I’m catching up on these blog posts while I wait for my laundry – laundry day is well and truly over due at this point. Salzburg was unexpectedly a really great time. While I had already been planning on travelling to Salzburg following Oktoberfest, I ended up travelling there with a couple of the people I’d been at Oktoberfest with.
To be honest, I didn’t know much about Salzburg but I’d heard good things! So I arrived there with little idea of what to do, but I was told to purchase a “Salzburg card”. This card entitles you to free access to most of Salzburgs main attractions and discounts to many others. For a 48hr card, it was only 39€ ($70nzd). I made that back in one afternoon. There are really two main reasons people visit Salzburg;
1) it’s the birthplace of Mozart
2) it was the film location for the Sound of Music
The first afternoon, we took the cable car up to Untersburg. Man it was a steep trip up but the views were impressive. It was about 20min (by bus) out of Salzburg, so you had incredible views over the surrounding landscape. We were short on time up here as the last cable car descended at 5pm and we only made it up around 3:30pm – it would have been a very long and steep hike down if we missed the final cable car. However, we did have time to walk to a couple of the closer viewpoints and it was breathtaking! It was an awesome afternoon, following which we hiked up to the Fortress in Salzburg to watch the sunset and then went for dinner. As we discovered, you can’t just turn up to a restaurant for dinner. They were all booked out and full, even mid week. We got lucky and managed to get a seat at a pizza place, the pizzas were ginormous.
The following day, a few of us made plans to go summer tobogganing. In Europe, or Austria specifically, this refers to sitting in a luge like cart and zooming down a rail track. After taking a chairlift to the top, the track was 2.2km long, and you could reach speeds of 40km/h, but with the lever you could control your own speed. Luckily I didn’t get stuck behind anyone slow!! It was heaps of fun and I would’ve loved to go more than once. Definitely a must-do activity!
Following this exciting morning, we treated ourselves to Fabi’s frozen yogurt – also must visit when in Salzburg! Soft serve style frozen yogurt either your choice of toppings for a reasonable price! Post-treat we continued on to further explore the streets of Salzburg and some surrounding viewpoints. I visited the Red Bull store (as it’s an Austrian brand) and they had merchandise for almost every sport they sponsor, especially Formula One and Max Verstappen merch! While I was tempted, I did not make any purchases. We also revisited the fortress, taking advantage of the Salzburg card to access the museum and panoramic viewing platform. Maybe it’s obvious, but I did not realise that the name Salzburg translates into Salt Castle, referring to the extraction of salt from local mines throughout history. That’s your fun worldly fact for the day!
At this point all my friends, new and old were leaving Salzburg but I still had one more day. I decided to take a day trip to the whimsical town of Hallstat. Hallstat was lovely, it was picturesque and quaint, but very overrun with tourists. To reach the town, I took two trains from Salzburg, and then the ferry from the train station across the lake to the township. The ferry was timed to meet the trains, and it was a quick but stunning trip across the lake. I had a few hours to spend wandering around, taking photos and grabbing lunch before I caught the train back. It was a nice day, the lake was stunning and the town so unique. I guess that’s what drives its growing popularity.
Salzburg is an underrated town that is left off many travel itineraries. Austria in general is often left out, but I would definitely recommend a trip to Salzburg!!
~ Nikita’s Nomadic Notes
Nikita’s Nomadic Notes 