Destination: Salzburg, Austria

Transportation: Car; 4 hour drive from Stuttgart

Accommodations : Am Moos; Family Pension in Salzburg

Duration of Trip: 4 Nights

Salzburg Pictures

Itinerary and Summary

Day 1: Arrived at Am Moos around 1pm. The accommodations were perfect mainly because the girls loved their bedroom and we had plenty of space to let the kids play. We walked around the old city and ate at Sternbrau (outside in the garden). After dinner we walked over to the new city and spent some time in Mirabella Gardens. Weather was mostly sunny and warm.

Day 2: We started the day by visiting the Dom then continued to St. Peter's cemetery where we were kicked-out because a funeral was scheduled. We headed over to the Fortress Hohensalzburg. We took the short train up to the top and spend time taking in all the views. It took us by surprise when 12 noon hit. Alarms went off as if there was some kind of emergency - then the church bells starting ringing and we realized the alarms were time related. We then revisited St. Peter's cemetery and Kristin when up to the catacombs. We ate lunch at St. Peter's Stiftskeller which dates back to 803AD; the oldest restaurant in all of Europe. The food was fantastic. After lunch we walked over the bridge to the new city and spent time at St. Sebastian church and cemetery. Next we walked over to Mozart's Wohnhaus; the whole family enjoyed learning about the Mozart family and compositions they created while living in the house. We then walked through Mirabella Gardens again and on to the playground for some play time. We finished our day at Braustubel a popular local biergarden with a small playground for the kids. Weather was cloudy and cool; sun came out at 4pm

Day 3: Time to get out of the city and enjoy the lake region. We drove about 30 minutes outside of Salzburg to Wolfgangsee. We parked in the city of St. Wolfgang and hiked 5.5 km; Mackenzie hiked the whole way (many times as the leader). Julia spent most of the time strapped to John's back in a child backpack. It was beautiful: the views, the fresh air and hiking as a family! One side note: many families have small chapels or shrines dedicated to Jesus and/or Mary on their property. We loved this; we'd stop pray and continue with our hike. After our hike we went to St. Gilgen and took a Gondola up to the top of a mountain; kids wanted to play in the snow and we wanted some more views. The girls loved the Gondola ride. Once on top Mackenzie wasn't feeling so well (we had not eaten at this point). So we stayed up for about 20 minutes then continued our day by driving to Hallstatt for dinner. Hallstatt is on the list of UNESCO cities "World Cultural and Natural Heritage". It is a very romantic and beautiful city. In the summer there are salt mines and ice caves to explore. The weather was sunny and warm.

Day 4: Our last day in Salzburg. We made a last minute decision to spend the day at Konigsee. Konigsee is actually in Germany but is 20 mins from where we stayed in Salzburg. We took a boat to St Bartholoma where the children stayed with John at the playground and Kristin did a small hike. We had a snack of Bier and Pommes (fries) missed the boat for Salet and enjoyed the area. Took the next boat to Salet and hiked to Obersee. Julia fell asleep in the backpack. Again the scenery was striking beautiful. We then took the boat back to our car and made our way to Fortress Hellbrunn back in Salzburg. We had read about the "trick fountains" at Hellbrunn and thought the kids would enjoy it. We got ourselves as waterproof as possible and made our way to the fountain tour. It was a lot of fun. We recommend it to all. On our way out it started to sprinkle and we noticed a Gazebo in the distance. We had to check it out. And there it was! The Gazebo from Sound of Music! We had to get a picture of it. We then ended the day with dinner at a Greek restaurant Akropolis (German spelling). Weather was cloudy mild with rain at the end of the day.

Side Notes: This was the first time in 4 months that we felt totally comfortable speaking English in public as Salzburg has many tourist speaking all kinds of languages. The pension we stayed at was run by a very nice and helpful family, at breakfast their dog Nino would come around, the kids loved her. Every morning we'd wake-up to a little owl "hooting" a beautiful song. (it was beautiful only if the windows were closed, otherwise it would be too loud) After the trip we came home and watched the Sound of Music and had so much fun saying "been there", "seen that"; we saw so many things in the Sound of Music with out even trying! Thumbs up on this trip, would love to return sometime! Next Trip: Ireland and Scotland in June. Time to start planning!