The first stop on our trip is Salzburg. Being the birthplace of Mozart, you can find references to him everywhere in this city. Live music is played in all sorts of venues from churches to dinner concerts. There is also a plaza named for him with a statue of him placed there. Even the local candy is named after him, the Mozartkugeln. It is a delicious chocolate ball filled with pistachio and marzipan. You will find this treat available to purchase all over the city even in the grocery stores, which is where we bought some for about half the price of the tourist shops.
There are so many amazing sites to see in this delightful city. It is hard to pick what all is a must see but we only had one day to see the sites here with the itinerary we made. Even so, we managed to fit four places into just the one day. The Fortress Hohensalzburg, Mozart’s birth house, Untersberg, and Schloss Hellbrunn are the sites we chose. If you decide to visit this city, you should absolutely look at buying a Salzburg card.
This card will save you so much money. We only purchased a one day card but you can also pay for multiple days if you need them. The one day pass for two people was sixty four euros. If you had to buy the tickets for just the four places we visited, you would be spending at least triple that price. The ticket for the cable car to the top of Untersberg was thirty two euro a piece, so the price of the card just doing that one thing pays for itself. There is a long list of places that the card gets you into for free with it’s purchase and also gets you a discount for other places as well.
The Fortress was our first stop after a bit of a walk through the city. We strolled through some plazas and a cemetery on our way to the funicular that takes you to the top of the hill where the Fortress sits. You will learn all about the Prince Archbishops that ruled here for hundreds of years and grew it to the beautiful city it is today.
After lunch, we visited Mozart’s birth house. Surprisingly there weren’t many people visiting inside even though there were pretty large crowds outside taking pictures of the building. The house features a few of his instruments and other memorabilia related to his life. You get to stand in the room he was born in and see where he and his family lived in his early years.
We then drove to Untersberg and took the cable car to the top of the mountain. It was a cooler day with rain threatening, so there was a lot of fog and clouds up there during our visit. As the clouds moved, you got peekaboo glimpses of the city below. It was very pretty and I’m sure would have been even more amazing on a clear day.
For our final destination, we went to Schloss Hellbrun. The trick fountains in the garden are incredible. All of the fountains are beautiful but the ones that put on a show and have people moving around powered by water are truly amazing. I could have watched them all day. Unfortunately that is a timed ticket and you have to keep moving or the attendant leaves and you won’t get to see the fountain turned on. Some people in our group took too long and didn’t get to see a couple of the more amazing fountains turned on. The inside of the palace is also incredible. I especially enjoyed the painted rooms and the unicorns.
We finished off our night with a reservation to the oldest restaurant in Europe located here in Salzburg, St. Peter Stiftskulinarium. The food and service was truly extraordinary and we enjoyed every moment of it. The Salzburg Nockerl for dessert topped off the amazing meal and left us overly full but it was worth it. Steve had the roast beef with onions and I had the surprise menu which featured an incredible carrot ginger soup with raspberry sorbet. The combo of cold sorbet and hot soup was an adventure for the mouth. The lemon risotto course and the fried perch main were both delicious as well.
Today we visited some sites near Salzburg starting with Burg Hohenwerfen which is the castle where they filmed the Clint Eastwood movie “Where Eagles Dare”. Admission to this castle would also be covered with the Salzburg card if you got it but you would have to pay to ride the funicular. Since we had only purchased the one day card, we paid the admission price which wasn’t too bad at seventeen euro each. This castle has a falcon show you can catch, which was exciting to watch.
We also stopped by Hallstatt and had some lunch. This charming little village is probably one of the most photographed places in Austria with its colorful houses situated on a lake. It rained the whole time we were there but it was still a beautiful place to visit.
So that has been our time in the Salzburg area. We booked an Airbnb we have been staying at and rented a car to get around to some of the sites away from the city. Salzburg should definitely be on your list of places to visit.