Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Europe Recap Part 3: Austria

As a sort of last minute decision when planning the trip, we added Salzburg, Austria to the itinerary. Upon arriving back in Munich we took the train back to BMW and picked up the uber-wagon and drove to Salzburg about 70 miles away. We were only here for 2 nights and didn't really plan on doing much here other than relax.


Salzburg, Austria...that's pretty much everything right there, but it's great!

It turned out these 2 days were the perfect retreat from the go-go-go tourist-mode we had been in for 6 days prior. The hotel was great, weather was nice, people were nicer and the food was awesome. Tired of French food and looking for a little more meat and potatoes, we found Austria to be a wonderful change of pace. Katie had never tried wienerschnitzel and 30 minutes after we checked into the hotel 2 plates of wienerschnitzel and spatzel were in front of us and local Salzburg beer and wine complimented the meal perfectly. The hotel food was great and we found it tough to go out and eat elsewhere.


Hallein, Austria...beautiful country

Salzburg is about as sleepy as a big town can be. It's one of the largest cities in Austria but you'd never know it. Quiet, clean and uncrowded, Salzburg was great. We strolled down the narrowest shopping street in Europe and saw all sorts of high-end shops and fun little cafes. Like I said, not much to do here, but it was perfect.


Narrowest shopping street in Europe...seemed pretty normal to me

After a couple days we packed up the uber-wagon and drove a few miles outside Salzburg to a super fun salt mine tour. The whole thing was rather cheesy with a dramatization about the history of the mines shown at stops in the tour but past that the tour was fun and rather informative; we were both quite impressed. The best part had to be the old miner slides we were invited to slide down. They're made of wood and look like a bowling ball return and you just straddle the thing and lean back and you're off! We got up to 23km going down the larger slide (per the souvenir photo we bought that had our happy faces and speed to cherish forever) and could have done the slides all day if they would have let us. But, alas...


You cross from Austria into Germany whilst underground in the mines, which years ago was a nightmare as people had to have passports, visas, etc. just to take the tours

Pack up the uber-wagon, take the scenic route back to Munich, enjoy a nice lunch at some random cafe in an off-the-beaten-path German town and Salzburg was just a memory but a great one.


Salt mines with our flattering salt mine, oompah-loompah coveralls

Final part of the trip coming up: Germany...the Motherland.

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