Salzburg, Austria - Fortress Tour and Winterfest

December 05, 2019

We arrived on time, after a very long flight and little sleep, to Salzburg yesterday. Longing for sleep, we were happy that our flight was small and our bags came out on the belt rather quickly. I'd done some research (of course!) before we left on how to get from the Salzburg airport to our hotel and found that there was a bus that should take us right there.

And after already spending a ton of flights, hotels, transportation and tours, I was kind of looking for a frugal way to get to our Salzburg home. However, knowing that finding the bus and buying a ticket can be frustrating at times, I did want to have as much knowledge under my belt as I could.

Salzburg transit has a really great app that showed me where to find the bus and which stop to watch for. So, I thought I had it all figured out.

The airport signage was very good, pointing us right to the bus stop. The sign there said we had just a 3 minute wait, perfect for buying 2 tickets at the machine conveniently located right beside the stop! (Imagine making taking transit EASY, Calgary???)

The bus (or trolley) showed up seconds later, we hopped on and I began telling Bryan what stop to watch for as we'd have to make sure we didn't miss it. This very kind lady beside me asked if we needed help and explained how to notify for a stop and that we'd have about a 15 minute ride to our hotel.

Our stop came up next, we were ready to get off and the trolley stopped right in front of our hotel! I actually thought we'd have to walk a block or so...very convenient.

We are staying at the Hotel am Mirabellplatz. It's lovely. It used to be a palace for someone called Lodron. Our room is cozy, warm and quiet, and the staff are so friendly and helpful. The location is quite perfect because we're near a major transit hub plus only a 5 minute walk to the Old Towne / City Centre. This makes it very easy to wander and see popular sites.

The Lock Bridge between the Mirabellplatz area and Old Towne.

We found one of the largest Christmas markets today - Salzburg Christkindlmarkt. The kiosks held a lot of beautiful ornaments plus soaps, candy, and chocolate. The food kiosks were difficult to figure out as my German is pretty poor but most people speak English really well (I actually feel bad for the people coming from Italy or other countries who don't seem to speak German or English - they struggle). However, we saw strudels and pastries, glogg and bratwurst. Our lunch was pretty American, though - chicken burger and fries for me and a pulled beef sandwich for Bryan. We'll figure the food situation out better as we go!

Salzburg Cathedral from the Christkindlmarkt

Since it's situated right in the main square of the Salzburg Cathedral...and European Catholic churches are seriously fascinating in architecture and history...we decided to pop in out of the chill for a bit. It did not disappoint in splendor and architectural marvel. But the most interesting part was what was going on in the creepy crypt...We found this isolated service area with a clean, flat slate of an alter (for sacrificing things???) and then a weird enclosed prayer area. Off to the other side, we walked into this room that looked like it was partially ruined (turns out the cathedral was bombed during WWII) with these creepy lit-up figures on the walls and, even more creepy, this hologram skeletal flying animal thing flying across the room with someone woman chanting something in German over and over...NO idea what was going on there but definitely the creepiest church basement I've seen! And I've seen actual crypts of dead archbishops and whatnot.

WTF?

Next up, we decided to visit the Fortress that sits high above the city. On our way, we discovered a very old cemetery - the little church overlooking it was built in the 1400s - with wrought iron intricate tombstones.

After that, we took the trolley up to the Fortress, did the tours, heard the history (there is a lot, this was a Fortress that was occupied by many different people of power, including archbishops), and saw the museums (with an awesome puppet exhibit). An interesting tour with some amazing views of the city from there!

So creepy...yet so awesome!

The Fortress Residence Ballroom

The Fortress Chambers - This is a Stove!

Salzburg is quite beautiful and not too busy...it would be lovely to see in the summer too.

Finally, Winterfest. Winterfest is a big theater production here in the city that runs late November until end of January (from what I could tell). There are multiple plays or shows going on at the same time and they switch out every 5-7 weeks. We saw a show called Cirque Alfonse, which was like a mini-Cirque du Soleil show. The story itself was confusing as it was all in German (we think it was some kind of farce on the Church) but the people were loving it! But the talent...wow! There were 6 people, 4 men, 2 women. One of the women and one of the men totally stole the show with their strengths and flexibility.

Front row seats at Cirque Alfonse

Some of the acts included rope acrobatics with isometric holds, similar holds on a pole about 40 feet in the air, a fun roller skating act, and human pyramid-like lifts and holds. Very interesting and amazing to watch!

The food, so far, has been good. Every dish comes with bread though, so it's not really completely my style. I'm finding good stuff though - totally love goulash!!