Our Trip to Salzburg, Austria!

We left the beautiful city of Prague and with our driver from mydaytrip.com, drove to Salzburg, Austria. It was a 4 hour drive, and we chose to stop midway at a quaint town in the Czech Republic, Český Krumlov.

Český Krumlov, is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. Here's some photos of the Český Krumlov Castle and the former Church of Saint Judoc. We ate at a good restaurant named Restaurant Terasa, which has a nice stream behind it. Pat decided to climb up to the castle while Shelly, Lani and I walked the town center.

We arrived in Salzburg and checked into Hotel Auersperg Salzburg. The Hotel was a bit far away from the town center (a 10 minute walk to the old town), but it was my favorite of the three so far. The room was large with a living space with couch and chairs, and a nice sized bathroom. There is a courtyard garden in the back of the hotel with comfortable seating, and a nice restaurant with a good breakfast. Here's a few photos of the garden.

We met up with Lani and Pat's son and girlfriend, John and Shanna, and their former au pair, Janine, who were joining us for the Salzburg and Munich experience. They went out for dinner near the hotel, and Shelly and I walked to the old town center to explore. It was after 6:00pm and the shops had closed up, so we decided to have a light dinner.

Day 2 - Walking Tour of Salzburg

We scheduled a two-hour Walking Tour of Salzburg through Viator, and the guide met us at our hotel. The highlights of the tour were to be Mirabell Palace and Gardens and St. Peter's Abbey. It was raining pretty heavily, but we headed towards the old town, and walked past Mozart's Birthplace.

We visited a cemetery and chapel near Mirabell Palace and Gardens, but I forgot to note the name. It was quite beautiful and peaceful.

We then visited Mirabell Palace and Gardens. We did a quick view of the Marble Hall, which is one of the top wedding locations in the world. Here's a view of the garden with Hohensalzburg Fortress in the background.

Here's Shelly in the Dwarf Garden. You're not supposed to touch the statues!

We then walked to beautiful St. Peter's Abbey including St. Peter's Church and cemetery. Here's some photos of our walk in and around the Abbey.

After the walking tour, we took the Fortress Funicular (a cable car) to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. The fortress was built in 1077 and expanded in the 16th century. There were no photos allowed inside the fortress, but here are some photos from the grounds with views of St. Peter's and the old town.

At the end of the tour, there was small grotto where we donated 1€ and had our picture taken for good luck!

After our walking tours, the rain had stopped and we had lunch at a café near the hotel.

Day 3 Eagles Nest and Bavarian Alps Tour

The forecast for our third day in Salzburg was more rain. But no worries, we were scheduled for a tour of Adolph Hitler's Eagles Nest and the Bavarian Alps. Our Viator tour guide, Michael, met us at our hotel at 9:30am and we headed out.

We drove to the Eagles Nest and took a bus to the entrance. We loaded into an elevator and rode to the main entrance. We toured the conference room where I took a couple photos of the fireplace, a gift to Hitler from Mussolini. Note some stones in the fireplace are chipped. Some soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division who captured the property in 1945 took some souvenirs home.

The rain stopped, but the fog was heavy, so I wasn't able to get any views of the Alps. But here's Shelly!

There are walking trails on the grounds.

Kehlsteinhaus is the German name for the property. Eagles Nest is the English name.

There were some soldiers about to take a tour.

After Eagles Nest, we went to Hellbrunn Palace and Fountains, a palace built in the 17th century for the royals rest, celebration, and pleasure. There are some fun fountains on the grounds, but we were a bit too tired to tour anymore, so we headed back to the hotel. Here's some photos of the palace and grounds.

Here's our tour guide, Michael, and Shanna, John, Pat, and Lani.

Our last night in Salzburg, Shelly and I went to the Salzburg Marionette Theater, established in 1913 and one of the oldest puppet theaters in the world. The performance was Mozart's The Magic Flute. We had hoped they would be doing "The Sound of Music", but no luck. Regardless, the show was fantastic, and the puppet performance was mesmerizing. There were times I forgot I was watching puppets! We could not take photos of the performance, but here's a photo of the stage before the show.

We had a wonderful time in Salzburg, the sights were spectacular and the people were great. Tomorrow we leave for our last city of our tour, Munich.