It kept raining in Salzburg for almost a day and half when we arrived, so couldn’t really go for the Fortress or the Dom Quartier square to hang out. We were staying at the Amedia Express situated nearby the Railway Station.
To top the misery, Hotels in Salzburg, however expensive, do not provide even a electric kettle or glasses or cups in their rooms, for you to have some tea/coffee..We stayed at Amedia Express & Lehenerhof and both were equally disappointing. Its a weird place, not very tourist friendly. All food outlets close by 6 pm, some may stay open till 7 pm, but all food will probably be over. Interestingly, Bellini a Pizza outlet just across from Amedia has permits to serve food till late into midnight, we managed to get some dinner the first night of Salzburg. Thank god!
At Bellini the owner got very friendly with us immediately as soon as he found out we were Indians, as he was a Pakistani 🙂 He gave us a whole lot of tips and information about Salzburg. Looking at our craving for tea he invited us to have some tea with him at his outlet in the next days when he prepares it for himself. We took that seriously .. haha. There we were, the next evening, inviting ourselves in for a hot cup of tea. He and his friend made us a milky sweet tea, which was good enough for our craving. Thanks to them 🙂
Bellini Pizza
Another nice place for a reasonable breakfast and coffee is BackWerk, situated just on main road you take to reach the Residenzplatz Square.
Once we had dinner at Sofra, a turkish outlet, in case you are craving for spicy food, like curries and bread. Reasonably priced too. I somehow got an upset stomach due to that dinner, but after I had some yoghurt and did fasting the next day, I was fine by evening.
It appears some outlets near Dom Quartier will also remain open till late as that is the tourist area, but couldn’t see that the other day we roamed around that side till late. Its almost empty by 8 pm.
Another tip would be to carry cash with you mostly, as most outlets do not accept card payments.
Salzburg is a rather lazy place it turns out, most places will be closed more often than closed. The Government offices we were told remain open only between 8 am to 12 pm. If its a long weekend coming up you might as well not expect those offices to work a day or 2 in advance either.
https://www.instagram.com/p/8BMjjhPYf3q69K46VjAjhv_ZR0w3J6m8arU_k0/?hl=en&taken-by=suruchika
We took the ‘Sound of Music Tour’ by Panorama, we bought the tickets at the information counter at the Station, for 40 Euros (its overpriced I would say for no reason). This will be the same place where you can buy the Salzburg card too. Salzburg card is quite a good bet, as it provides you free access to all public transportation within Salzburg, and free entry into all the Museums, Palaces etc. Its not actually free, you buy the Salzburg card for a fee, but then you wouldn’t pay anywhere else. 24 hours card is for 27 Euros, available for 48 hours, 72 hours too.
Sound of Music tour was okay, but it would have been better if it wasn’t raining so much. The tour took us around many locations, shown from far off. Beware, whatever locations the tour claims to cover, will not be actually covered, not even the Hellbrunn Palace (Schloss Hellbrunn)! They barely show things to you from within the bus. Somehow I think this tour was invented only and only by lazy Americans. It is quite a waste I guess. You can rather take bus no.25 to any of these locations mentioned in their brochure. The tour also takes an hour break at Mondsee where they encourage you to buy food at one of the many restaurants lined up across from Mondsee church. It would have been better instead of taking their break, they could’ve given us some more time to check out the Hellbrunn Palace from inside.
Apfelstruddle with vanilla sauce at one of restaurants in Mondsee was quite yumm.
Next day we did the Fortress tour, and the Dom Quartier or the Residenz art gallery. Thats the only thing I enjoyed in Salzburg. At the fortress tour the guide told us about how the Prince & Lords earned loads of money to splurge in such expensive art and craft and make huge mansions and fortresses, from their trade of Salt to the eastern countries. We know where that was. Also some of money came from Silver mining I guess.
Anyhow, luckily that was our last day in Salzburg and the sun had decided to show. the Dom Quartier Square was full of people and looked vibrant with colors.
A good thing about Salzburg card is that once you’ve bought it, you need to write down your name and time of first use of the card yourself with a pen. At the Museums or the funicular tram to top of Fortress requires you to swipe it on the machines, but on local buses, you just need to show it to the bus driver or anyone who asks for it.
The Beer hall is a famous spot in Salzburg, I guess the Vienna one is a bigger one than this, but if you are into Beer, you may like this place. Its noisy, full of people enjoying Beers.
The view from top of Fortress was mind blowing, with all the clouds and jazz all around. I couldn’t care less, cause personally I think I’ve seen much prettier sceneries here around India 😛 Sorry if I sound such a patriot. Salzburg sucks and is a boring place. But thats just my opinion. lol!
you can read all about experiences in blog posts for Prague, Cesky Krumlov & Vienna.
Traveler & Explorer Girl's Group 