JandalTan: Salzburg, Austria

From Cesky Krumlov we travelled back down into Austria to Salzburg. Salzburg’s claim to fame is being the home of the famous composer Mozart (who is EVERYWHERE), and where the movie “The Sound of Music” starring Julie Andrews was filmed.

We quickly took a liking to Salzburg with easy buses into town, and interesting alpine chalet type buildings and lots of gardens even on windowsills with flower boxes. When we arrived we put the tent up in scorching sun, a few hours later it was pouring with rain with a switch later in the day back to sun. We were later found out that Salzburg is one of the rainiest places in Europe which was some relief.

The first night we found a dinky little pub on a side street that sold Kaiser Karl beer. There was a story in the menu about Kaiser Karl which Kat vaguely translated from German as - Kaiser Karl being a fat man that fell off his seat a lot. Great stuff Kaiser Karl, the beer was damn good anyway. Dinner was turkey weiner schnitzel with cranberry sauce, roast potatoes, and for Kat it was goulash with sauerkraut.

The second day we set out in search of a “real coffee” and breakfast in Salzburg old town (ending up in McCafe). An older Austrian woman near us picked up on our kiwi accent, she was a big Americas Cup fan. Turns out this lady was a bit of a talker, we humoured her listening to a dozen stories (turns out she is a film critic/movie director/important movie person). She gave us a few slightseeing tips writing them on the back of a photocopy picture of herself with Tom Cruise (she also signed the photo WTF?!), and also wrote down some good youtube clips of her personal friend Felix Baumgartner (Red Bull Score Pilot). Random.

We spent the day hopping between wurst (Sausage) stands with beer, checking out the Castle and Palace gardens (where some scenes of the Sound of Music was filmed). Managed to find some wifi access in a café and a good win for the AB’s against Ireland was great to see!

The final stop for the day was a monks brewery called Augustiner Braustubl. The brewery was accessed through a series of empty corridors with the entrance door at the bottom erupting with sausage aromas and beer. There were several beer halls each crammed full of locals sitting around long tables. The monks sell their own brew, a light beer which is far too easy to drink. Beer is served in a ceramic 0.5 or 1 litre handle/steins. After wandering around the maze of beerhalls we found one that had a big screen and the Spain vs Italy EURO2012 soccer about to start. A couple of beers and half a chook were acquired and we settled in for the game on a table with some locals and travelling Americans that had stumbled on the brewery as well. Awesome atmosphere and a pretty good game but a dud result with a 1-1 draw…. Soccer aye meh.

On our final morning in Salsburg we ventured out to Hangar 7, the Red Bull hangar with aviation and motorsport exhibits. www.hangar-7.com