Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Brian and I were worn out after all our traveling Sunday and Monday, so we slept late Tuesday morning before checking out the city. We had no idea how to use the bus system, but we hopped on bus #22 as suggested by the man at the front desk of the hotel. Once we were on the bus, we had to figure out how to buy a ticket and where to get off. With much luck, we stumbled off at the perfect stop, and we would soon realize that our hostel was peering down at us there from its plot on Mönchsberg Mt. It was a sweaty hike up three- hundred-some stairs with our luggage, but we found a quiet little hostel perched at the edge of the conglomerate cliff overlooking the charming city of Salzburg. There were two bunk beds stuffed into a tiny room with four cupboards for lockers and a window open to the view of Salzburg and the mountains. At the outdoor café at our hostel (Stadt Alm), people ate and visited while soaking up the view. Brian and I ate Wienner Schnitzel mit pommes frittes (with french fries). The weather was beautiful…nice and hot and sunny, just the way I like it. J We spent the afternoon exploring the ‘old city’ on the west bank of the Salzach River (founded in the 700s) (note: the “new city” was only founded in the 1200s. J ) The Festung Hohensalzburg towers over Salzburg and can be reached by a hike up the mountainside, or by a funicular/cable car. We took the cable car. At the fortress, we explored the marionette museum and the other museums, but ran out of time to tour the rest of the fortress. One of our exciting finds was a serpent, an ancestor to the tuba that is shaped and painted like a snake. Tuesday evening, we took a 40-minute boat cruise up the Salzach River. People refer to the river as the Salt River because boats used to transport a lot of salt on it. The cruise ended with a fun Viennese Waltz where the boat spun in circles in the middle of the river. The boat uses jets to propel it through the water because of the many low spots in the river, so it could turn on a dime. We ended the evening with an Edelweiss beer at a local Irish pub.