Eurotrip Day 5: The hills are alive with Stiegl Bier (9/19/13)

After breakfast at the hostel, I walked down to the Mirabell station to catch the bus down to zoo and the Hellbrunn palace (Schloss Hellbrunn) near Anif. In Salzburg, the rain was still falling but once I had gotten down to the palace, it had cleared up, the sun was out and it was a really nice day. First explored the palace where they had some trick fountains around that used water to make noises and make things move within them; it was really cool to think this was all built 100s of years ago and the intricacy of it was amazing as they only used water and gravity to operate.

Little palace house on the hill overlooking the city. I wonder how they get up there.

Let the fountain tour begin. Back before there were Lambos and yachts, wealthy people made water fountain yards. We get to marvel at their creations centuries later. 

First trick fountain was around the dinner table. Water squirts away from the guests but close enough to be unnerving. 

Beautiful cascading waterfall on the grounds of the palace.

More trick water fountains at an entrance. There was a little kid with a poncho who didnt care and was just walking through the water spraying on him. 

This was one of the well crafted scenes that had movement due to the water flowing through the gears behind the display. There will be a giant display of this later.

Beautiful palace gardens to look forward to once the tour is over.

This was a huge moving/singing water powered scene. Many of these sculptures would move and there was an organ in the display that played music as it went along. Very impressive, especially it was made centuries ago.

A description of the gears that allow for the giant water powered display to operate.

Water tunnel to get into one of the buildings on the grounds. These people were debating whether to risk it. 

Beautiful arrangement of statues with a cascading waterfall in the foreground. 

Infinity pool on the grounds of the palace. With all the water works based at this palace, cant be surprised it has a giant pool on the grounds.

Entrance to the palace. Looks similar to the one in Vienna.

Palace entry way and courtyard. Not a bad little compound they got here.

Walking down the entryway to the palace.

I am going on 17 - this was the pavilion used in the sound of music movie. These sights are all around town with SoM tours exploring them. 

The grounds were beautiful and I stumbled upon the vestibule from sound of music where they sing 16 going on 17 as it was on the grounds of the Hellbrunn palace. I then went to the zoo which was small but cool as they built the animal entrapments into the side of the hill/mountain so the animals had trees and elevation changes they could explore. But they did have some weird/different animals which was cool. 

Zoo on the side of a mountain. They build the enclosures into it, to give animals a more natural habitat.

This was an exhibit of mice/hamsters they they built to look like a kitchen for the rodents to wonder around 

One of the information signs in the zoo. This zoo had all kinds of information on the animals. Great zoo.

A smaller outdoor enclosure for ferrets I believe. 

This zoo had guinea pigs hahaha. 

Wallabies (lil kangaroos) just hanging out in their enclosure.  

Beautiful picturesque field on way back into the city. 

The castle on high as seen from the countryside. Wish I was able to go on top of the castle today as the weather is much better.

After finishing up at the zoo, I headed back into town where I made my way to the Stiegl Brauwelt where I explored a bit and had a few of their beers; the night warmer was pretty tasty and their grapefruit radler was dangerous as it was really easy to drink and sweet enough to enjoy without being too sweet. 

Eventually I found my way to Stiegl brewery. Had to take some buses to get to the area then walk a ways, but I made it before it closed.

A map showing the various breweries in Austria. 

The brewery was part museum that was a part of the tour. You learned the beer making process then saw many artifacts of the brewing world.

These are some of the horse drawn carts they had on the second floor showing the evolution of the delivery vehicle. This side seemed to have horse drawn sleds to use during winter deliveries.

Of the few beers I had here, this was their special release of the time, the Nachtschwarmer. Nice change of pace from the traditional lager as always. 

After they closed down, I walked over to Augustiner Brau, which was an awesome experience with getting beers from guys as they tap the kegs and giant beer halls (something I will be getting more of in the coming days) with tons of people just hanging out with friends and strangers alike. Met a couple from the woodlands (area of Houston) who come to oktoberfest every year and we got into discussions about what I should expect in the upcoming days and just about how they enjoy traveling in this area. I then walked back to the hostel and had dinner while packing for tomorrow’s journey for the main attraction Munich and its Oktoberfest.

Walking to my next stop I noticed this abandoned fort/castle wall being taken over by the trees. Thought it was really cool that among all these modern buildings and cars, theres a relic from the past right there.

My last stop of the day, I walked over to the augustiner biergarten which was a large facility with plenty of outdoor/indoor seating and free flowing beer to pair with their food. 

One of the beer pourers. You walk up to them, tell them the size you want and wham, beer poured directly from the barrel. Dont know why they had to wear those yellow jumpsuits but was cool just getting in line and getting a beer poured for you.