HaveShoesWillEatandTravel: Salzburg

For day 2 of our German weekend we decided to cross the border to Salzburg in Austria. You can buy a Bayern ticket that is valid all day before midnight on weekends and after 9 am and before midnight on weekdays to get you there. Make sure to check the box for use local transport only when using the ticket machines. The ticket is 28 Euros and up to 5 adults can travel on one ticket. Much better deal than using the Rail Europe website which said it would cost us over $100 to go there. Salzburg is about a 2 hour train ride.

Salzburg is known for the Sound of Music and there's many tours to the Sound of Music sights. Being the loser that I am, I watched the Sound of Music the night before I left to brush up on my SOM knowledge but we didn't take a special tour. Salzburg was also where Mozart was born and grew up when his father wasn't dragging him around Europe to play for royalty.

We loved Salzburg. It's a small town and easily walkable. We walked from the train station over to the old section of the city where we spent the day. There's no cars allowed in the old section so your touring will have to be done on foot. Or you can rent a horse and carriage for an hour for an astronomical fee.

We spent the day just walking around, looking at churches, platzs, and peeking into various shops. After lunch we climbed up the stairs to the hill that overlooks the town. We walked around Hohensalzburg Fortress then walked further down and explored the grounds of the convent.

At this point it was getting cold and the wind was picking up so we decided to stop for drinks. Unfortunately, Salzburg still permits smoking in their bars (and maybe also their restaurants) so every cafe we popped into was very smoky. After finally locating a decently non-smoky bar, we headed off to the train station.

As convenient as our hotel was to the train station, there didn't seem to be a large selection of restaurants in the area nor any German beer halls. So we headed directly from the train station over to our new favorite restaurant, Oleo Pazzo where we proceeded to have some delicious food. We had pesto, mozzarella and tomatoes, parmesan cheese with honey and balsamic on top, several types of bruschetta, and prosciutto on breadsticks along with some German beer for The Husband and bellinis made with elderflower for me. Excellent. Who would have thought the Courtyard by Marriott would have such culinary wonders?

Loved that everyone rides bikes here instead of driving