Our Great Austrian Adventure: Salzburg Trip

Grace and Henry missing Jed in Salzburg

Last weekend Grace (but not Henry, interestingly) had a 5-day weekend. Tuesday was a National Holiday (All Saints Day) and Wednesday was a school holiday (All Souls Day), so they threw in Monday as an "autonomous day" (which, we think, is similar to an "in service day" in the U.S.). So, even though I just flew back from the U.S. on Tuesday (and that Wednesday was a holiday), we knew we had to use the 5-day weekend to travel.

We decided to travel to Salzburg, Austria, made famous from the movie, "The Sound of Music." It is tucked into the northern part of the Alps, right on the border with Germany (not very close to Switzerland -- not sure how those von Trapp's walked all the way there!). That means that our drive from Graz, on the southern edge of the Alps, was right through the Austrian Alps. And with all those tunnels in Austria, it literally was right through the mountains!

Sue did a great job of researching things to do with kids and we had a few nice activities to choose from. I got lucky with the hotel search engines and we landed in a good hotel that was about 1 mile from the center of the old part of the city and so every night we walked to town for dinner. It was quite nice even if we went for Italian every night to avoid fights over food (Grace bragged that she ate Pizza Marguerite ohne Oregano every night!).

And speaking of nice, the weather was just gorgeous, with crystal blue skies, cold mornings, warm afternoons, and fall colors. I can't imagine how the weather could have been any more enjoyable.

A view of Salzburg, from the Hohensalzburg Castle

Poor Grace gets wet at Hellbrunn!

Ok, so the activities. The first big activity was to visit the Hellbrunn Palace. This palace was quite distinctive, as the builder of the palace (early 1600's; prince-archbishop of Austria) had a nice sense of humor and incorporated "trick" fountains into a lot of buildings (including a big, outdoor table where jets of water squirted up through the seats on guests that tried to leave the table before the prince!).

What's this? The Sound of Music gazebo, located on the Hellbrunn Palace grounds.

The palace grounds also had a big playground with those playground toys we really like in Austria. We spent the whole day at the palace, taking tours, wandering up to another palace, playing in the park, etc. Sue and I were both impressed that both children stayed engaged during a tour where you wore your own headset for a quick-paced tour through the main hall of the palace.

We actually enjoyed it so much, Grace and Henry accompanied me on a run on the grounds the next morning (Henry's first run ever!).

The other big activity was a visit to Salz Welten, a salt mine turned tourist attraction. The tour of the mine included many forms of locomotion from a train that took us into the mine, lots of walking, a boat ride across a small lake in the mine, and the highlight, trips down the miner slides! And then to get out, much to Henry's amazement, an escalator (I can still hear him clearly in my head ... "an escalator ... IN A MINE?!").

Three future miners (two happy and one not!)

Yes, even Honey Bear!

Feel those G's!

One of the things that I thought was really cool that down in the mine we traveled from Austria to Germany and then back again. Reminds me of a hike in Virginia where you walk from VA to WV and back to VA, all in about 1 mile!

Welcome to Germany, coming from Österreich (Austria)

As you can see from this shot, the mine was up on a mountain, with beautiful views back to the Hohensalzburg Castle and Salzburg.

Ok, you can't actually see Hohensalzburg Castle from this tiny picture!

Other activities included a carriage ride through the city, riding the SchlossBahn up to the Hohensalzburg Castle, and general walking around. We didn't go on the various Sound of Music tours, the Mozart tours (he's from there), or many of the museums. There is plenty to do for another trip!