We bought the 24 hour card (thanks Mom!) for €29 ($42 CAD, $34 USD) per adult.
You have to plan well to be able to take full advantage of the 24 hours. We started off by climbing up to the Salzburg Fortress. The weather was supposed to be clear and sunny again, but unfortunately that didn't happen until well after lunch.
Mozart Square, Salzburg.
Still fairly quiet at 10:00am Sunday morning.
Starting to get a view as we climbed up to the fortress.
The tourist card includes the cost of using the funicular train to take you up to the fortress, but we needed some exercise and chose to walk up.
Zoomed in down below.
The main gate.
The horses entrance.
Inside the fortress walls.
Me!
Salzburg Fortress is the largest fully preserved castle in central Europe.
Views over Salzburg.
The fortress was built in stages between 1077 and 1650.
Looking down on the castle grounds.
View in all directions.
My father had only one photo marked "Looking south from Salzburg Fortress", taken during his 1954 trip. Why was there only one photo, and nothing at all of the city or the castle itself? No idea, and he's not around to ask.
My dad's photo from 1954.
Our plan was to try to match up this view, but it was too cloudy and we couldn't even make out the mountains in the background.
The fortress museum.
Looking down on the courtyard.
The skies are starting to clear.
How did they build this stuff?
Finished at the castle, we went back down to the city and found the Panorama Museum. There, is located a famous painting of Salzburg dating to 1829. The painter did his work in panorama style, and so it's a round (circular?) painting where you have to stand on a platform to view it. It's really well done, but I'm not sure we would have paid to go see it without it being included in the tourist card.
I took a video for you...
Next up was the 45 minute boat tour. Again, not sure it was something we would have paid separately for, but it did give a bit of a different perspective.
There's our boat on the right side.
We managed front row seats.
Scenery along the way.
The Hotel Sacher Salzburg.
After the boat trip, we took the included elevator pass up to the Modern Art Museum, but only so that we could use the trails that give the best views of Salzburg...
It was a good day!
Several of the included options on the tourist card are outside of the city itself. This morning, we are up early and off to Hellbrunn Palace and the Trick Fountains. If we enter before the 24 hours are up, it doesn't matter if the 24 hours pass once we are inside the gates.
Then, we are driving through the mountains to southern Austria near the Slovenia border.
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Are you Sound of Music fans? Guessing there is a tour just to see the sights from the movie. Truly is a lovely city, and hopefully, less crowded than during the summer.
ReplyDeleteWe have both watched Sound of Music several time and have enjoyed the movie but I would say that we are "fans" as such, at least not to the point of wanting to go out and pay to do a Sound of Music tour which they do have here.
DeleteThe city was very busy on Sunday, by the afternoon many of the pedestrian areas were packed with people, we are so glad to be here in October, we can't even begin to imagine what it would be like in July or August in a "normal" year.
Sounds like you made the best of it all! I didn't know whether to write "sites" or "sights" in my comment! I guess both would apply. Not sure I would have done a tour either.
DeleteLol, we would have used "sights" for this particular comment, as in "sightseeing".
DeleteYes, we definitely think we got our money's worth out of the Salzburg card, especially being able to get into Hellbrunn Palace the next morning because we got there early enough to use the card within our 24 hour time limit. :-)
We loved looking at all the torture devices, and the metal work on the doors. Really enjoyed our time there some year ago.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't do the actual Dungeon Tour at the fortress so we didn't see all the torture devices but we can only imagine how menacing they would have looked. Old doors are always interesting to look at, whether they be metal or wood and yes, the fortress definitely had lots of doors. Just like you we enjoyed our time there. :-)
DeleteI can't imagine how much time you put into this daily blog/travelog, but thank you. Today I especially liked the panoramic painting.
ReplyDeleteIt is usually the first thing Kevin does in the morning as he has his coffee and breakfast. Most days it takes him several hours, so yes he puts lots of time into the blog posts. We are glad that you are enjoying the blog and appreciate the time he puts into them. :-)
DeleteI love getting a tourist card! I usually end up visiting places that weren't even on my radar. It's a fun challenge to get my money's worth. And then I can quickly pop into attractions that otherwise wouldn't be worth it to me. Can't wait to travel again.
ReplyDeleteWe tend to agree with you depending on how much the tourist card is and what sights/attractions are included. We have been to the odd city where the card doesn't offer enough to us to make it worthwhile but like you when we do buy one we try to make sure we get our money's worth out of it. :-)
DeleteWow, incredibly beautiful! Too bad the weather didn't cooperate to recreate your dad's photo, but you did a wonderful job of capturing the rest of the scenery, thank you. Never thought about visiting Salzburg, but now on our list for our next trip to Europe!
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame that the weather didn't cooperate for us but we still enjoyed our day. I think if we had waited until the afternoon to do the fortress we might have had better luck but then the fortress would also have been packed with people. We noticed even by the time we left the fortress how much busier it already was, there was even a line up of people waiting to enter and we wanted avoid that, which we did.
DeleteWe think you would love Salzburg, it is a beautiful city and there certainly is a lot to see and do in the city and in the surrounding area.