AUSTRIA... 2nd Stop: Salzburg

Our first recommendation for anyone planning a trip to Salzburg is - get the Salzburg Card. This card gives free travel on all buses and trams and free entry into most of the museums. We worked out that the €30 investment gave us €60+ worth of entertainment. Friends of ours added up their couple of days and got about €80 worth.

I know that many people come to Salzburg for Mozart and The Sound of Music but seeing as we had done Mozart already in Vienna and Steve wasn't too interested in following the tour buses around we focused on everything else. Although it is hard to ignore The Sound of Music attraction.

Once we checked into our hotel and realised that our room was actually across the street (which was fine except when we had to go across the road for a cup of tea/coffee and breakfast) it was off to explore. On the way over to Altstadt (old town) we stopped off for the daily Hotdog. 10/10 for this stand. The guy was very cheery and had some good old rock and roll playing. He earnt repeat custom during our stay.

During our walk we saw a few interesting sights:

- Most of the monuments have been covered in a perspex or glass box. We assume this is to protect them from snow and ice but does look a little strange and make photos rather difficult.

- A person playing the Didgeridoo. Certainly not what we expected, but he was quite good and had a good crowd around him.

- A couple of old guys playing chess in the square. The board was painted on the ground and the pieces about 1m high. We did watch for a while but as Claire doesn't know how to play, she got bored fairly quickly.

When Claire saw this Gingerbread House, she realised she has a lot more practice to do.

We tried 3 different pretzels and this pizza one was the winner

We also went into The Dom Cathedral which had very amazing paintings on the ceiling and one of the nicest Christmas trees we saw. The decorations were thin biscuits and apples! That night we caught up with friends of ours that were on a driving trip to Germany. Trying to figure out the menu with a computerised language translater was great fun but not always useful. We ended up picking 2 dishes we recognised and 2 that we didn't. Fantastic food all round. As Sarah and Kyle had been in Salzburg for a few days we took all their recommendations on the places to see and those to miss. Excellent tour guides they would make.

On Day 2 and armed with our freshly purchased Salzburg Cards we head off to Untersberg. This mountain is 1852m high and you get to the top in a cable car. If you are a little sensitive with heights then definitely stay in the centre of the car and shut your eyes. A few interesting facts about the cable car: travels a total of 2866m, average incline of 52%, maximum incline of 79%. Awesome views in all directions. At the top there was a path which we attempted but we learnt on the first downhill that Claire's city boots were definitely not made for snow! Steve continued on to the next rise while Claire dusted herself off 2 more times and realised the zip had broken on her coat in process :(

Cable car crossing about halfway up. Still can't see final station and there is a sneaky unexpected ravine just ahead

The Austrian Alps from the top
It was surprisingly warm at the top, as shown with Claire having taken her scarf off.
This was were we tried to reach, and this is the point Steve decided his boots weren't up to the task either
This was Claire, still waiting where she had last fallen
For the afternoon, we checked out the real touristy things, a trip to Mozart's House where we saw some of the compositions of Mozart and his father and learnt a bit about his family. Afterwards we walked through the Mirabell Gardens which were part of the Sound of Music. Sadly the gates were closed on the Doh Re Mi steps.
Being frozen, we headed indoors to the Residenz State Rooms and art gallery. The rooms are ornate but the real highlight was the glockenspiel balustrade in the Ballroom. Yes, Claire did give it a few taps to make sure it was in tune, but you'd have to be pretty fit to play it on your own.
We thought that it would be too busy to try for a night shot on new years eve so got this on the way back to the hotel.
New Year's Eve was a busy one for us. We started early and went to the Hohensalzburg Fortress by the Funicular railway and then walked around the top to the Nunnberg and then back into town. The Salzburg Museum was interesting as was the Panorama Museum attached to it. The Panorama Museum had a 26m painting of Salzburg and its surrounds as it was in 1829. For lunch we went to the local Steigl Brewery and had one of the most comprehensive brewery tours we had done so far. Informative, and best of all they let you sample up to 6 of their varieties (in a mini Stein), and give you a glass as a gift. Thanks Salzburg card. Beer mixed with lemonade is a little strange.
Views from the Fortress
After a relaxing morning, the guide book suggested one more lookout with great views. So up the lift in the cliff we went and noticed some strangely dressed men at the top. After wandering around and taking a few scenic pics, we realised that they actually had odd looking guns as well! It appears we had walked in on a traditional New Year's Eve gun shoot-out. There were 2 'groups' on our hill and more groups on the other 2 hills that surround Salzburg. The action lasted 30min and was extrememly loud. When we retreated back to the street level we could see the sparks coming over the cliff. This signalled the start of all local fireworks that continued for the next 8hrs until just after midnight.

It was so peaceful to start with

Then we noticed these...
Then they started doing this
More then one person was walking around like this. Not sure how Steve managed to take the photos

We had planned on heading into town to watch the fireworks with the masses, but on the way over the local fireworks got the better of us. One went off right next to our heads and we were both a little jumpy after that. So we watched them on TV and did a waltz to the Blue Danube in the hotel instead.

The most exciting part of our trip happened on New Years Day. Not that we weren't excited about going to Zurich, but we woke up to snow!! Enough said.

Snowball time...

The countryside on the way to Zurich