Good thing we had fortified ourselves with wine the previous night...
After hopping on the 9AM train to Frankfurt on our wait to Salzburg, we had about two hours to kill in the Frankfurt railway station. After wandering around to find a place to sit that was both inside out of the rain but also a place to actually park all of our stuff and SIT, we waited for 11:30 to come so we could catch our train to Salzburg. After a 25 minute delay, we were off! Fifteen minutes into the trip, we looked up at a stop and what do you know...it was the little local train station that we had just been at 3 hours before! Well, crap.
We were enjoying first class, however! The seats reclined, had wings on the sides of the headrest, had footrests, and were just generally pretty awesomely comfortable. There were maybe a half dozen people in our car, and between all of those factors (plus exhaustion) I was actually able to sleep for a couple hours!
The station in Salzburg was awesome, no other word for it. Still probably one of the best stations I've been through. The lower level had excellent signage and information, there was a grocery store where you could stock up on things for your train travel cheaply, an information room with maps and an English-speaking guide there who advised us that our hotel was a short 10-minute walk that we could easily do and save a taxi fare.
We arrived at The Pitter Hotel only to be informed that sadly, they had water damage from the recent rains, and they were unable to fulfill the reservation. They were transferring us to the Mercure hotel a short distance away and would take care of the room charges. Ok. We can go with this. I guess.
A taxi took us to the Mercure and we were able to check in after a mixup in which they were determined we had separate rooms. Nope, we're getting along just fine these days, thank you though. I had to contact Lori, our travel agent, to get it taken care of, however. It took her a whopping 5 minutes and then all was well.
Except now we were hungry. The hotel had a restaurant area, so we headed in that direction, only to be told that was for breakfast only. They had another Mercure hotel a couple blocks away that had the restaurant. Now, normally this wouldn't have been a problem. However, while we had packed a few long-sleeve shirts and a light jacket, expecting some 65-70 degree weather, we weren't really prepared for a damp 55 degrees, so two blocks sounded like an awfully long ways at 9PM. But again, we can go with this. (Are you sensing a theme so far in this trip?)
Dinner was good, although to be honest, I was so tired from all the travel and again, that jet lag, that I really don't remember much of it except that the waiter was extremely nice, the soup was hot, and the food was good.
We slept for 14 hours that night.
This put us pretty behind in our sight-seeing schedule, since most of the museums and attractions close at 5 or 5:30. Here's what we managed to squeeze in:
We walked to Old Town and explored their church area with a gorgeous cemetery (there are pictures, you'll see what I mean), catacombs dating to early Christianity gouged out of the rock wall, as well as the fortress overlooking the city, which we took a funicular to get to. (SO happy that wasn't out of order and we had to climb, although that would have fit in well with our theme this time.) Because it rained steadily all day and was very misty, we couldn't get any super awesome pictures of the sights but hopefully you can get an idea. It was definitely a city we'd love to go back to! As the birthplace of Mozart, they have a strong connection with music and the arts, and there are performances scheduled all over the city pretty much at all times. It was also just a lovely place to walk around: the building architecture, the river bisecting the city, all the shops and alleyways with more shops.
We headed back in the direction of our hotel hoping to find a coffee shop to warm up in. We found one but were reminded that not all countries have blanket no-smoking-inside laws when every table had an ashtry and most had people using them. Not quite what we had in mind... We quickly found another one and I'm so glad we did!
This coffee shop had a unique set up. When you first walked in it was very narrow with 2-top tables lining the left side and the hostess stand on the right. If you kept walking it opened up into a tiny courtyard surrounded by tall buildings, so it almost felt like the bottom of a pretty tunnel. Once you kept going (nope, we weren't interested in eating in the rain in the courtyard) you entered into the actual restaurant, which again was tiny but more square and with more tables. It was packed, always a good sign, and we snagged a table that was vacated a few minutes after we arrived.
After ordering coffee and hot chocolate, we decided we might as well eat. Chris ordered spaghetti carbonara and I had a flatbread pizza with artichokes, red and yellow peppers, olives, and some kind of other deliciousness. Oh my. I could get used to eating like that! We had also been told to try the Topfenstreudel, a kind of cheesecake. What a lovely way to end a chilly day!
Well, almost. I got wine that night too. Nothing warms you up quite like a glass of red after a long day of soaking in the rain. My shoes finally dried out 2 days later.
Austria, we will be back.
After hopping on the 9AM train to Frankfurt on our wait to Salzburg, we had about two hours to kill in the Frankfurt railway station. After wandering around to find a place to sit that was both inside out of the rain but also a place to actually park all of our stuff and SIT, we waited for 11:30 to come so we could catch our train to Salzburg. After a 25 minute delay, we were off! Fifteen minutes into the trip, we looked up at a stop and what do you know...it was the little local train station that we had just been at 3 hours before! Well, crap.
We were enjoying first class, however! The seats reclined, had wings on the sides of the headrest, had footrests, and were just generally pretty awesomely comfortable. There were maybe a half dozen people in our car, and between all of those factors (plus exhaustion) I was actually able to sleep for a couple hours!
The station in Salzburg was awesome, no other word for it. Still probably one of the best stations I've been through. The lower level had excellent signage and information, there was a grocery store where you could stock up on things for your train travel cheaply, an information room with maps and an English-speaking guide there who advised us that our hotel was a short 10-minute walk that we could easily do and save a taxi fare.
We arrived at The Pitter Hotel only to be informed that sadly, they had water damage from the recent rains, and they were unable to fulfill the reservation. They were transferring us to the Mercure hotel a short distance away and would take care of the room charges. Ok. We can go with this. I guess.
A taxi took us to the Mercure and we were able to check in after a mixup in which they were determined we had separate rooms. Nope, we're getting along just fine these days, thank you though. I had to contact Lori, our travel agent, to get it taken care of, however. It took her a whopping 5 minutes and then all was well.
Except now we were hungry. The hotel had a restaurant area, so we headed in that direction, only to be told that was for breakfast only. They had another Mercure hotel a couple blocks away that had the restaurant. Now, normally this wouldn't have been a problem. However, while we had packed a few long-sleeve shirts and a light jacket, expecting some 65-70 degree weather, we weren't really prepared for a damp 55 degrees, so two blocks sounded like an awfully long ways at 9PM. But again, we can go with this. (Are you sensing a theme so far in this trip?)
Dinner was good, although to be honest, I was so tired from all the travel and again, that jet lag, that I really don't remember much of it except that the waiter was extremely nice, the soup was hot, and the food was good.
We slept for 14 hours that night.
This put us pretty behind in our sight-seeing schedule, since most of the museums and attractions close at 5 or 5:30. Here's what we managed to squeeze in:
We walked to Old Town and explored their church area with a gorgeous cemetery (there are pictures, you'll see what I mean), catacombs dating to early Christianity gouged out of the rock wall, as well as the fortress overlooking the city, which we took a funicular to get to. (SO happy that wasn't out of order and we had to climb, although that would have fit in well with our theme this time.) Because it rained steadily all day and was very misty, we couldn't get any super awesome pictures of the sights but hopefully you can get an idea. It was definitely a city we'd love to go back to! As the birthplace of Mozart, they have a strong connection with music and the arts, and there are performances scheduled all over the city pretty much at all times. It was also just a lovely place to walk around: the building architecture, the river bisecting the city, all the shops and alleyways with more shops.
We headed back in the direction of our hotel hoping to find a coffee shop to warm up in. We found one but were reminded that not all countries have blanket no-smoking-inside laws when every table had an ashtry and most had people using them. Not quite what we had in mind... We quickly found another one and I'm so glad we did!
This coffee shop had a unique set up. When you first walked in it was very narrow with 2-top tables lining the left side and the hostess stand on the right. If you kept walking it opened up into a tiny courtyard surrounded by tall buildings, so it almost felt like the bottom of a pretty tunnel. Once you kept going (nope, we weren't interested in eating in the rain in the courtyard) you entered into the actual restaurant, which again was tiny but more square and with more tables. It was packed, always a good sign, and we snagged a table that was vacated a few minutes after we arrived.
After ordering coffee and hot chocolate, we decided we might as well eat. Chris ordered spaghetti carbonara and I had a flatbread pizza with artichokes, red and yellow peppers, olives, and some kind of other deliciousness. Oh my. I could get used to eating like that! We had also been told to try the Topfenstreudel, a kind of cheesecake. What a lovely way to end a chilly day!
Well, almost. I got wine that night too. Nothing warms you up quite like a glass of red after a long day of soaking in the rain. My shoes finally dried out 2 days later.
Austria, we will be back.
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