This is a whirlwind tour, frankly too fast for my liking. We boarded a train from Vienna to Salzburg in the early morning. Then we had five hours to explore a city that deserves at least a couple of days.
The train ride was beautiful, through a snow-covered landscape. That snow will stay for a long time, the temperature isn’t expected to rise above freezing for the remainder of the week.
Salzburg is famous for two things: it is the birthplace of Mozart, and it is where much of The Sound of Music was filmed.
Highlights from my brief visit to Salzburg included:
- Lunch at Café Sacher, home to the famous Sacher Torte. I ate goulash soup followed by a Sacher cube (a small piece of torte). The Sacher Cube, while delicious was so rich two bites were enough to satisfy me. The menu explains the history of being made for aristocrats and that it requires thirty-four steps to create. I guess it is worth the effort.
- From there we did a walking tour of the old town, to see Mirabell Garden, the old streets, the home of the Mozarts and Wolfgang’s birthplace.
- We visited two Christmas markets,
Then back to the train headed towards Munich. The train was delayed by 30 minutes, so we did a bit of rushing around to get to the Ratskeller for our dinner reservation. The Ratskeller is an old, famous, and enormous restaurant. I had duck for dinner, accompanied by some of the best cabbage slaw I’ve ever eaten. Dessert was black forest cake, star of the meal. The cherries are soaked in liqueur. I could have a whole bowl of them and skipped the cake.