bretzelitos

Today, we have done something special, something I have tried out in the planning for my INTERRAIL trips for the first time. We have visited a city without staying there! Means, we have left Munich after a good breakfast in the morning, stopped in Salzburg just before lunch and continued to Vienna in the evening.

Hence we had six hours time to visit Salzburg’s attractions and vista points.

Our Railjet ride from Munich to Salzburg in Business Class went uneventful. We disembarked at Salzburg Central Station and put our luggage into self storage in the train station for the next five hours. We walked towards the old city center and passed the river Salzach just in front of the castle Hohensalzburg. After some meters in the old town area, we found the birth house of Mozart where we took lunch close by – traditional Wiener Schnitzel with a Germknödel afterwards as dessert.

We were then passing some ongoing TV transmission constructions for the “Salzburger Festspiele” that happen in town from the next weekend on. Several UHD production trucks were placed all around stages and event happening area – as it seems, ARTE TV is going to show some of the happenings live. We will certainly have a look when being back in France.

We took then the funicular up to the castle to have a wonderful view over the area where the Alp mountains just begin. We walked around a bit and took several photos before descending again. Close to the base station of the castle train, we found several horse carriages that were offering a 25 or 50 minutes ride. We took the 50 minutes option and it was lovely… Our coachman explained us the town in detail by giving us an extended tour through all important parts of Salzburg’s old city – in fluent English language. At the end, he allowed us to take a photo of him and the carriage. Thank you, Viakerei Süss, we had a very enjoyable ride with you!

We then returned slowly towards Salzburg’s central station, stopping shortly at the Mirabell Castle and Gardens to see the marvellous French Garden architecture around its palace building.

After refreshing ourselves in 30 degrees Centigrade and Full Blue Sky conditions in the train stations coffee bar, we boarded our Railjet train on-time – again in Business Class – to finalise our day with a 2.5 hour train ride to Vienna Central Station. It took 20 minutes longer than planned as there have been track replacement works between Linz and Amstetten, but then we drove up to 230 kmh towards our final destination.

In Vienna, we have booked the HILTON hotel at the City Park – a room with a view – for two nights. We got an upgrade to an Executive room in one of the upper floors – a room that has not been rented to anybody after upgrading works were completed. This was really a treat! We decided after this long day to have a Room Service dinner with a bottle of Vienna wine called “Gemischter Satz”.

We are looking forward to see Vienna in detail tomorrow!