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.

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.
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 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.
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What a bus ride. |
What to take this trip?
Check out our Itinerary "13 Day Itinerary (Backpacking Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia)"
Made me laugh out loud "There was two fire trucks and a bunch of young Austrian fireman. (The morning was starting to look up)" would you say you got to see most of the stuff there or would you say people needed a longer time to look around? JD
ReplyDeleteHaha, glad you enjoyed that. Salzburg is not a huge city, I feel like we saw everything that was of interest to us. Only thing we really missed was their Christmas market, as it wasn't open yet (Which is supposed to be very spectacular). I would say 2 or 3 nights is all one would really need here.
DeleteI don't like love locks either. I find it strange that you explicitly talk about how they're a complete waste but then put 4 pictures of them on your blog. Why encourage that nonsense?
ReplyDeleteI like the way they look - which is why I shared them. Yes, I think they are wasteful, which is why I stated so. I can encourage others not to add new locks and look for their names on them like we do instead.
DeleteI love Austria. Salzburg looks so pretty and cozy!
ReplyDeleteNadine Cathleen | Karateandcaviar.com
Salzburg is a lovely city. Very safe feeling.
DeleteIt is hard to imagine one gettine 'castled' out, but I have been 'cathedraled' out, so I get it. Fantastic photos, it looks gorgeous, especially with mountain views. And I agree about airports, we have paid a small fortune to have a room on Oahu before but it was so worth it with the kids! Would love to see this area for ourselves someday!
ReplyDeleteWe love castles, but can only really explore one for about two hours. We did find ourselves at another castle on this trip. The novelty of cathedrals has warn off on us, we visit them, but only the outsides now. I could see having a hotel room if you have kids - being the two of us and the cheapest room was about £70 wasn't worth it to us.
DeleteWe went to Salzburg last March, and not denying it's beauty and history, I have to admit that it became a bit of a disappointment for me. Probably not because it has little to offer, but because I had WAY too much expectations! Did you ever have a similar feeling? We travelled to the countryside though and were absolutely stunned by Austria!
ReplyDeleteFrom our research before going - we were only really excited about the castle. I did think it would be a bigger city though and had originally thought that two nights wouldn't have been enough. We continued our trip through Austria and the beauty just got better and better.
DeleteThis city looks pretty and easy to discover as well! Your information are gold for me and this place is just entered into my bucket list! Anyway a small tip: If you can put some BIG PICTURE because these are really small!
ReplyDelete���� Thanks for sharing it
Glad we could help in adding to your bucket list!! Thanks for the feedback. We used to have larger photos, but people were complaining that they were too large. lol - You can click on the photo you would like to see and it will enlarge though!
DeleteDespite the weather (but coming from England maybe you were used to that! :D ) Salzburg seems a nice city, indeed. And the fortress is the place I'd like to visit the most, both for the view over the city, both for the fortress itself, I like those places!
ReplyDeleteWe love visiting Fortresses and Castles. Especially for those views. We had dressed warm, so the cold wasn't terrible.
DeleteThese photographs brought back sweet memories. We did a walking tour of the city from early morning till late in evening. The Mirbel garden brought such good memories of Sound of Music
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you had such a good time there.
DeleteThe Sound of Music is my favourite film so Salzburg is somewhere I've always wanted to visit but I haven't got there yet. ut looks magical - especially at Christmas. That hike looks great and you were rewarded with some spectacular views there!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely go if you love Sound of Music. There was a tour, but we didn't go on it.
DeleteI love the Sound of Music! We really wanted to go here when we visited Europe this past summer, but did not have enough time. The city and fortress looks beautiful!
ReplyDeleteIndeed the city is beautiful.
DeleteAn Indian friend of mine has married an Austrian man. She keeps telling me about Austria and things they did on their vacation. Your pictures brings alive those conversations. I am sharing this blog with her.
ReplyDeleteGlad we could bring your conversations alive. Thanks for sharing our post. :)
DeleteYour post reminded me about the time when I visited Salzburg. It was summer and the city looked a bit different full of flowers, but I think the Christmas decorations made it looks very beautiful too. The view from the top is so pretty, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI think there is something about visiting a city when it's decorated for Christmas. I enjoy the place more I find. We loved the view.
DeleteBeautiful! I feel you on being castled out, I'm very templed out over here in Asia. Still, that castle and the other buildings are very stunning and I chuckled a few times while reading through.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Templed out. That's funny.
DeleteWhat's the thing the backpackers all say these days? AFT! "Another f***ing temple"
DeleteThere are so many places in Austria that I still want to visit. Salzburg being one of them. Sadly I only went to places close to the Slovak border while living in Bratislava. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah I feel you. There's so many places to go and so little time.
DeleteGreat sights of an epic city. I have always been interested in Austria due to its musical heritage.And as expected, you found another vegan store! I was under an impression that Europe is hard for vegetarians.
ReplyDeleteYeah it was epic and there was Mozart everywhere. The vegan scene is definitely growing quickly.
DeleteThis looks like such a great trip! I'd definitely love to pay Festung Hohensalzburg a visit. Those views looks absolutely stunning! Glad you were able to find some good food options, veggie and vegan options can be hard to come by in Daegu, South Korea - so nice to see how many options are available in the EU. Thanks for sharing ^^
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading. Salzburg was lovely, definitely check it out if you go to Austria.
DeleteI found Salzburg to be very picturesque and old-world. The view of the town from across the river at night is so majestic. All those lights on the fortress...
ReplyDeleteYes agreed. It was very pretty there.
DeleteSalzburg is indeed an exceptionally lovely city and like you, my girlfriend and I did the same thing of trying to find our names together (no luck unfortunately) and while I get your point about the wastefulness, I acually think it is a really lovely tradition. Anyway, enjoyable posts and great snaps
ReplyDeleteThanks very much. We've never found our names together either. We saw in Ljubljana they had a bridge with love locks and people locked their huge bike locks to the bridge. There was also some sculptures on the bridge that people locked love locks to. The love locks are taking over the world! We must stop them before it's too late and all of the bridges in the world collapse from the weight of the love locks. ;0)
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