From Innsbruck, we boarded the train for another picturesque trip through the alps to Salzburg.

The highlights:

Salzburg is a pilgrimage for fans of The Sound of Music (that would be me). If you have zero interest in TSoM, skip through the next bunch of pics. For everyone else, IYKYK. Needless to say, we had an absolute ball.

This might not be on every ‘must-do’ list for Salzburg, however, our unexpected favourite thing was a twilight walk along the Basteiweg Stadtmauer, a pathway that runs along the medieval city wall (complete with fortifications and watch-towers), and has panoramic views across the Salzach River and Altstadt (above).

We spotted a tower during the day and thought, “How do we get up there…?”

A bit of research (search term: what is the little tower you can see on the hillside in Salzburg) revealed the answer. It was a bit tricky to find the start point (felt like we were trespassing), but once we found our way up, there seemed to be lots of people watching the sunset over the city. I’m doing a ‘where’s Wally’ in the bottom pic.

We spent a day wandering the Altstadt. There are loads of historic buildings to see, and of course many Mozart-related attractions to visit (we went to Mozart’s birthplace, which had an interesting exhibit, and that evening went to a strings concert at Mirabell Palace, which was as much Mozart as we could fit in).

Are you even visiting a European city if you don’t go to a few cathedrals?! Salzburg Cathedral was breathtaking and our visit happened to coincide with choir practice, so we were able to experience the great acoustics.

We took a day-trip to the UNESCO-listed alpine village of Hallstatt. The village is tucked between the Dachstein Alps and Lake Hallstatt, with its the mirror-like waters (above).

The Beinhaus (Bone House) and its history was fascinating, and I particularly loved the cemetery with its spectacular view and carefully-tended plots (below).

What we ate:

So, ordering the famous Salzburger Nockerl went like this:
Me, “Will that be okay for us to share?”
The waiter, “It serves three people…”
Me, “….” 😬
(we didn’t get anywhere close to finishing but the lingonberry cream that came with it was so delicious I felt regret about the leftovers).

Other details:

Salzburg was my splurge in terms of accommodation. We stayed at the historic Townhouse Weisses Kreuz. It was built in 1392 and originally belonged to the Salzburg Cathedral to house priests – I absolutely adored the original features (and modern comforts!). You can see the entrance to the hotel in the pic above – the stairs down to the front door are in the lower left corner of the pic, tucked under the wall.

Next stop, Vienna!