Austria Day 9: To Salzburg~ Mozart's City~
Once again we were on our own to explore a City about 1.5 hours away from Linz by the OBB train. Unfortunately it was also colder and "rain-ier" than the day before in Salzkammergut.
So as usual we had our hearty breakfast at the youth hotel. Hmm well its rather unique because all the meats and ham and leber were all in the forms of spreads. Kinda reminded me of tuna and luncheon meat but tasted nothing like that.. heh~ And there's still a wide variety of breads as well as tea, coffee, milk and juices. Not too bad for a budget stay. :)
After breakie we took a short 5 min walk in the drizzle to the nearest tram station, WiFi.
There are 3 available types of tickets, if i remember well with my "amazing memory", hmm i think for €0.80 - 1 to 3 stations, €1.70 - 1 trip (no limit of stations), and €3.40 - unlimited rides for a day.
We were to take a tram from WiFi to Hauptbahnof where we can get the OBB from Linz-Wels-Salzburg.
Decided to take a closer shot at the door of the trams. In Linz, the doors to not automatically open or close at every station. If u wanted to get on or off, you will have to press the button on the door.
Before going to Linz, we had already heard so many stories about "Do not use the public toilets, its really expensive!" Hmm well in Singapore if you have to pay at a public toilet, it is usually 10cts or maximum 20cts, but that one public toilet i had to pay at was €0.50. That's about SGD 1.10? Took a photo when i was leaving the toilet because I got really confused by this gate. Almost didn't know how to get out. *embarassed*
Finally Chris got the OBB tickets and we went to wait for our train at the platform on this cold Tuesday morning.
Noticed these little "fish tanks" along the platform. They were obviously not smoking boxes like what you will see in Japan. So i figured it was to shelter people from the cold! Cleverly, i also went in to take cover! :D
The trains also have a special cabin where people keep their bikes in. Cool stuff, something again not so convenient in Singapore which is why we now have foldable & portable bikes which people can bring on MRTs.
Happily took a window seat because we didn't pre-book a seat. Suddenly felt like i was a character in Harry Potter!
This was the coolest bit, when the lady came to sell some hot drinks and snacks. Hmm maybe they would have had some chocolate frogs?
Not really sure how we were going to get around Salzburg, we went to the tourist information center to ask for help. Got ourselves a Salzburg Card for €21 per adult. This entitles us to free admission and discounts to lots of attractions and stuff. Definitely a must-buy if u wanted to see as much as you can.
We were still praying for good weather, but looked like it wasn't any different from the weather in Linz. Perhaps it was even colder in Salzburg. I had on 1 long sleeve, 1 thick woolen cardigan and a windbreaker, and i was still freezing especially as the wind blew in my face.
After checking out again at another tourist information center in the city, we found out which bus we had to take to get to Untersberg. Along the way we also passed by Hellbrunn, but because of the limited amount of time, we had decided to give that a miss. Hellbrunn is another palace from the late Renaissance which i later learnt from Florian that it has these trick fountains for tourists.. :( Looks like Salzburg is another place i have to visit...
From our little guidebook, it looked like Untersberg was the highest point we could get to by cable car to enjjoy a magnificient view of Salzburg from the summit at 1853m!! I was super excited!!
And then we realised we went into clouds and more clouds and we could only see clouds, because of the not too good weather :( Well, at least i got to freeze myself totally unprepared! Taking photos really killed my fingers up there... and sadly there was no magnificient view.. (another reason to go to Salzburg once more..)
We skipped Hellbrunn and made our way back to the city center again. The day trip was a little rushed because we had intended to make it back to Linz to meet Michael for dinner, and a beer we didn't have the day before.
I got a shock seeing a guy standing on top of that round globe. From far he looked really real don't you think? I still have no idea what that was supposed to mean though. Maybe just a nice feeling of "I'm on top of the world!"?
Next we went to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. Apparently the largest, completely preserved fortress in Central Europe dating from the 11th century.
Thankful that we made a trip up to the fortress cos we finally had a truly amazing view over the city center.
On our way back into the city center to do some sight seeing of the town, I also took a photo of Mozart. :) The area is also known as Mozartplatz.
Since Salzburg is well known as Mozart's city, we had to visit Mozart's Birthplace! Unfortunately, photos are not allowed in the museum. There were cool displays of his pianos from the very antique kinds to those with more keys. And funny displays of his hair, and photos and paintings blah blah..
Weather was still cold and a little rainy.. and after all the walking and sightseeing, my hands were still feeling frozen. :( As it was already dinner time and we would take another ~1.5 hrs to get back to Linz so we took a bus back to the Salzburg Hauptbahnof.
Back in Linz, our dinner date was too tired to meet us in the end so Chris and I walked around a little in Hauptplatz to find a good place for one last dinner in Linz.
Highly recommended by me now! Located in the smaller street branching from the main street near to the souvenir shop. The food we had was great!! And the waiter was really friendly and i loved the cosy atmostphere.
Dinner was really great! I loved my order i just can't describe! Maybe i was too cold and hungry too? but hmm definitely something i will have again!
They didn't serve any Sacher Torte and Linzer Torte looked like it may have been a traditional dessert so we decided to have a go at it! :) Another great choice!
Finally saying bye to the night view of Hauptplatz, a place i'd grown so familiar with already. And with my primitive digital Samsung camera, I took a shot which turned out pretty satisfying too~
Although there were some glitches here and there, but the day was still great despite feeling a little too cold and hence really tired. :) This was a quick touch and go trip for me but if ever there is another chance, Salzburg will be on my list and 2 days might be a good idea to also try some activities there. *HAPPY*
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