Salzburg, Austria
Date: June 11, 2018 and June 12, 2018
Location: Salzburg, Austria
On June 11, 2018 we traveled from Venice, Italy to Salzburg, Austria. We decided to take a bus from Venice to Villach, Austria and then a train. The bus left from Venezia Tronchetto, Piazzale People Mover. Do not do what we did and confuse that location with the Piazzale Roma bus stop, as they are over a 15 minute walk – or in our case, a strenuous jog with all our luggage – away from each other. The bus ride was 3 and a half hours, but there was free WiFi on the bus and the views were nice.
The bus stops right at the train station in Villach and within 30 minutes we were on a train to Salzburg. The train ride was 2 and a half hours.
The train ride to Salzburg was beautiful.
I love the little towns that are clustered together and then seeing the open fields and mountains until the next town.
The Airbnb we are staying at is a short walk to the old town. To get to the old town, we can walk through a tunnel. There is a separate tunnel for cars to go through.
Bikes also have their own lane and a slightly different entrance than people walking.
The tunnel comes out next to a nice fountain.
At the fountain, I got my first view of Festung Hohensalzburg, the 900 year old fortress on top of the mountain.
On June 12, 2018 we went to Mozart’s Geburtshaus, Wolfgang Mozart’s childhood home. I found out that his sister, Maria Anna Mozart, was also very talented and played the piano until she was forced to stop at the time she was old enough to get married, as women did not have careers in the 1700s. I also was surprised to realize that Mozart died so young, at age 35, while his sister lived to 78.
There is another plaza called Residenzplatz. Here, many horse-drawn carriages are available for you to hire to ride around the town.
In the center is Residenzbrunnen, the large marble fountain.
From the plaza you can see the 35-bell glockenspiel in Neue Residenz that chimes at 7am, 11am and 6pm.
A popular food is pretzels and they were huge.
Brian and I love the landscape and feel of Salzburg. We definitely want to come back to the area.
