Eurotrip Day 4: Arrival into/exploration of Salzburg (9/18/13)

Woke up early and got to the train station to catch my train to Salzburg. This eurotrip was different than my graduation trip as this time I did not get the euro-rail pass; it turns out if you know your plans, the tickets are cheaper if you buy them ahead of time like a normal plane ticket or something along those lines so that’s what I did for this trip, planned it ahead of time, bought the tickets online and kept to that itinerary. I arrived at the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof and walked in a slight drizzle to the hostel where I checked in and started walking to the old town area.

Beautiful church in central Salzburg near the main city transportation hub.

Old town Salzburg with a modern train rolling in front of it. Little bit of the old with the new.

Old school weather center near the old town. Does it all and looks pretty nice doing it. 

Residenzplatz of old town Salzburg. They were setting up for some festivities as can be seen at the bottom.

Cool statue of Hercules? beating a dragon as part of a fountain. 

The rain picked up so I was forced to get an umbrella from a local CVS type of place. I normally don't like umbrellas as I always have to dodge other people's’ umbrella nibs from poking me in the eyes, but I hate being cold and wet more. Went and explored the Mozart house and birthplace which had a bunch of cool history about Mozart and his family and how he lived.

City of Mozart has a statue to him in the old town. Not a bad guy to claim as your city's child. 

After exploring those places for a little bit, I headed back to the hostel to get into dry clothes. Once dry and comfy, I headed back out to check out the Salzburg cathedral and the Residenzplatz area and the Residence gallery which had some pretty big and amazing rooms, the main one had a banister with metal pegs that when struck each one was a different note which was fun to play with (not sure if I was supposed to but no one stopped me so I took that as an invitation to continue).

Main room of the building. There was a small recital later that night (why the chairs are set up). Most importantly, that stairway's banister across the way was musical; each pillar was a different note and you could strike them to make music. At the end of my tour, I went ahead and tested it out. It was awesome!

One of the ceiling murals in the Residenz house. Insanely pretty.

Winning at mirrors! This place is posh.

One of the many rooms with beautiful furniture, intricate molding, and art everywhere.

Another room, another example of living in luxury.

I waited for someone to pop out of that giant cake for a while :) such an amazing room.

MUSICAL BANISTER!!!! (view of the main room from the other side)

Artistic Door? Forget what this was but it looked really cool so wanted to share it.

After exploring this area, went up to the Hohen Fortress, the symbol of Salzburg. Personally, I loved Salzburg for many reasons, this fortress was one of the top ones; it's kinda cool that this castle on a hill sits above the city and you can see it from everywhere in the city to give you a bearing, AND its just really amazing to be able to look up at any moment and see a castle in the sky.

Climbing the Salzburg Castle. Nice view of the city below. 

Up in the lookout roost and the clouds start coming in. No bueno as this is my only day to really explore the castle. Still an impressive view.

What is going on with the doors in the hillside? I wonder if you can rent those out :)

Cemetery in the old town. One of the prettiest cemeteries I have ever been in. Flowers everywhere (not ones placed on sites, but planted so they live).

I walked around the fortress and went to the view points, which were anticlimactic due to the weather and the rain clouds obstructing what would otherwise be some awesome views I am sure. After having my fill of the fortress, went to the nearby Stieglkeller for some great food and Stiegl beers while enjoying some wonderful views from this hillside restaurant.

After a day of walking around and exploring Mozart's birthplace and the surrounding buildings, I stumbled upon a restaurant for some grub and a drink, right near the funicular up to the castle. 

After finishing up, I went on a pub crawl on my walk back to the hostel, first stopping at zum fidelen affen, which was more of a restaurant, but they let me sit at the bar (they were packed) for a beer before I headed to a nearby Belgian beer bar (Alchimiste Belge) where I had a few of their huge selection of great Belgian beers (I always welcome a break from the normal lager drinking as variety is the spice of life :) ).

Monkey bar, why not? Not monkeys actually in the bar but that's their name. Stopped for ein bier as I went on a pub crawl to check out the places people raved about on the travel sites. This was more of a restaurant, but it was popular. I sat on the corner of the bar as it was the only seat in the house.  

Belgian Alchemist? This is promising. The inside looks like a proper bar so lets give it a look.

Found my watering hole if I lived in Salzburg. This place has Belgian beers up the wazoo. Needless to say, this was the majority of my pub crawl.

After this I ended at Die Weisse where I had their dunkel and regular weiss biers. These beers were pretty good and the place was huge and packed. I sat at the bars at all these places and chatted with the bartenders and people next to me while I sat there enjoying these beers. After I finished at Die Weisse, I went back to the hostel and had a beer or 2 with my fellow travelers while watching some UEFA cup match on TV before bed.

Last stop on the way back to the place was Die Weisse. As you can guess, their specialty was wheat beers. So I got a dunkelweisse which was delicious.