Salzburg, Austria
Before we hit the city of Salzburg we stopped in at Schloss Hellbrunn. The palace was a distinctive mustard colour, and because of that it wasn't overly appealing. We walked around the gardens for a bit but there wasn't much sustaining our attention, so we left to find a caravan park.
The first park we tried appeared to have shut down. The second one seemed to be in the middle of some sort of Austrian-style Amish village and it was not at all clear where the park was. The third one was perfect. It was a sunny day so we set up the awning outside, but after an hour the storm clouds came over, causing us to pack it all up and head inside. In the end that was a waste of time as the storm ended up bypassing us.
Danny and I both bought a Salzburg Pass from the caravan park for free admission for heaps of attractions. We decided it would be worth it here, given the number of sights that were included with the card. Without the pass we probably wouldn't have bothered with most of the attractions, but a touristy bug took over and we couldn't resist.
Here is the list of freebies we took advantage of:
* Fortress on the hill: grand views over Salzburg but the fortress itself and its museum was nothing amazing.
* Catacombs: terrible, not even any bones, just some empty, underground rooms in a mountain.
* Beer world (Danny): he had a great time, drinking a few beers while he was there and also buying a handful (or two) to take away.
* Museum of Modern Art (Kim): decent views from the top, artwork okay.
* Mozart Wohnhaus (Kim): the house where Mozart lived, with a museum dedicated to him. It came with a free audioguide, which provided way too much information and I'm positive I don't remember any of it.
* Mozart's birth house (Kim): another museum, which supplied much of the same information but in written form.
* River cruise: lame. It was extremely slow and the driver's commentary was drowned out by the sound of the boat.
Aside from all this, we also walked around the main plazas, through a market, bought giant soft pretzels, explored the gardens of Schloss Mirabell (popular spot for weddings), visited several Sound of Music-themed sights, and purchased a peach liqueur in a violin-shaped bottle while souvenir shopping. But none of these compared to our greatest find: a random street market offering local wines. We were walking between two sights when we noticed the gathering, and decided to take a closer look. Several winemakers had set up stalls to promote their product, and they were selling wines for €1 a glass. We got talking to one of the winemakers (who might have been quite drunk) and we managed to receive seven small glasses of wine for €3. The local Welschriesling was one of our favourites, and we ended up buying a bottle for €4. At the risk of looking like typical Australian alcoholics, we returned later in the day for more tastings.
We sort of went overboard for dinner. We were famished, and we stupidly ended up eating two dinners. As we were finishing dinner number one, a kebab and a mushroom pizza at a street stall, we spotted an Indian restaurant. Both of us had been craving Indian food for a while, and the aroma coming from inside drew us towards it. Two glasses of wine, a couple of overcooked samosas and a tasty but not at all spicy duck vindaloo later and we were ready to burst. Totally worth it.
Back at the van we watched The Sound of Music on the laptop, just to fully immerse ourselves in the Salzburg experience. Danny was keen to skip this walk down memory lane, but I didn't give him any choice. I think Salzburg was our favourite city in Austria.
