Austria

This was our last country to see on our 10 day adventure. After a night in Prague we caught a morning train to Salzburg. (fun fact: Salz means salt) The scenery was picturesque with the mountains, small houses and green hills. I ate breakfast in the dinning car and it was fun (I had never done that before)! Soon upon arriving in Salzburg we went on the Sound of Music tour. Honestly I couldn’t remember the story, but the tour description said we would get to see Salzburg and travel to the lakes and mountains. Our tour guide was eccentric and fun and excited to show us all the places from the film. There is a beautiful lake practically in Salzburg and from there we got a great view of the white fortress (Festung Hohensalzburg) high on a hill. On the tour we got to go into the Alps and stopped at a glacial lake with snow capped mountains in the background. What a picture opportunity! Music from the movie was played on the bus. From there we stopped the little town of Mondsee. This is where they filmed the wedding scene. It was a very small town near a lake and at the foot of some mountains. Here I got warm apple strudel with vanilla sauce and vanilla ice cream! (Austria uses the euro and is a pretty expensive place.)

Once we got back to Salzburg we walked around the Mirabell Gardens and passed Mozart’s residence. Salzburg is a small town of 100,000 or so, but sees a population of 300,000 during tourist season. It was a beautiful town and I liked just wandering around. We ate at Seran (recommended by Rick Steeves) and I had apple strudel again.

The next day we went to the Mozart museum. It was very nice and being a piano player I enjoyed it very much! The rest of the morning was spent enjoying the beauty of this area. We left for Vienna that afternoon. Once again the scenery from the train was wonderful! Vienna is a big city with wide open streets. It’s very clean and green. There are many museums and things to see. The next day (the last full day of spring break) was a full day. We walked to the palace of the Hapsburg family. It was very similar to Versailles in France. It was neat to see the place where Marie Antoinette came from after seeing Versailles. I really enjoyed the tour of the palace and the gardens were nice. It was a beautiful day and I could finally be comfortable without a jacket.

I went to Albertina art museum to see a Picasso and Monet exhibit. I liked the change from the renaissance art I’ve been used to in Italy. After that we rented biked to travel around the ring. Vienna’s older part is encircled by two rings of roads and trees. The bike ride was a great way to see Vienna. We rode through a park and saw a carnival. That evening we ate at a restaurant called Centimeter. Many things are sold by measurement! (sandwiches are sold by the cm) We ate typical Austrian cuisine. Three of use split a “Wheel Barrel of Garbage” that had meat, wiener snizel, 3 types of dumplings and fries. It actually came in a mini wheel barrel! It was hard to believe that spring break was over, but I was excited to get back to Viterbo…living out of a backpack is not easy!