Salzburg, Austria

April 11, 2015

We arrived in Salzburg on April 10, 2015 around 6:00pm, and we toured the city for a short visit on foot immediately. The city is absolutely beautiful, and there is so much to see and do! Like Munich, Salzburg has quite a lot of people, conversely, it is extremely calm and quiet and the people are so pleasant! Pretty much everyone speaks German, but the locals can all speak English quite well. I have enjoyed my stay here so much that I would most definitely return to further explore in the future. To be quite honest, I truly fell in love with the culture and people (should I ever consider re-locating, Austria would definitely be on the list of options). The next 8 days will be spent in Austria in various cities, so I guess it's a good thing that I'm enjoying my stay :) 

Austria tends to be a city where the dead are highly respected and cherished. There are beautiful monuments throughout Salzburg that are dedicated to those who have passed. Oddly enough cemeteries are found everywhere. You can have a bunch of restaurants, activities and BAM... cemetery. They are absolutely stunning landscapes and the architecture and decor which goes into the tombstones and its surroundings is quite special and exceptionally beautiful. Most of the cemeteries date back to the medieval era.  

It's not only the architecture and decor which are fascinating, but it's surroundings and atmosphere. When you enter the cemetery a deep mist quickly hits you and it is extremely cold as if someone was blaring the AC (personally this gave me the ebby-gebbies and made goosebumps run up my spine). We entered at dusk, which is exactly when the church bells ring, their sound is beautiful and echoes through the cemetery. The atmosphere, combined with the architecture and music/bells is like something straight out of the movies.

In this cemetery we came across the famous Mozart tomb. The detail and decor is spectacular and the history lesson (although it took me forever to translate from German to English) was very interesting.

At the back of the St. Sebastian cemetery is the magnificent Wolf Dietrich Mausoleum which has now been gated and is prohibited to visitors. When you stand at the gate you can see the frosted floor and the cold air which seeps out is stunning and truly evokes an odd sentiment.

This cemetery (and the church attached) was seen in the film the Sound of Music, standing there I pictured the Von Trappe family hiding from the Nazis (which was very cool).

These beautiful flowers can be seen throughout the city in white and pink. These petals cover the grounds which lay beneath them, and smell amazing.

In Austria, everyone appears to be madly in love and happy, everywhere you look you see couples holding each other, kissing, and deeply entranced in each others eyes. I am a tad shy as a person so for me this was a tad odd but beautiful to see.

Once again, Salzburg is a city with beautiful vehicles just like Munich. Everywhere you look you see Audi, BMW and Mercedes and so many fancy sport cars!

These guys saw me taking pictures and decided to show off... the sound was pretty awesome!

The city has some pretty stunning architecture, the hotels are unique and luxurious with a descent price. The small shops offer some pretty amazing souvenir/gift ideas also at a reasonable price. There are many restaurants throughout the city which offer some pretty amazing food, but there are some real gems to be found (which we mostly discovered by getting lost).  One random, non-relavant timbit of info... Dogs are allowed everywhere, they enter restaurants, stores, hotels and even ride public transportation. We also saw this in Switzerland (even high up in the alpes) and also in Germany. The only place animals may not enter are pharmacies and hospitals. I thought this was pretty amazing, I only wish my pups were with me as I know they would have been in paradise!

Salzburg and pretty much every other Austrian city we drove to was exceptionally clean, solar panels are used anywhere possible, and public transportation is electronic and runs on wires like we have in Toronto. Recycling is very big here and you see many big centers where people bring their recyclables.

There are many beautiful monuments found within Salzburg with intriguing stories/legends behind them. The legends are particular in the sense that in Austrian history they often speak of God (very catholic) and dragons. You see many fictional animals such as mermaids, unicorns, dragons and then you see monuments of God, the virgin Mary, the devil, archangels etc. The monuments are very intriguing, and captivate your attention very quickly.

ST. SEBASTIAN CHURCH

As previously stated, Austria is extremely religious and their dedication is truly seen in the architectures, decor and maintenance of their churches. Every day locals enter the church and pay respects to their lord. On Sundays in Austria (and pretty much everywhere in Europe) everything is closed and everyone goes to church and spends time with their family! At first I found this a bit annoying (since I am touring I would like to visit and eat but nothing is open), but I think the concept is a great idea and is probably one of the reasons we still see such big families and great traditions.

We then decided to visit Fortress Hohensalzburg found on the peak of a mountain in Salzburg! The castle was much nicer than the one we visited in Germany, we were free to explore and pictures were not prohibited (yay)!

The interior was quite classy and had so much to offer. Much of the castle floor is a museum displaying antiques from past wars, items from the city years ago and belongings of the king.  

Inside the Fortress there are various doors and archways which lead to some intriguing and odd attractions. There is an antique marionette showcase, a bar/restaurant, some castle rooms which have been salvaged, an extravagant gift shop with very unique and interesting souvenirs, and absolutely beautiful ariel views of the city. 

To get to the Fortress itself there is quite an inclined walk up a hill, you can feel the change in altitude on your lungs as you climb and you will most definitely feel the walk in your bum when you wake up the next day!   





Once we finished our visit at the Fortress we visited a few more churches, museums and the Katacomb. The churches were all fairly similar in size and beauty, but definitely worth the visit. The museums for us was nice to see but we did not acquire much history seeming everything was written in German. The Katacomb (ancient ruins) was interesting, but it is honestly just a tunnel maybe 3 levels above ground, nothing is found on the inside. However, despite it not having much to offer, once again there was beautiful views of the city.   

Unfortunately, a few of the things we were excited to do were closed until May when the tourist season begins. Not being able to visit the ice caves was probably our first disappointment on this trip, but based on our research and readings online we had a feeling it would be the case so the disappointment wasn't devastating haha. I suppose this just means I will have to return to Austria again! 








 
Since the ice caves were a no go, we decided that tomorrow we would prefer to move on from the city and head to Hallstatt, Austria. We made our way back to our hotel, which was a difficult drive due to the rain poor we got, but right before the storm hit I managed to get this beautiful photo. 

Our hotel was far up in the mountains and before the rain hit we managed to spot these little guys just chilling out (yes, I was at a safe distance, I just have an awesome zoom :) 

Once at the hotel, we decided to go out for dinner to a wonderful little restaurant, during our time there it turned into a bar so we decided to stay and enjoy a few drinks. While we drank it turned into a dance floor. A bachelor party of Austrians convinced us to stay and dance and it was all fun from this point on. I truly love the people here, and I had an absolute blast. I think that tomorrow will be a late start!  

I hope today's entry isn't too lengthy and that you are enjoying reading along. I truly am grateful for all those of you back home following and sharing this experience. I can't wait to see you all again, and thanks for being superstars! I've noticed in the stats of my blog that there are a few followers from around the world whom I don't know, I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to read and for following along even if I have never personally met you :)  

- San