Europe, Hiking, Slow travel, Travel Diary

Salzburg Austria City Tour: Part 2

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Salzburg Austria

Our third day in Salzburg didn’t go as planned, & I blame it solely on a cantankerous bus driver (& maybe a little bit on my husband).

The original plan was to hop on a bus to Hellbrunn Schloss, a quirky pleasure palace about 20min from the city. We timed it so that we could get in free with our Salzburg Card, which was good for 24 hours from the first time you use it. Our hotel concierge told us exactly what bus to get on & when to get on it. All was going smoothly until the bus arrived & I told Eric to hop on it. Now here’s the problem: Eric is a smart man & he generally listens to me, but when the back door of that bus opened instead of the front door, my poor logical husband just couldn’t wrap his head around that. We had just been chewed out two days hence for not using the correct door & Eric knew that door was supposed to be the exit (not the entrance). So despite my frantic urging to “just get on it,” we missed the bus. In fact, the bus driver shut the door in my face as I was trying to step on — I even banged on the door before he took off…don’t think he liked that too much.
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Europe, Slow travel, Travel Diary, Trip Planning

Salzburg Austria City Tour: Part 1

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Anyone who grew up watching Sound of Music has a certain expectation of Austria — pristine landscapes, luxurious palaces, beautiful music, really old buildings…and I am SUPER happy to say I experienced ALL of this to be true! Eric & I recently returned from a two week trip to Austria & southern Germany. My next few blog posts will cover this trip.

The first day of our trip began with a flight to Munich followed by a train to Salzburg (flights were MUCH cheaper to Munich). I had purchased a Bayern ticket before we left the US, so all we had to do was find the next train to Salzburg & locate the correct platform. Easy Peasy. The 10 minute bus ride in Salzburg to our hotel is what gave us a near apoplexy. I had looked up a possible route before we left home, so I knew we needed “Bus Line 2,” but I DIDN’T know there would be different kinds of kiosks & homeless teens asking us for money while we’re trying to figure out how to buy a ticket — that was our first panic attack. The second panic set in after we purchased the ticket & realized it didn’t say what bus or platform to use. I thankfully remembered seeing the bus # on the kiosk screen, but we still had to guess on the platform.
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