Austria 6-8 Oct

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Salzburg

Had a good start to the morning with a true Bavarian breakfast of white sausages, sauerkraut and beer with Gow in Munich but definitely needed it for the big day ahead. The 3.5hr train ride wasnt anything special and the sky wasnt so welcoming when I first arrived in Salzburg but I decided to just dump my stuff at the hostel and headed into the centre to check it out just as it was getting dark. Saw Kajetanerkirche and wandered down Kapielplatz with a gorgeous view of the fortress on the hill, fountain, sculpture and it lead through the Domplatz with the amazing cathedral. Due to the weather Salzburg wasnt that pretty during the day but lots of places in Europe get this gorgeous yellow glow at nighttime.

Heading into the city at night turned out to be a better idea than first planned as there was a special "Night out at the museum" evening on on the 6th of Oct in Austria where a whole bunch of museums were open from 6pm to 1am and a cheap card got you entry into all of them so I spend the night making great use of my one night in Salzburg. Started at the Salzburg Museum with lives and works of people who had influenced Salzburg and and awesome video comparing the city historically to now. I got to sample Austrian red wine and see old music boxes being played in Freysaultkeller, Romanischer keller had live music downstairs, saw the foundations underground of the Dom Cathedral , walked around inside the Residenzgakerie (with an amazing throne room) and the Dom Museum (with a great explanation about the bronze door of hope), Landkartengalerie (the universities map gallery) was really well restored and finished my evening with a funicular ride up to the fortress on the hill for a guided tour and a beautiful view out over the city at night

Seeing as I was in Salzburg I figured I should see a few of the Sound of Music bits and pieces and being a Sunday public transport wasnt a great option as a few of the places were a bit out of the city so signed up for a tour and the 6 young ones of us banded together and had a fun time. We saw the Schloss Mirabell (with the "Do Rae Me" steps), Schloss Hellbrunn (with the "I am 16 going on 17" gazebo), Hellbrunner Allee ("I have confidence"), Palace of Leopoldskron (this was the outside of their house in the movie where they had pink lemonade on the patio and the kids fell into the 1m deep man-made lake). It was awesome to get out of the town and see Lake Wolfgang / St. Gilgen (and Red Bull H/Q!) and we had a great time toboganning down the hill - made a great change from sitting on the bus : ) Last stop was Mondsee and the Collegiate Church where Maria and the Baron finally got married, and enjoyed apple strudel for lunch before training to Vienna

Vienna

After a busy morning following in Maria's footsteps I ended up spending a quiet night at my hostel in Vienna. It was a really cool one with a awesome underground bar and I had some pretty awesome roommates so just spend the evening chatting to Matt and Jenkins from South Carolina, good times : )

Up pretty early the next morning to cover everything I had been lazy about doing the night before. Vienna was a pretty city (so many statues and important buildings!) Started at Herrengasse near Minoritenplatz and I took the scenic route to Rathaus and ended up at the Imperial Palace (Hofburg) which was pretty so wandered through there and Maria Theresien Platz with the Natural History and Kunsthistorisches Museums and the Museum Quarter itself before finding the Rathaus and taking some pretty pictures with gorgeous blue skies. Found Austria's first holocaust memorial in Judenplatz on my way to Stephansplatz, the church is pretty amazing from the inside and out but its always a shame about the construction work. My pack was getting a bit heavy so did one final ride of the tram around the ring road which goes past all the major sights again and saw the Royal Apartments, Karlskirche and the Secession Building before heading to the train station to catch a train bound for the Czech Republic