Goodbye Vienna, hallo Salzburg
– Guest starring Amy, Ewan and the one, the only, Crack Ignaz.
Lauren and I arrived into Salzburg Hautbahnhof at about 6pm and found our hostel, Kolping Haus, without any trouble – not including the change in zebra crossing rules between Vienna and Salzburg. A couple of close shaves!
Koping Haus was great, more like a hotel than hostel and only 20 minutes walk from Aldtstadt (Old Town). We roomed with a grumpy pair of French girls with whom we were thrilled. Anyone beats our first friend in Vienna!
A quick shower later and we were on our way to catch up with the Scots. Apple strudel had been promised and we were starving! The traditional Sternbräu restaurant in central old town proved to be one of the best meals of our trip so far. Beef goulash, pork dumplings, spinach dumplings, chocolate torte and of course apple strudel were just a few of the dishes we tried. All were excellent and the beer was even better. Kaltenhausener Bernstein and Edelweiss Hofbräu we highly recommend.
Trend continuing, the catch up with A&E (ha!) was fabulous. It was almost surreal at points, utterly ridiculous at others and just plain crazy thinking we’d only met each other days previously. As any of you that know us will have already surmised, a couple of beers just weren’t going to cut it. Attempting to follow directions to a bar recommended by our waitress, we found ourselves downing sambucca and more than a few White Russians in The Flip bar. Half bar, half cave, the building frontage backed directly into the surrounding Salzburg cliff sides. We didn’t leave until 4am and didn’t make it home until gone 8am after an impromptu and soggy walking tour. A highlight of the highlights the next morning was remembering we had met legendary rapper, Crack Ignaz and even exchanged email addresses. How retro? (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GuNYzyVe8tw – you won’t be disappointed)
We had plans to climb to the Eagle’s nest the following day and possibly make a quick trip into Salzburg’s salt mines. To our dismay, our well deserved hangovers prevailed and all we managed was sleep, tumble drying our trainers and eating at a terrible Chinese buffet. Sorry Salzburg, you looked wonderful. As a result of this experience we made a promise not to get quite so steaming for the remainder of our travels. So far, so good. Wasting a day is just not worth it.
Munich and Dachau
Munich was our next destination, 90 minutes or so by train. The weather did not improve and to add to our troubles, after the relative expense of Salzburg hostels, we had booked into a v. cheap 100 bed tent for the duration of our stay. Savvy…
Munich was pleasant. Effectively a more gothic, larger version of Cardiff with an extra castle and a few more beer halls thrown in. We visited St. Peter’s church and climbed the 92 meters to the viewing tower to get our bearings. Fully orientated, we also visited the church of the Virgin Mary with its huge, domed towers and the Rathaus. We were so tired they all began merging into one another. The clouds decended and sent us packing to our tent. The hostel was pretty cool, with a chilled out communal feel. One homemade dish each day, we had both mac & cheese and potato dumplings in mushroom sauce during our stay. Good grub!
Later the same day we headed out to the Hofbräuhaus beer garden with friends. It was huge, way beyond what we expected. The beer was good, 2 litre steins and we were surrounded by local musicians playing their traditional German fare.
The next morning we were up early and headed to Dachau on the subway. After a diversion to pick up A LOT of Imodium and a little loo hopping (like island hopping, but it only costs €1 per trip), we arrived and tried to prepare out tired minds for the day ahead. Neither of us had visited a concentration camp or anything similar before now. We opted for a guided tour, which was led by the most knowledgable guide we could have hoped for. We didn’t take any photos, but I think it’s worth visiting a memorial site like this if you can. So eye opening and educational. The facts I found most interesting and distressing were those surrounding the reactions of local people who lived close by such camps and their sub camps who seemed to have looked the other way, largely without exception. Real people did these things to each other.
The following day we spent most of our time at the English Garten, a huge park that runs almost the length of Munich city. They also have a mini surfers paradise on the fast flowing Isar river running through the park. We had a nap in the park and chilled out with some new friends John, Martin and Roland, before it started pouring and we decamped to the train station ready to catch our night train to Venice.
While Munich was interesting, we both agree that we would much rather have spent an extra day or two in Salzburg and skipped Munich, heading straight to Venice. So, we packed up and in lieu of any type of rest, we boarded a 9 hour train, due into Venice Santa Lucia at 8.15am. We were both in 6 seater cabins, at opposite ends of a carriage. Considering the seating situation, we both managed to sleep most of the journey. By this point I think we could have slept happily on a bed of nails with Pitbull on repeat.
And so it is, we are in Venice.
K&L
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