Day 12: Salzburg, Austria
Wed Nes Day, May 27th 2026,
That's the only way I know how to spell Wednesday is by separating out the different parts. Have you ever thought about how strange that spelling is for a word we all use at least once a week? It sounds like Wensday, but the D is silent. I think this is the only word in the English language with a silent D. Also that Gwen Stefani song from the Golden Years of 2004 still helps be spell the word B a n a n a s.
Anyway, we are in SALZBURG!!!!
A bit of a personal History, a Blog Prologue if you will, nearly 14 years ago when I was in Europe last my roommate Alex and myself were backpacking across Europe and we met an Awesome dude Matt we ran into while in Germany who happened to be from Canada. We all rented a car and had the ambitious plan to drive to a large number of places in a single day, like the actual Castle Disneyland was modeled after, and we thought we could make it to Salzburg in Austria as it is on South East border of Germany. Alex had never driven Stick before amd all the rental cars were Stick, but we really wanted to drive around Germany and get to Salzburg, so we rented it anyway. The very first place we drove that car was in the AutoBan (probably spelling that wrong), where it is famous for not having a speed limit. Anyway, he did really well on the Autoban as cars whizzed by us, until we start going up the mountains in the Alps and the car stalls while driving on a steep incline on the road. For lack of a better politically correct term, we did a "Chinese Firedrill" in the middle of the Alps to get Matt's friend Dave to drive Stick, as he was the only one who knew how. We didn't do this earlier because Alex was the only driver with Insurance.
We then make the Pilgrimage to Salzburg successfully, however, due to how much we tried to fit into the day, we got there we'll after dark and the only thing we could find open was a Pizza place, in Salzburg, Austria, haha! It wws so dark out we couldn't see anything. I still remember eating on the top floor of what looked like some guys apartment, and then we drove back to Munich, Germany. I vowed to someday go back one day and actually see that place, and Today is the Today!!!!
Holly's Dad also spent a few days in Salzburg as a 16 year old on a Eurotrip with his school, which must have been Awesome as the drinking age so just happens to be 16!!!! Haha! From what Holly has told me, her Dad has fond memories of this place, so it is really Special that Holly is able to experience this Beautiful place too. It's Special that we both got to finally experience this place.
We leave our Hotel in Vienna and go for Pastries and Coffee at this cute little Bakery/Cafe before leaving on the train. The Pastries look soooo good so we order a bunch of things and eat on thr patio outside. Both Holly and my sister watch this show called Emily In Paris, so at some point I've seen an episode or two against my will and this area reminds me of scenes from the show. We then catch the train to Salzburg and I absolutely LOVE looking at the countryside roll by as we look out the train windows, it's just aoooo green and Beautiful!!!!
After about 2.5 hours we get to the Salzburg station and put Holly's bag in a storage locker for the day for only $6.5 Euros, a super great deal. We then look at the map and start walking towards the city centre as it's only about a 15 minute walk from the train station. We walk through semi-run down areas and get to a petrified tree that reminds us of the one in Vancouver at the entrance to Stanley Park, so we take a picture and notice a bunch of people walking from an unassuming sidewalk a little further down, so we go and see what might be over there, and low and behold we see the famous Gardens appear out of nowhere! It was soooo nice!!! Lots of blooming flowers and roses surrounded by Amazing buildings and it was nice to walk through.
The main attraction of this place in North America is that this is where The Sound of Music was filmed, so it was cool to walk through the city. The funny thing is that from what I've heard, most of the Locals have never seen the movie, either because they've just never seen it, or because they're tired of hearing people coming to their town because of it. Here are some photos of us Teleporting unto The Sound of Music! 
Without looking too much ahead on that to expect, this place is absolutely Amazing!!!! The city so far might be my unexpected dark horse in my Favourite city of the trip! It reminds me of Vienna but on a smaller, more chill, relaxed, and on a local scale, where there isn't massive amounts of people and without the weight of being as world renowned but with still all the beauty architecturally and with the surrounding Nature. It kind of like Vancouver to Victoria.
We have an Amazingly Magical experience walking through the Gardens as at the end of the Gardens we saw an outdoor Beer Garden so we walk to it. We were Excited to see that they have Stiegl Beer on Tap, a favorite amongst Holly, her Dad, and me, and the guy at the bar was soooo nice, he saw our Excitement and went to get us To-Go glasses as we didn't know he was closed, but he still wanted to give us Stiegl on Tap that we were soooo Excited to see, he was soooo nice! That's when we found out something Special, not just Stiegle that Stiegl was from Austria, it was Actually from Salzburg with the Brewery right there in the city!!!! This draft Stiegl was as fresh if a Stiegl as you could ever get!!!! There local beer was specifically called Stiegl Hell, but something we've hears before but maybe just Advertized differently in North America.
It was Super Magical to walk through the Gardens drinking the refreshing Beer breewed just down the street on a hot day, it was one of thee most Magical and Refreshing moments ever! Beer laws are more relaxed in thise part of the world, so we take our beers down the street and get welcomed to and Amazing River that runs down the middle of the city. We put out feet in the River with our Stiegls and it was super cold water but felt really nice. Then out of Nowhere there was a Stiegl Boat loaded with a bunch of people just doing Donuts in the river!!!??? Hahahaha, it was a tourist boat labeled Stiegl on the side and it would just take people on board to spin around in circles, I didn't know if I was Dreaming it or not but Holly saw it too, haha.
We then cross the bridge to the south side of the river and into my Favourite part of the town. We just decided to talk towards the mountains in some random direction that didn't appear to be anything special, and we were floored by how simply Amazing all the building Architecture was as far as you could see. It was like being in a maze of thee most Amazing buildings you've ever seen to only turn a corner and see something equally or even more Magical. You'd walkndown a tiny narrow little street and it would open up into a HUGE Courtyard out of nowhere, all these little hidden nook and Crany streets leading to courtyards that lead to churches that lead to more cobblestoned streets, that lead to stores and restaurants and History. Itbwas thee most incredible area I've ever walked through. I really couldn't get over having streets not in a Noth American grid-fashion where everything is in a square and predictable, where these steets looked hand-made and notbmass produced and they curved left, they circled right, they went diagonal, always leading to magical, unpredictable locations like a being in a Historic Maze that just teleprted you to Magical places different from the last but in thr same city. I could walk around and Explore these streets for Days!!!!
There was Epic Churches, and inside the entrance to one was a kind of disturbing painting that must have been hundreds of years old hanging probably 40 feet up on the top of the wall, and is a Gigantic painting of a dark figure upsiddown with a bunch of teeth falling out if it's mouth, and if my Mom would have hung this picture up on my wall as a child I probably would have brushed my teeth more, lol.
The Chuch inside is Massive and glorious, but they're must have been over 100 paintings, all with black backgrounds, some 100 feet long, and all dark and morbid and filled with death and stuff, more so then any other church I've been in, but it was still all very Beautiful.
The area here outside is very medieval and and that is my absolute Favourite fine area for the style of architecture and history for some reason, I'm very drawn to it. And with castles up on the adjacent hill, and the surrounding architecture around this church, it's one of my most Favourite areas in the entire city. I heard someone wall by saying, oh Wow this is where they filmed it, and not sure what movie they were talking about but I could imagine a ton of movies wanting to film here.
We Make our way through the brilliant mazes of streets and find a giant outdoor stage being setup for a concert. We don't know who the local band that is playing, but we started talking to a guy how ran one of the merchandise stands and said Pearl Jam and Lenny Kravitz played here recently, and I literally could not imagine a more Amazing outdoor place to see Pearl Jamv play than surrounded by Castles and mountains and large historic and Beautiful Austrian Buildings.
We then make our way back over the North side if the river and look for a place to eat before our overnight train to Germany. We find a really nice restaurant with outdoor seating in a nice quiet street with Awesome Architecture. The restaurant has a Monkey on a lot of the stuff so I know my Mom would like it! On my first trip to Europe I ate Goulash in a 2 or 3 countries and it was one if my Favourite meals when I was in Eastern Europe, and each country made it diffently but they were all good. I saw it in the menu here in Austria and I order it to add a new Country for Goulash and Uit was also different but good! We also had Austrian Beer on draft and an Amazing dessert that was a bunch of different cheeses, and a sauce that was Incredible, it was part plum, part mustard, and was both sweet and spicy. I've never tasted anything like it before but it was incredible, and I'm eating as much cheese and bread that I can when in Europe, it's just sooooo much better here!!!!
On our way back, we don't want to leave, but wex need to catch a train, but have a little bit of time still left. So I try to approximate where the Pizza place I was where I ate at almost 14 years ago. I have no idea where it would have been, but estimated it must have been a side street close to the highway on the North end of town here, so I pick a street nearxthat general area and walk down it, and it feels very familiar familiar. It probably wasn't the same street and block, but it was very similar.
We then find our train and we are on our way towards Germany at 8 PM and we get to see the Austrian Countryside at sunset, it was really nice. It my absolute Favourite to see the nature and local buildings and farmland roll by when in the train, everything is soooo Green and peacefull looking and it's a real treat for me.
We then get out in a city that starts with an R a little south of Munich and catch our connecting train there. It's an overnight sleeper car with beds and leaving around 10 PM. It will get us into Hamburg Germany around 9 AM. It's pretty incredible given that Germay is one if the longest European countries North/South and we will be transversing with the direct sooutgern point to almost tge most North! and we are Excited to see what it's like. Our train number is 4042 and our car number is 402, and I'm starting to see the number 40 appear everywhere!
We booked the mini cabins for the overnight ride, and man were they mini!!!! It looked like it was more like a Pod for someone to hibernate in on there voyage to Mars more then anything, haha! We have to climb up some mini stairs to squeeze through our mini spaces, if I was any older I'd either fall off this ladder trying to get in, or hurt myself trying to maneuver my way in. Its a small cylinder with probably half a foot of room at my feet and my head and on both sides of my body when laying down, and maybe 1.5 feet above me. It ended up being cozy and a lot of fun! At the head of the bed area there was a sliding partition that we were able to open so Holly on the other side and I could see each other and talk! We also had small windows, a contactless phone charger, and they gave us water and a small cookie. I latter realize that there are two pods also directly underneath us and found that interesting how they could fit that many people in like that. Being on the top means that there is more movement felt time the train gets on new tracks or slightly turns, so it's hard to stay asleep, but we are tired and mostly would fall right back asleep.
Tomorrow we wake up in Germany to see Alex, one of my Best Friends from Canada and we are Suuuuuper Excited to see his hometown and hangout! It's one of the parts if the trip we've been mist looking forwards to!!!!
- Chris
This featured blog entry was written by ChrisJohnstone from the blog Johnstone's Totally Excellent Adventure!.
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