2 Days in Salzburg
Day 1: Old Town, Salzburg Fortress
After a full day of sightseeing in Venice, we headed to the train station to catch our second overnight train to Salzburg! Unfortunately, both of us had also come down with a nasty bug, so needless to say, our sleeper train experience was not set up for success! At the way-too-early time of 4:20 am, our train arrived in Salzburg station, and then it was an on foot trek from there to our hostel. We were feeling pretty under the weather by this time, but we forged on. We arrived at the hostel, and since we couldn’t check into our room until noon, we proceeded to sleep in their lounge until then (desperate times, people!). We woke up feeling a bit better, checked into our hostel and not wanting to waste the day, we pumped ourselves up for a little sightseeing.
We walked through to Salzburg’s gorgeous Old Town, and spotted the city’s historical fortress, which was set up high on a hill overlooking the city. Not wanting to miss out on seeing this impressive building, and likely even more impressive view from the top, we pushed our sickness to the back of our minds and began the climb. We eventually made it to the top, and we were so glad we did! The fortress was really cool, but we had no idea about its history. Luckily, we stumbled upon a free audio guided walking tour, which brought us up to speed on the fortress’ development and history throughout the ages.
After our success at the fortress, we headed back into the Old Town, and then back to our hostel for a quiet night in.
Day 2: Trip to the Doctor, Red Bull Hangar, Schnitzel
We woke up still feeling sick, and we decided that a doctor visit was in order. Of course, something as simple as a trip to the doctor becomes an adventure when you’re in a foreign country where English is not the first language… First, we didn’t know how to go about finding a doctor, so we went downstairs to our hostel reception for some guidance. The friendly girl at the hostel desk gave us directions to her own doctor’s office but she neglected to tell us the name of the doctor, and we of course didn’t think to ask. When we arrived at the street she directed us to, we just went in the first building where we saw a sign for a doctor. This made sense to us at the time. When we asked the receptionist to see the doctor, she kindly brought “the doctor” out to speak with us. He came out, and although we thought it was a bit weird that the doctor was coming to see us in the reception area, we promptly told him all our symptoms. After we finished speaking, the man looked at us a bit puzzled and said, “Well, it sounds like you need to see a doctor… I’m a lawyer, so unless you need to sue someone, I can’t help you.” Little did we know, we had walked into a lawyers office! We blushed, thanked the lawyer for his time and as soon as we got out of the office had a laugh at our lost in translation moment! We did finally find “the doctor” and it was a good thing we did, because it turns out Dermot had bronchitis and needed antibiotics!
Desta decided to take it easy for the afternoon, but Dermot was determined to see Red Bull’s Hangar 7. So while Desta had a two hour snooze, Dermot made the trip to Hangar 7 with a delicious sugar donut in hand.
After Dermot’s adventure, and Desta’s rest, we reunited in the Old Town for some Starbucks and sightseeing before our dinner at a traditional Austrian restaurant! Schnitzel (and elderberry juice) cures all.
Day 3: Salt Mine – Salzbergwerk Berchtesgaden
The next day we were already feeling a bit better with the proper meds in our system, so thankfully we got some more sightseeing in! We went to the Salzbergwerk Berchtesgaden, which is a salt mine, still in use to this day. The tour of the mine was fantastic. A highlight was definitely the wooden slides they had built in the mine which took you down to different levels – really fun!
After our fun at the Salt Mines, we headed back to our hostel to collect our belongings as it was time to head to the small village of Hallstatt, Austria for a little more R&R.
