We are now north of the Alps, where the weather is cold and dreary, but it is still very nice to be back in German-speaking lands. Not to mention the lands of the Christmas markets!
Salzburg
We had a long train ride from Verona to Salzburg, about six hours total, but it didn't seem bad at all because we were on such nice trains and had good books to read. And we got to rest! In Verona, I was surprised and thrilled to find that our first train (to Innsbruck) was a German train, as its final destination was Munich.
The scenery was very pretty, though not as dramatic as we might have hoped - there wasn't a whole lot of snow and the tallest peaks weren't visible. But we did see snow for a little bit, as seen above.
We had a half an hour between trains at Innsbruck, which is good because we had to go down to the ticket office to get our Germany/Austria rail pass validated. (The first leg was on our Italy pass.) Innsbruck's train station was really nice, and included a bacon and sausage shop, which is important.
{img154917|This train was also very nice, though not quite as cushy as the first one. Sadly this entire leg was in the dark, so I'm not sure what the scenery was like!}
As we emerged from Salzburg's train station, which was under major renovations so involved a lot of walking on wooden planks, I was impressed to see that even the local area looked nice! (The neighborhood around the train station is almost always the ugliest.) We ended up sharing a taxi with a local woman, which was a new experience for me but worked out great - she got off first, and paid half of the fare thus far. She was very friendly and asked about our travels in precise but hesitant English.
Our hotel was right next to the cathedral in the heart of the city, so it was a pretty magical arrival after dark - the streets were all lit up with Christmas lights and the Christmas market was going on in the main square.
The Hotel am Dom ("Hotel at the Cathedral") was a beautiful and comfortable small hotel, in a building dating from around 1200 but with a stylish modern interior. They did a great job of leaving some of the nicest old features exposed, like the timber-beamed ceilings and stone stairs.
The owner of the hotel, Josef, was hilarious. He was outgoing in the extreme, asking tons of questions and teasing us constantly, despite his fairly limited English. A representative example: when he saw Sarah retrieve her lightly-toasted bread from the toaster the first morning, he exclaimed that it wasn't done! She explained she liked it just a little toasted, and he threw his hands up and said, "You so crazy!" And then to me, "Your friend, she so crazy!" It was all pretty fun, except when we were checking out and had to catch a train!
We had one full day in Salzburg, which was plenty of time to check most things off my photo list. We started with a ride on an exceptionally steep funicular to the castle above the town, the Hohensalzburg Fortress, mainly for the views of the city. Unfortunately the grey weather meant our photos aren't too thrilling, but they are better than no photos!
The castle itself was moderately interesting too, with lots of old buildings to explore, multiple levels for views, and a variety of artifacts on display from Roman times to the present. There's a Christmas market up there, too, although it wasn't open yet in the morning.
Then we descended and visited a bunch of churches, most of which were Baroque and all of which were pretty boring (to us anyway - neither of us are Baroque fans). The main highlight of Salzburg, both for photos and for fun, was the Christmas market. We spent some quality time there the night we arrived and the next night, and it was wonderful.
It has a beautiful setting, surrounded on all sides by the cathedral and palaces, and of course there was a tree and lots of pretty Christmas lights. The second night, I brought my tripod along and there was a choir singing beautifully from the cathedral steps while I worked. And then we had some hot drinks and delicious dessert. Good times!
The food on offer was interestingly unfamiliar! Having only been to German Christmas markets, I was expecting the usual potato pancakes and sausages, but those were absent and in their place were a bunch of things I'd never heard of! So it was fun to try some new things.
