home to Hitler for some time. Our purpose for the visit was to ascend to the Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s fiftieth birthday present from the party. Perched at 6017 feet, it is said that Hitler didn’t spend much time there because of his fear of heights. After the war, the building was set to be destroyed until the local mayor at the time successfully lobbied to keep it intact. The only way to get to the top is by a tourist bus as the roads have been closed to all other transportation. Once we arrived at the base, a long tunnel takes visitors to an elevator that goes four hundred feet up to the site. The building itself has been leased out and is now used as a mountain top restaurant. It’s kind of a shame; they could have made it into a museum or something other than a cafeteria. Although it’s not much to look at, the surrounding park area is really nice. We were able to do a bit of hiking and climbing around the rocks, and the view of the Alps was fantastic. It was a good thing the weather was nice, otherwise the whole experience would have been for naught. When we were finished, the bus took us back to a tourist center that includes the WW2 history museum Dokumentation. The museum focuses on all aspects of the war, both in Germany and abroad. The museum sits on top of an actual bunker, which is a part of the museum. The bunker is a dank labyrinth of tunnels and rooms that seem as depressing now as they surely were during the war. We went into the museum just over an hour before closing, so unfortunately we didn’t see everything on display, though we still felt it worth the time spent. The next day we headed once again outside of Salzburg, but we were still in Austria (barely). We took a train to Werfen, a small town in the Alps that was a setting for “The Sound of Music.” Remember the “Do, Re, Mi” song that was sung in a field? That was in Werfen. One of the draws to the city is the Hohenwerfen fortress. You can see the fortress from almost all points of the area. We decided to do a little hiking to find the spot where the “Do, Re, Mi” scene was performed, and we’ll just go ahead and say the field we saw was it. It’s hard to tell just by looking since there aren’t any signs indicating the exact location, but our Google images investigation yielded a picture of the scene that looks almost exactly like where we were. Our intentions for going to Werfen were to be outdoors and enjoy the Alps for the last time, and in that we were successful. On our last day in Salzburg, we decided to take most of the day to relax and sleep in. It was a good thing as well since it was a rainy day. Later in the afternoon we decided to walk around the historic center. We found Mozart’s childhood house, which is now surrounded by souvenir and fast food shops . We found a few impressive cathedrals, but at this point we’ve seen enough of them. We climbed up to one of the fortress walls to get a panoramic view of the city, which is spotted with domes and spires throughout. We watched one of the street bands perform various Mozart pieces on an accordion and a harp-like instrument. Overall, Salzburg wasn’t the most exciting place. It has a very nice historic center, but the downtown area is a dump. Also, the drivers in the city are jerks. I can’t tell you how many times we were almost hit by cars while in the crosswalk with the right-of-way; bus drivers are the worst offenders.


We had much better luck in Vienna. We stayed in a hostel that was really close to the train station, which was nice for a change. Our room was small but private, and everything we needed was just a few blocks away. We decided to take a self-guided walking tour on our first day. The first stop was the symbol of the city; the Stephansdom. No part of the original church is still intact, and the oldest portion dates back to the thirteenth century. There are a lot of different architectural styles mixed in the building, which are very apparent when walking around the exterior. We decided to take an elevator to the top of one of the towers. Unfortunately, we picked the wrong tower to get the best views of the city, but we did get to see cool parts of the top of the church. It was just our luck that right across from the church was a Manner store. Manner is the original Viennese Neapolitan wafer treat and is very delicious. Not far from there was another house where Mozart lived during the later part of his life. The house, like his childhood house in Salzburg, is now a museum. We continued into the city toward the museum district and passed by one of the many ostentatious opera houses along the main streets. Outside are guys wearing Mozart themed bathrobes and wigs peddling last minute discounted opera and symphony tickets to tourists. We actually were planning on going to a symphony while in Vienna, but after seeing how they are all geared toward tourists and are slightly more expensive than we were hoping for, we declined. However, we were still hounded by the faux-zarts everywhere we went. Vienna certainly has a flair for dramatic structures. The Rathaus and the library in particular are very striking. Their statues are incredibly detailed, and in some cases quite bizarre. There were several statues in front of the Parliament building depicting naked men punching horses in the face. Who knows what that means? We continued on to an outdoor market to find lunch. The market stretches for about four blocks and is mostly filled with kebab shops. There are fresh produce stands and actual restaurants as well, but every other stall housed a döner/falafel/kebab stand. It was not exactly the traditional Viennese food we were looking for, but we were satisfied. As we made our way toward the metro station, we passed by a park which had manhole covers from all over the European Union on display lining the path. We never considered manhole covers as art before. After a full day of walking, we decided to call it a night and make dinner at the hostel. The next morning we were out early to finish up our sightseeing in town. Our first stop was at a local coffee shop to enjoy a traditional Viennese coffee and a Manner. The coffee was about as good as I’ve had back home. Just outside of the coffee shop were St. Micheal’s Square and the Roman ruins. The ruins contain an old Roman road and the basement of a theater that was built in the seventeenth century. It was a pretty neat find that we just happened to stumble upon on our way to get coffee. Across the way were more interesting statues of large naked men slaying various types of mythical creatures. We decided to visit one of the several museums Vienna has to offer and chose the Papyrus Museum at the Nationalbibliothek (the library), mostly because it had really cheap admission. A small section of the library houses a rare collection of papyrus scrolls and artifacts from around the world that are thousands of years old. The artifacts were from various areas and times; ancient Egyptian, Jewish, Greek, Muslim, and Christian writings. One of the more interesting displays was of the pieces of original text from Homer’s Odyssey. There was a whole row dedicated to ancient prescriptions and medical advice, one of which was a recipe for toothpaste. Also on display was a small statue of Ishtar, the mother of magic in Persia, and was the oldest object in the collection dating back to 3000 BC. It was certainly the oldest thing we’ve ever seen as well. After the museum, we headed about a half hour outside of the city to the Zentralfriedhof, the central cemetery. The cemetery was incredibly large and required a map to navigate. Not far from the front gate was the “graves of honor” section, the final resting places of composers Beethoven, Brahms, Strauss and Schubert. There is a memorial to Mozart between Beethoven and Schubert because his body was buried in a mass grave elsewhere. Visiting these famous composers’ graves was the only reason for our trip to the cemetery, so we didn’t stay long to wander around. We decided to call it a day and head back to start planning for our next destination.

Vienna is a very pleasant city that was easy to navigate and had a lot of really interesting sights. Salzburg was kind of the opposite of Vienna, and we’re glad that most of our time spent there was actually outside of the city. Austria probably won’t be a country that we’ll intentionally* visit again, but we’re satisfied with our time spent.

Coming up: Krakow, Poland and Budapest, Hungary

*At the point of this post, we will have returned to Vienna two more times, once coming back from Krakow to stay the night and again coming from Budapest for six hours on our way to Italy. At least we knew the area well…


Salzburg:

Vienna: