Family Trip - Day 5 - Salzburg

Saturday June 29

We did sleep quite well. We are happy that the apartment has an air conditioner because otherwise it would have been not so nice there. 

Helen's wish had been to be somewhere where she could walk in the town. Our location was perfect. She was awake early and wanted to go and get something from the bakery. She send photos for us to select but we didn't see them so she brought 4 different things. That was very nice. We had nothing to make tea or coffee though. 

At 9:20 am we were on our way to learn a bit about the town.

We stopped not far from our lodging for some coffee, tea etc. And then we were finally ready.

We walked along happily pointing out gorgeous views. We didn't have a plan for the day yet but just taking it easy, floating along. Helen and William had barely stepped of the plane and (even if you try to ignor the time difference) the body needs to adjust. 

Helen suggested to start by looking at Mirabell Gardens because that is where part of the movie "The Sound of Music" was filmed. And that was Helen's wish: to take the "Original Sound of Music tour". 

There was a wedding party and the photographer tried to line up the wedding people. See Papa in the blue shirt on top. He stayed there while Helen and William went into the gardens.

Then all 4 of us went inside the castle but not much. You mainly just walk through the middle "hallway". The rest of the building seems to be used by the government for a (we were told) very beautiful wedding room. (and as you have seen in the previous comment, weddings seem to be happening there)

And this was a poster in that hall above.

Outside the gardens were beautiful. I took this photo because Sarah used to have these hydrangeas at her house except the deer kept eating them. 

Walking in the area of Mirabell Garden and Schloss Mirabell meant that it was inevitable to see a Hop-on-hop-off bus. Every major "tourist town" seams to have that and we had already thought that it would be a good thing to do. And we did. The lady, who talked with us, was very nice and gave us a lot of hints. She was obivously not Austrian but was very knowledgable about the area. We got the tickets and hopped on.

Helen took all the photos. It gave us a good intro to the city. We did the whole circle and then started walking back to our place.

Oh me gosh, we suddenly realized that Papa didn't have his backpack any longer. It wasn't really earthshakingly bad because the only thing in it were the water bottles. But we really liked all three things and were hoping that we would get them back.

I looked at the photos I had taken and could see clearly when the backpack was not in the photo any longer. We must have left it at the place very early in the morning where we had had the coffee/tea in the morning.

I offered to go past there while the others continued to our place. And yes, the ladies knew right away what I was inquiring about. In gratitude I felt I had to buy something and a piece of "Sacher (like) torte" was just the thing.  You can't really call it Sacher Torte if it is not made by Sacher but of course, a recipe is a recipe. Big deal.

It was probably 1:30 pm when I arrived with the backpack and that piece of cake and we shared it soon after.

In every town where they have hop-on-hop-off it gives you a good introduction of the place you are in. And it did not disappoint here. We had seen the Hohensalzburg Fortress from the bus and it was clear that we wanted to go there. 

We could walk there too from our place and this photo was taken at 3:24 pm. 

We took the Fortress Funicular up to the top. It was not expensive at all, fast and nice. The view was so worth it!

It was a VERY hot day though. We made full use of our water bottles and benches.

Inside the fortress though it was pleasantly much cooler. This photo was taken by Helen. The first one was the marionette museum. This supposedly was the Von Trapp Family (sound of music).

We wandered around. The best part was always a glimps of the view.

Could not resist taken a photo of William taking a photo.

This is the fortress church.

Time to leave the fortress, but wait, one more tourist thing to do: the machine turning a cent into a commemorative thing. It is fun. We had started it with William many years ago.

Helen's photo from the funicular on the way down.

About 6 pm I wanted to check on the payments for the parking in the garage. We were not sure what the rules were for that. William came with me. We found it easily, paid a king's ransom and found our way out of the mountain just like in the night we had arrived. 

Right at that exit was this which looked like an organ. No plaque with explanations.

Here is Helen's photo from the night we arrived. 

And at 8 pm it was time for dinner. We found a beer garden just around the corner from our place. Quite convinient. We sat outside in a courtyard. The meal was ok but not totally overwelming. Of course we had to try Salzburger Nockerl. Helen and William shared one of those gigantic portions. Don't let his face fool you. They both really liked it. He was not totally sure about the berry sauce which was poured over it.

It was a very lovely evening. James and I were tired but Helen went out to take some photos in the special light.

She took some really nice photos. It was a perfect evening for that.