Backpacking Central Europe: Salzburg, Austria

Travel Diary

Day 1-3:

We knew we could not leave England without having done a backpacking trip. So we planned a two week trip through Central Europe.

Our flight from London was at 7am, so we had to catch the last train for Birmingham the night before and set up camp at the airport for 6 hours. (This sucks - if you can avoid sleeping in an airport, do it)

Unfortunately we didn't see it being worth it to get a hotel for 5 hours.

We tried to sleep on the floor with about 20 other people. When we went through security in the morning we were very tired. We also fell asleep while waiting for our gate to open and almost missed our flight. Again, Avoid Sleeping At Airports!

We finally got going and we both fell asleep on the plane - only to wake up to flying over these beautiful mountains. Our trip seemed worth the sleep at the airport now.

 We arrived in Salzburg, Austria at 10am. We caught the city bus to city centre. We couldn't figure out how to buy tickets from the machine, so we asked the bus driver. We also showed him which stop we had to get off at.


We had about a 20 minute ride until our stop. We got off the bus, and what do we see across the street? A Vegan store! We are very lucky to always find a vegan store right near our hotel. (And you think it's hard finding food as a vegan)

We checked into our hotel Hotel Hofwirt. It was about 11am, but they let us do any early check in without an extra charge. We were happy about this, as we were both knackered. Our hotel was located in the city centre, which made getting around really easy.

 After a few hours of much needed sleep, we went exploring.

We went to the pedestrian road towards the river.

Our first glimpse of the mountains. SNOW! 

 It was quite cold and we were glad that we brought extra socks.

We were hungry so we headed to the Healthfood store and bought ourselves some snacks. This consisted of oranges, vegan yogurt, granola and dates. We went back to the hotel to eat as it was getting dark and cold. We planned out our day for tomorrow.

The following morning we were awoken by the hotel's fire alarm. We jumped out of bed, but were very groggy and confused as to what was going on. We headed down the stairs and outside. There was two fire trucks and a bunch of young Austrian fireman. (The morning was starting to look up) - turns out a hotel guest tried to leave the hotel through the emergency exit and set the alarm off.


We went and had breakfast - the vegan option wise was toast, fruit and tea. We aren't huge eaters in the morning so this was fine.

 We headed towards the river to get to the old town on the other side.

 We crossed the pedestrian bridge and it was full of love locks. We find that a lot of cities are doing this now. I find it wasteful, but it is also very lovely to see the ones already there. I wouldn't add a lock myself, and encourage others to do the same. We always look at he existing locks to find our names together.

 We crossed the bridge toward Getreidegasse (Street in old town). We were on our search for our magnet, which we found.

We continued to wander around the city and take in the sights. We love walking around and getting lost.

(You can take a lift to the top of this cliff and see a city view - We thought about doing that, but we had other ideas for how we wanted to have an amazing view of the city) 

 We continued on our way.

 You could see the mountains through the trees.

 Okay, the gig is up. We are headed towards Festung Hohensalzburg (Fortress)

 We just had to figure out how to get to it, as the funicular was closed for the month.

More mountains.

 We walked around to the other side as we read that there was stairs on the opposite side of the funicular.

 We found them! Now to trek to the top.

It was a lovely walk up the side of the hill.

 Starting to get the view that we wanted.

ALMOST THERE

 We were getting high enough to see snow on the ground.

Entry was €7 each for the basic entry,

The inside was neat. We were focused on getting to the view point!

We found the first viewing point. Wow. just wow.

We have mountains in Canada, which are very beautiful - but there was something about the mountains in Austria which were calling to us. 

We joined a tour through the castle, which was to lead us to another viewing point.

We went through a section that showed models of the castle as it was throughout the years when it was in power by different people. 

We made our way into the dungeon 

 and then onto the viewing point!

 And that spectacular view is why we trekked up all those stairs.

We made our way back down and at this point we were both feeling a little castled out.

 We headed back towards the old town.

 They were getting ready for Christmas.

 We enjoy travelling in the Christmas season, as everything always looks so beautiful.

 We found the area dedicated to Mozart. Mozart was born in Salzburg and began his career here at the age of 17, before heading on to Vienna where he became famous for his music.

We were getting a bit hungry so we started our way towards the only vegan restaurant in the city.

 We took a walk through this lovey garden on our way (Mirabellgarten)

 Gustav was located near to our hotel so it was a great way to end our day of exploring.

We both had the daily special - it was a pastry and potato goulash. It was delicious and was very helpful for warming up after a day out in the cold.  

 We also had to try their hemp beer.

After dinner we walked the pedestrian area a little bit before retiring to our hotel for the night.

Watch our video, fall in love with Salzburg like we did:

Check out was at 11am, so we got ready had breakfast and walked to the train station to catch our coach to Munich, Germany.

What a bus ride.

Continue reading "Backpacking Central Europe: Munich, Germany"

What to take this trip?
Check out our Itinerary "13 Day Itinerary (Backpacking Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia)"