Hi friends! Hope you’re all doing fantastic! I’m sitting on an Amtrak train to St. Louis, reminiscing about my day trip to Salzburg from a few weeks ago: this Austrian city was definitely one of my favorite places I have visited this year. Hopefully I can do it justice in this blog post! I’m sharing with you the parts of the city we were able to visit during our trip; this is not even close to a “professional itinerary” (whatever those are), but I did give this same list to a bunch of students who were on the Europe trip with me, who decided to go to Salzburg the day after we had been there. Well, they all loved their experience, so I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but I’d say this is probably a good list!
Salzburg was the perfect day trip. I had been wanting to visit this city for a pretty long time, and when I asked my roommate Jessica if she was interested in taking a day trip there, she immediately said yes: it was the perfect chance to visit a different city – and a different country! – even if only for a few hours.
Getting to Salzburg
We researched ways to get there and found out that there is a train, the Meridian, that leaves the Munich Hauptbanhof station every hour and takes you to Salzburg. Our hotel in Munich was located just a few blocks from the station, so it was perfect for us!
The train ticket was about 60 euros total, which seemed reasonable to us. Do plan on getting to the station early though, because the train does get filled up and you are not guaranteed a seat! The ride is about two hours long, but the views are beautiful: you really get to immerse yourself in the German and Austrian countryside, passing through these small, picturesque towns. It just looked like a dream!
The City
Once you arrive in Salzburg, it feels as if you had just walked into a fairytale: the city is located right by the Alps, on a river, and in the middle of many green hills. One thing about these hills: they’re alive with the sound of music! In fact, Salzburg is the city where the movie/musical The Sound of Music is set. It’s one of my favorites, so I was pretty excited!
Our Itinerary
Jessica and I researched stuff about Salzburg while we were on our way there, on the train. We soon figured out that everything we wanted to see was pretty much on one same path, not scattered throughout the city. So hear me out. This is what you need to do.
When you get out of the train station, walk towards the river. First, you should run into the Mirabellgarten.
Mirabellgarten
You know that scene from the Sound of Music where they sing Do Re Mi and run around flowers and gardens? That’s where that was filmed!
The Mirabell palace is located centrally in the city, not far from the Salzach river, and is surrounded by huge and beautiful gardens. The palace was built around 1606 by the prince-archbishop Raitenau, for him and his mistress Salome – I know. Weird.
My favorite part of these gardens is a hidden gem: the Dwarfs Garden. Pretty self explanatory: it’s a little garden with little statues of little people. Offensive? Maybe, but when that was built, it was not meant to be offensive at all. The statues portray dwarfs who worked at the palace, and the aristocracy that lived there genuinely loved them. So much that they dedicated a whole garden to them. It’s pretty sweet, even though the statues are pretty ugly. Overall, it’s just funny.
By the Salzach River
When you’re done exploring the Mirabellgarten, keep walking towards the Salzach river. There’s a beautiful view of the other side of the city from right before the big bridge. Snap the pic below, then cross the river.
Old Town
Once you’re on the other side, walk into one of the narrow streets that take you to a bigger, but still narrow street where cars are not allowed and people just walk up and down, in and out of many stores. You are now in the Old Town!
In my opinion, this is the prettiest part of the city, and it’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The buildings are super pretty, in pastel colors, mostly yellowish/creamy, sometimes pink.
If you walk towards the end of the main shopping street, you’ll see this beautiful church.
However, if you keep walking around the old town, you’ll keep seeing the prettiest narrow streets and the most beautiful churches. Plus, you might run into some cute farmers markets!
Salzburg Cathedral
The most beautiful church in all of Salzburg, however, was the Salzburg cathedral.
This church was founded in 774 and is an example of baroque style. You’ll notice a lot of buildings in Salzburg are actually baroque, but to me, this is the most beautiful out of all of them.
I mean, look how majestic! It’s definitely a must visit destination on your trip to Salzburg.
Mozart
Right around that cathedral area, there’s another pretty sweet attraction: a statue of Mozart!
In case you didn’t know, Mozart is Salzburg most famous inhabitant in all of the city’s history. The musician was born here and lived here most of his life, so the city honors him like crazy! There’s even a kind of chocolate called Mozartkugel, they are little chocolate pieces with pistachio cream inside: they’re named after Mozart, their name literally means Mozart Balls (YUP).
On top of that, there are two Mozart houses in the city. One is the house where Mozart was born: it’s in the old town, on the main shopping street!
The other one is a house where Mozart lived: that one is on the other side of the river, more towards the train station. It was the last thing Jessica and I visited before leaving.
But before that, we went up on the fortress.
Festung Hohensalzburg: the Fortress
The city of Salzburg has a fortress. Isn’t that just so cool? Whenever the city was attacked, the people would go up to the fortress and live barricaded in there, so that they could be safe from attackers. The fortress functioned as a second city at the time; now it’s mostly an attraction, and it was probably our favorite part of the visit to Salzburg.
A ticket to go up to the fortress is about 12 euros; you can also walk all the way up, but we were definitely too lazy to do that! Therefore, we opted for the gondola, which took us up there in no time! Pro tip: if you keep your ticket, you can show it to the guard again and come down for free. But don’t lose it! Jessica did. It was funny.
Once you’re up there, the fortress gifts you with an incredible view of Salzburg. It’s magical! You can see all the buildings, the churches, the little streets, but also the river, the hills and the Alps.
Once you’re sick of that view – aka never – you can go inside the fortress. It’s actually really cool to see how big it is: one thinks of a fortress as something like a castle, but it’s so much more: it really is a little city.
From the very top of the fortress, there is an even better view of Salzburg. The city never ceased to amaze us.
After that, we came down, and ate somewhere around old town. We ordered a Wienerschnitzel and they brought us potato soup too – as if we didn’t eat enough potatoes in Germany!
After our late lunch, we walked around the old town some more, than crossed the river and walked around a few narrow streets on that side of the city. Lastly, we found the other Mozart house, then made our way back to the train station.
Overall, it was an incredible experience! I’m so glad we got the chance to visit Salzburg, and then share our experience with our classmates, who decided to head there the day after. Inspiring people to travel is my favorite thing ever, and the main reason why I started this blog in the first place! I hope you are now inspired to visit Salzburg, too. And if not Salzburg, maybe some other new city. As long as you go, it’s all good!
See you soon, my friends! I’m writing tons of content from my trip so we’re bound to cross path again in the near future!