Finishing Out the Year

Our last stop in Austria, and our last trip of 2012 was to Innsbruck, Austria. This small ski village was so beautiful. From the center of town, you can see the mountains jutting up into the sky in every direction.  Travers and I arrived by train, a short ride from Salzburg. When we arrived at our hotel though, they told us that some of the rooms had flooded due to a burst pipe or something, so they were putting us up at another hotel a few blocks away. We were a bit hesitant and thinking this was going to be a disaster, but to our delight, the hotel was closer to the center of town, so it ended up working to our advantage.  As always, we dropped our bags, and immediately headed back out to explore. We were only there for a day so we had to make the most of it.  We walked the 2 minutes to the center of town, and were able to see the last Christmas Market that was open in town.  We grabbed two vin chauds and continued our walk.

We strolled through the narrow cobblestone streets, walking past the famous Golden Roof Museum, and stopping into another brewery for some more Austrian beer!  It was getting darker now, and some festivities were going on back in the main part of town. We watched some musicians play music, and the Golden Roof had some entertainment going on in the upper balcony as well!  We watched the show with all the other people, then found a a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner.  With a couple margaritas, and some tasty Mexican food in us, we continued walking around and stopped at a few more bars and restaurants and tried to mingle with the locals.











The next morning, we had just a few hours before we had to catch a train to Munich for our flight back home.  So we decided to head up the mountain to take in some views of the city below.  We walked past the center of town, towards the river. Following the river, we walked to the base of the funicular that would take us up the mountain. The walk along the river was breathtaking. The combination of the river, and the blue sky and the mountains covered in snow were just breathtaking.









We took a bridge to cross the river, and then waited for the next funicular to take us up the mountain. Once up there, the sun was shining so bright that a lot of the photos didn't come out very well, but the views were still amazing.

We decided to have lunch up on the mountain, and being that it was our last Austrian meal, Travers got the traditional goulash soup, and I got a traditional Austrian sausage.  Taking in the views a bit more, we knew it was time to go.  So we headed back down the mountain, grabbed our bags from the hotel, and headed to the train station.  It was a quick stop in Innsbruck, but we both want to go back and take our ski gear with us so we can enjoy the mountains even more.  This small village was a wonderful way to wind down after a week long trip in Austria, and it was a great final stop to all our travels in 2012.

Beer, Mozart, and Beer

Training from Vienna to Salzburg took just a few short hours. We saw some beautiful Austrian countryside, and arrived in the small town of Salzburg.  Dropping our bags at Hotel Elefant, we still had a bit of daylight left to explore. We strolled through Old Town, seeing the remnants of the Christmas market that had recently closed, and dodging tons of people that were walking the streets.  We saw some museums and old buildings. Then decided to walk to a nearby brewery, Augustiner, to experience the Austrian beer drinking culture first hand.









With a large pretzel to hold us over until dinner, we had a couple beers and took in the beer hall culture.  After we got our fill, we walked back towards town and stopped in at a restaurant, Baerenwirt, we had seen on the way there. We had delicious austrian food, some more austrian beer and wine, then headed back towards town to our hotel for the night.

The next day was our only full day in Salzburg and we wanted to make the most of it. We purchased the Salzburg Card, which allowed us 24 hour access into tons of museums and historical buildings. We started with the Residence Museum, which houses the state of Salzburg's painting collection. After that, we found Salzburg's oldest bakery, Alteste Backerei, buying some freshly baked bread as a mid-morning snack. With bread in hand, we walked through St. Peter's cemetary then into the catacombs, where there were narrow passageways and staircases.





















We walked some more, passing by a farmer's market, then finding our way to Mozart's childhood home.  We toured the house (unfortunately were not allowed to take photos), and learned all about Mozart and how he grew up. We then crossed the river to the other side of town, and headed towards Mozart's home where he lived with his wife and family as an adult. Again, we learned all about Mozart and about the music and operas he created.











After learning all we could about Mozart, we hopped on a bus to the Stiegl Brewery on the other side of town. We were pretty hungry at this point, so before touring the museum, we had lunch in one of the restaurants there, again filling ourselves up with delicious Austrian food and a couple Stiegl beers.  We toured the brewery after that, learning all about how they make the Stiegl beers, then had two more in the bar at the end of the tour before hopping back on a bus to the center of town.











We went back to the hotel to rest for a bit and got ready for our night out. We were going to see an Austrian music concert!  We left the hotel and headed back across the river to the Stein Hotel. We went up the elevator to the Steinterrasse, which is a modern swanky lounge with a large terrace that overlooks the river and the old town beyond, which was beautifully lit up at night.  After a cocktail, we walked to  the Mirabell Palace to listen to a Mozart concert. We couldn't see much of the palace at night, but the room they held the concert in was fully decorated in gold walls and was just gorgeous to listen to beautiful music in a beautiful room.  After the concert, we walked back towards the center of town, having a small dinner at Zwettler's Stiftskeller before heading back to the hotel for the night.










The next morning, we still had a few hours left on our Salzburg Card, so we headed up the funicular to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. From the funicular, we had great views of the city below, and there were even better ones from the top of the fortress.  There was a marionette museum, where we posed as some medieval characters. We then took a tour of the fortress, taking in some more spectacular views of the city below.









We felt like we had seen as much as there was to see of Salzburg. While a smaller town, it was just as exciting as Vienna. We had learned all about Mozart, were able to experience the beer drinking culture, as well as the music concert culture, and just enjoy a great trip.  The next destination was to an even smaller town, Innsbruck. It would be a great city to end our tour of Austria!

Christmas in Austria

We spent Christmas day partially on a plane and partially in Vienna, Austria!  After a slight detour to a nearby town due to excessive fog in Vienna, we finally landed and made our way to Le Meridien hotel in Vienna.  As usual, we wasted no time in dropping our bags and heading back out to explore the city. We strolled through the town, into Old Town, and down the major pedestrian shopping streets. We passed by some beautiful buildings, and went into St. Stephen's Cathedral, which had an amazing multi-colored lighting design inside. We stopped and grabbed a classic Austrian snack of a cheese sausage stuffed into a baguette. Yumm. Then as the afternoon turned to evening, we stopped at Cafe Central for a couple Irish Coffees and a traditional strudel. Double Yumm!

The city was decorated in colorful lights, strung from building to building, and as the sun set, all the lights came on and gave the city a magical feeling! What a great place to spend Christmas!

After Cafe Central, we walked past a Christmas Market that had closed the night before, but thankfully it was still lit up all over.  The backdrop was a gorgeous building that was all lit up inside. And in front of the market, were some bright red butteflies!  We found another market nearby that was just as pretty and lit up, so we strolled past all the shops, having a vin chaud to keep us warm.












That evening we had dinner in a cave/cellar restaurant called Zwolf Apostel Keller, which served traditional Austrian food, and had musicians that come by your table and play songs based on the country where you're from.  We had some hot goulash and delicious schnitzel and lots of yummy other Austrian delights.  After dinner, we strolled back through the streets, taking in more pretty street lights and seeing all the fog that had rolled in.









The next day, we took the metro out to another Christmas Market and the Schonbrunn Palace! The market was just in front of the palace and had a huge Christmas tree in the center.  We grabbed some vin chaud and walked through the shops, mostly the same as the night before, but really interesting to see all the Viennese artwork that was displayed.  We bought two tickets to go into the palace, and followed the audio guide around the palace to see all the lavishly decorated rooms.  After touring the palace, we grabbed some lunch at one of the shops in the market, then strolled through the gardens before heading back towards the city center.









In the afternoon, we took a tour of the Vienna State Opera House and vowed that we would return to Vienna some day and actually go to an opera.

That evening, we had dinner at a more modern restaurant called Kulinarium 7.  We opted for a wine pairing with our dinner, and our waiter was wonderful, describing each dish that came out and every wine that accompanied it.  Afterwards, he took us on a tour of the cellar downstairs, where all their wine is stored, and where they had recently built an additional dining area where you truly feel like you're in a cave.

Our final day in Vienna was spent walking to another part of town to see another palace and some more gardens. It wasn't as impressive as the Schonbrunn Palace, so after strolling through the gardens, we opted to forgo the palace tour and head back to the hotel so we could get an earlier start on heading to our next destination.  Vienna was a great city to visit, but much larger than I anticipated. I was looking forward to our next destination, a smaller town, and the home of Mozart, Salzburg!