Salzburg!!!

Day 8: Train Ride & Hohensalzburg Fortress

We debated taking this side trip, but in the end it was totally worth it! Tim was out of the country and Marina was working, so Nathan, James, and I hopped on a train and headed for Salzburg. It was neat to see so much of Austria's countryside. This was mine and James's first real trip on a train. He loved spotting the cows and pigs out the window (I don't think we saw any pigs, but James makes a cute oink sound).

Then we ate at our second authentic Austrian restaurant called Die Wiess. When we were getting information about the bus routes the lady helping us suggested it. It was delicious! Nathan had spinach dumplings and I had G'rößten Knödel mit Ei und Salat (or dumplings with egg and salad). We bought a Viennese cookbook and hopefully we can make these dishes sometime soon!

Then we headed to Hohensalzburg Fortress in a popular tourist area. Seeing the history of this fortress was amazing, but even more so were the views. There were a couple courtyards that overlooked the city and, in the back, the Alps. James loved running around and at one point started picking me flowers. :)

Day 9: Hellbrunn Palace and Salzburg Zoo

We packed in quite a lot these two days. Poor James was great, though! Hellbrunn Palace was built in 1612 by an archbishop and the main attraction is the trick fountains. Throughout the garden there are hidden fountains (see the picture with Nathan and James in the water archway) and other attractions that are all powered by the nearby spring. The archbishop would take his guests through his garden and surprise them by spraying them with water. We were on a guided tour and avoided getting wet till the very end. Everyone screamed and James did not happy about that. Everyone was scared so he should be too. :)

Next up was the zoo. I guess it was customary for the emperors and archbishops to have exotic animals so, at least in Salzburg and Vienna, the zoo was located right next to a palace. The Salzburg Zoo was fairly small and we were running low on time and energy so we didn't look at too many of the animals. We thought James would have fun at the petting zoo area so after a quick lunch we paid the sheep and goats a visit. James was remarkably brave petting and feeding the animals. However, he wouldn't actually give up the one food pellet we gave him and Nathan finally had to feed it to the sheep. We've got a lot of "kindness to animals" training to do with James. Ugh...

We had one three quick stops just before catching the train back to Vienna. The day before we found a wonderful place to get chocolate ice cream called Demel. Kind of a given considering they're a chocolaterie! We couldn't resist getting a second cone!

And speaking of chocolate, we had to try the famous Mozartkugel. We decided to get one for each of our amazing friends back home who helped us by taking care of Sadie. Thanks!!!

I don't have a picture of the last stop, but we were told to try the giant pretzel you can get from a street vendor. It was good, but not spectacular, to me at least. The problem was I'm not a fan of sourdough and it had a sour-like taste to it.

Anyway, this was an amazing side trip to Salzburg! We're so glad we went!