#2979 vacation memories - day 9 Passau, Germany -> Salzburg, Austria (Saturday 13 Sept)

Salzburg!

We woke up in Passau, Germany on the final day of our cruise. It had been rainy, so the streets were wet but the sky was clearing. It looks like a pretty town.

Passau, Germany

We were not going to have the chance to explore this town, because we were on our way to Salzburg! Of course you know that Salzburg, Austria is NOT on the Danube, and we didn't get there by boat. Salzburg was a tour offered by Viking, but not included in the fee. The cool thing is that our travel advisor, the Amazing Candice, got us enough ship-board credits that we were able to use to totally pay for this excursion. I would have paid for it because I really wanted to see this town. (Actually a city, the fourth largest in Austria.)  

We got on a full-size bus with four other people plus our guide and set off through the German and Austrian countryside. It's about a two hour drive from Passau to Salzburg. We did take the autobahn for a little while, but most of the trip was along the backroads though pretty little towns. We even had a chance to see the Alps!

I edited this photo for better visual of the Alps. It still came out pretty well!

the Austrian countryside and the Alps

As you can see, Austria is very green. They grow a lot of corn which is used as animal feed. The people don't really eat corn there. 

Salzburg is quite a famous city for at least two reasons. First, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born there in this house and lived there through his childhood:

Mozart was born here!

The second reason Salzburg is famous is for the movie The Sound of Music. I was assured by every single Austrian guide that no self-respecting Austrian has seen the movie. However, the hills are still alive with the tunes of Rodgers and Hammerstein as you will hear songs from the movie sung all over the town. A bit more on that in a minute. 

I'm getting ahead of myself. 

When we arrived in Salzburg, we were greeted by a local guide, not the woman who rode on the bus with us. Our guide was a man with wild nose hair who was prone to go off on tangents on some things and skip over other things that might have been more relevant or interesting, and he was pretty free with his opinion on lots of things, too. I mostly tuned him out, to be honest, and just looked around . The town was quite busy, as I'm sure it always is, but it was Saturday and the weather was fantastic, and it seemed like there was a lot going on.

First we got to walk through the Mirabell Garden on the grounds of the Mirabell Palace. The Garden was featured in The Sound of Music.  If you remember the movie, Frauline Maria teaches the children Do-Re-Mi and they dance around this fountain:

Pegasus Fountain in Mirabell Garden

The Garden is spectacular! Nowadays, the Garden is used for wedding receptions, and there were at least two receptions going on while we were there. It was fun and interesting to see people actually dressed in lederhosen. The guide explained that it is becoming quite popular for wedding guests to wear the traditional clothing of the area. We saw stores selling modern versions of lederhosen and dirndl.

Here are a few more photos of the Mirabell Garden:

View of Fortress Hohensalzburg on the hill

garden ussie!

so pretty!

delightful

feeling like royalty

I could have spent more time at the garden, but there was more to see, of course. We crossed the "lock" bridge over the Salzach River to the old part of town, and went straight to the main street, Getreidegasse, which is famous for it's beautiful metal signs. My photo does not do it justice. The signs are really cool and artistic, and there are many of them.

Getreidegasse

Mostly I felt like we were rushing around and the guide was talking at us and I felt like I wasn't really soaking in the Salzburg vibe that I wanted. Then the tour was over and we were at a restaurant - the oldest one in Europe! - where we would have lunch and singing.

The restaurant was established in 803. It was an abbey and is right next to St. Peter's Church. We did not sit in the original building; we were in a large and very beautiful room that is likely used for wedding dinners and other events. 

feeling fancy

The room could probably seat  at least 100 people, but there were only six of us sitting at three tables at the front of the room with a view of a stage and a grand piano. We were served a nice white wine along with roasted chicken and pureed parsnips. For dessert, we had the famous Salzburger Nockerl (I didn't take a photo of it?!) which is like a souffle with meringue on top and jam on the inside. It's very light and very sweet, especially by European standards, I thought. The food was all fine. While we were eating, we were entertained by The Sound of Music Singers, three women and a man plus a woman playing the piano. Several songs from the movie were performed, including "Climb Every Mountain" by one of the women dressed in a nun's habit. 

Lizzie said I looked delighted by the singing, and I did have a smile plastered to my face because it seemed like a lot. Like I said, there were six Viking guests and these singers were smack-dab in front of us singing their faces off. I do love The Sound of Music, but wow, I didn't love this experience. 

In fact, when I filled out the questionnaire Viking gave us at the end of the cruise, I went into some detail about how I would have preferred to have the option to get lunch on my own. There was a great looking biergarten and market going on in the town that I would have loved to do instead. I appreciated the history of the restaurant, but the whole thing was very contrived to me. 

After lunch, we only had about an hour to explore on our own. We checked out the oldest bookstore in Austria:

and it was quite modern and nice. We didn't buy anything there. We went into a paper store and wandered around, buying some postcards and maybe a sticker. I don't remember and I haven't gotten to Salzburg in my travel journal yet. We wanted to have a beer and we went to the Hotel Sacher and got a nice table on the patio, but we misjudged the time and had to leave before we could order anything. 

I thought Salzburg was beautiful and I would love to have a day there on my own. I'd love to go up to the fortress and have a view of the town from above. There was a scrumptious looking pastry shop that I'd have coffee and cake from in a heartbeat. The tour just gave me a taste of the town and snatched it away very quickly.

Here are a couple of my favorite photos:

I'd love to walk along that path next to the river and look at those buildings.

I bet the views from the fortress are amazing

Plus, we were so busy scurrying about that I didn't even have the chance to pull out my travel journal to doodle or make notes until we were back on the bus. 

Oh well, it's like I always say, you gotta leave something for next time. 

I'm not sad I went to Salzburg. I'm just sad I didn't have the experience I'd hoped for. 

We drove back the way we came, through the towns. I admired all the pretty window boxes. Austrians are really, really good at window boxes. Because the countryside is so green, the flowers really added a bright pop of color to the drive. It was idyllic. I love to think about people who live in those places and what their lives might be like. It was a nice drive.

That night on the ship, Hot Captain Tomas, Adrian the Activity Director, and the  Hotel Manager (don't remember his name), came into the lounge to have a farewell champagne toast with the guests, and that night, I had the most amazing dinner. Chef George really outdid himself.

Zwiebelrostbraten

This roast was pure comfort food. The meat melted in my mouth. The crunchy onion straws gave the whole dish such a nice flavor. The mashed potatoes were creamy, and the gravy was light and flavorful. Even the carrots were good. I will be looking for a recipe for this dish because damn, even now a month later, my mouth waters when I think of this meal.

After dinner it was time to pack and prepare to disembark so we could continue our great Central European adventure in a different country. 

Next up: a quick visit to Cesky Krumlov and on to Prague!

#2978 vacation memories: day 8 - Linz, Austria (Friday, 12 Sept)

 

always down for a biergarten

When reviewing the itinerary for this vacation, I figured there were two days that were "throw-away days." I mean that there were two places we were going to stop and I'd get off the ship to see what was up and then go back and hang out on board the Aegir. The two towns without expectations: Bratislava, Slovakia and Linz, Austria. I've already told you I had a really nice day in Bratislava. Now I'm going to tell you that Linz was delightful and I had a fantastic day there.

We started out on a walking tour through Viking. The weather was grey and drizzly. The guide was very good, though, and I enjoyed hearing him talk about the third largest city in Austia - yeah, Linz! There is quite a bit of history there related to World War II and the little mustache man, but I won't go into that here because it was after the tour was over, when Lizzie and I got to wandering, that the day really picked up for me. Lizzie and I made a little plan that primarily involved getting coffee somewhere and wandering around for a little while. With this rather loose plan, off we went. 

The first thing to note is that, as with many of the cities we visited, Mozart was here! He wrote Symphony Number 36 in C Major here in about four days at the end of October 1783. (I'm listening to it as I write this, by the way. You may not know this about me, but I love classical music.)

Mozart wrote the Linz Symphony Number 36 here!

The second thing about Linz that caught my attention was flowers. I mentioned in my Vienna post that Austrians are the best at flower boxes, and Linz was just really great at flowers. Spoiler: the first pic and the third pic are the same light post from different angles, taken a few hours apart.

these cuties were at a little shop

a cute flower shop in Linz

Lizzie said she remembered seeing a little coffee place, so we went in that direction. We were sidetracked by a darling little bookshop. Most of the place was dedicated to children's books, but there was an upstairs portion for grown-ups.

We didn't buy any books, but we did find stickers and postcards and magnets (oh my!) I very nearly bought a coffee mug, but I chose not to simply because I was concerned it would get broken in my overly-stuffed bag.

Speaking of coffee, here's where we had some:

Friedlieb und Tochter

We sat at that orange table, sipping cappuccinos and enjoying cake. Lizzie had the most delicious cheesecake. It was incredibly smooth and creamy, and topped with a light layer of raspberry, I think. Here's what I had:

cappuccino and lemon cake

The sun had come out, the sky was bright blue, and I truly felt like I was living my best life, siting there having coffee and cake at an Austrian cafe. Could the day get better? (Yes, it could, and it did!)

After this amazing treat, we continued to wander around the quiet back streets. We decided to find the new cathedral, the Mariendom. It's fairly new, consecrated in 1924 and is the largest church building in Austria. We walked around inside and admired the stained glass, then walked out the door to find a biergarten!

biergarten with the cathedral in the background

I took this pic as we were leaving and the sky was clouding up again, but while we were there, the sky was blue and the air was warm and all was right with the world.

fav snack: fries with mayo and beer

a happy nun chats with a priest and a friend while sipping a pilsner

Lizzie likes it too!

Music was playing, people were having lunch, drinking beer and wine, chatting, and soaking up the sun and good vibes on this beautiful Friday afternoon. I took out my sketchbook and started doodling what I saw around me.

doodles done at the biergarten

We limited ourselves to two beers each, and as the clouds started gathering again, we decided to head back to the ship. On our way, though, we stopped at the oldest bakery in Linz to get a piece of the famous Linzertorte.

inside the Hofbackerei with a Linzertorte display

ooh! chandelier! (and a woman giving me the stink eye)

We took our slice of Linzertorte back to the ship to snack on later. We wanted to get back in time to have a tour of the wheelhouse with hot Captain Tomas - yet another highlight of a glorious day. 

My thoughts on the Linzertorte: it was dry and could have used a bit more of the jam. I think I would have liked the Linzer cookie more. The fact that I didn't get a cookie instead of the torte might be the only regret I have about the day in Linz. My favorite part was a toss up between the cafe and the biergarten. I had a great time at both places.  If I ever went back to Linz, I would cross the river and go up on the hill to explore the church up there and take in the view of the city.

maybe next time I'll go to the other side of the river and up that hill

The step count that day was 12,728 steps, 5.28 miles.

Next stop: the hills are alive in Salzburg, Austria!

#2977 vacation memories: day 7 - Krems, Austria (Thursday 11 Sept)

 

golden hour on the Danube

When we woke up on Thursday morning, we were docked in Krems. We had breakfast in the dining room and were enchanted by the cute town waiting right outside. We wished we had skipped breakfast on the ship and gone into the town to find a cafe, but we didn't. However, after breakfast we did go do a tiny bit of exploring.

Krems, Austria

I love fall!

Our excursion on this blissful late summer/early autumn day was a quick 15 minute bus ride into the mountains to visit Gottweig Abbey. This is a working abbey that was founded in 1083. It's been through some stuff, like the Middle Ages, fires, and Nazis, but it's still there, and the monks are still producing delicious apricot wine and ministering to the people of the valley. It is beautiful up there, and the views are spectacular.

so green!

my "art" shot of the valley

Gottweig Abbey church ussie

Our guide was a handsome Austrian fellow called Andrea. The church is pretty. There is a building there that the Hapsburgs (the royal family of Austria back in the day) used to come to because they could. There is a remarkably beautiful staircase and a delightful fresco on the ceiling. I would recommend checking out my sister's blog to see those two things. She took excellent photos of the staircase and fresco.

While most people were gazing up at the fresco, Lizzie and I spotted a put-your-face-here cutout and we had to oblige.

one must be serious in a monk's robes

Lizzie making Salvador Dali eyes

After the Abbey tour, we went back to the ship and pretty much immediately began the scenic sailing portion of the day. We were bummed out because we had been on the last tour, so we were eating lunch in the dining room when the sail began and missed out on a few things. As soon as we could, though, we went up on the sundeck with pretty much everyone else on the ship to take in the sights of the Wachau Valley. We were fortunate to share a table with a wonderful couple from New Zealand, Debra and Craig. We chatted easily about all kinds of things, including politics. They wanted to know if we, as Americans, are okay. Guess it depends on who you ask, right? Anyway, it was a super pleasant was to spend an afternoon. Our conversation kept getting interrupted as Debra, Lizzie, and I would get up to take photos.

a decrepit castle on the hill

another charming village

yes, that is a statue of a giant nose

Schonbuhel Castle

sunset on the Danube

That night for dinner, Chef George prepared "A Taste of Austria" which was basically a lot of meat. I liked it. If I remember right, the entertainment after dinner was a music trivia game. Lizzie and I would have placed in the top three if I hadn't messed up the decade of the songs that Lizzie had correct. It was fun and challenging. A highlight was an impromptu acapella sing-along  of "Take Me Home, Country Roads." All in all, it was a completely wonderful day.

Up next: an unexpectedly delightful day in Linz, Austria.