Day 8 - Moving on to Salzburg

August 24

We were leaving Vienna but since hardly any of the shops had been open the day before (being Sunday and all), we'd decided to take an midday train to Salzburg and do some shopping before we left. There was one particular souvenir shop that I wanted to go into but she would never open up! I bought myself a nutcracker since Mom has decided that I must now buy them for myself if I want any new ones.

I decided to take my picture with the Steiff bear

We had lunch at the Hotel Sacher - home of the Original Sachertorte. Lunch was great. Will had an amazing potato soup with roasted chanterelles and bacon - I consider myself lucky that he would share. Of course we each got a slice of Sachertorte for dessert - the best chocolate cake I've EVER had.

We went back to our hotel to collect our bags and get a taxi to the train station. The train to Salzburg was a local via Linz so we made a few stops and traded our 2 car companions several times before arriving.

View of the countryside from the train

The train station in Salzburg is under a bit of renovation - or renovation in preparation for restoration perhaps. It turned out that our hotel - the Renaissance Congress Center - was just a few blocks from the train station which while convenient when we were coming and going, meant that it was about a 15-20 minute walk to the old town.

the old town

We walked to the old town to check it out and to find dinner - preferably something non-traditional for me. We didn't find it (though we did figure out where we'd gone wrong the next day) but we did find a very yummy café. Lying in wait for people to get up from a table to swoop in and take it for yourself is entirely acceptable and practically necessary. I ended up having the closest we ever came to finding jägerschniztel on the trip - so yummy!

We were intrigued by the well-dressed people who were wandering the town, stopping for drinks or food and some were even wearing traditional dress. We did figure it out - there was a performance at the Festspielhaus, as there was most nights. The Salzburgers take the opera season very seriously.

Festspielhaus after most everyone had gone in for the show

After satisfying our curiosity, we walked back to our hotel along the river where all the teenagers hung out.

Old town from the other side of the river at night