In addition to spending time in Vienna, we also meandered out into the Austrian countryside (hence the title of the post) and hit up Salzburg. Let me tell you, the decision to take the longer route and drive through the Alps was the absolute correct choice! And hopefully you come to the same conclusion after seeing these pictures.
Essentially we followed a route that a day tour would have done, but just did it on our own. Highly recommend! Our first stop was Admont Abbey, the oldest remaining monastery in the region and housing the largest monastic library in the world. Unfortunately, we did not see the library as the place was a ghost town (perhaps doing an official tour would have benefitted us here) but we did go into the abbey which was beautiful!
Admont Abbery in all its glory
I'm not sure if you can see the icicles hanging from the eaves, but there were some serious icicles. Could impale a person if you were unlucky.
After Admont we continued our route through the Alps to Halstatt, which is quite possibly one of the most scenic places I've ever been. It's in the Salzkammergut region, which is a beautiful region full of lakes right at the foot of the mountains. But first... pictures of food because at this point in our day, it was 2pm and we hadn't eaten anything! I was in the worst of the hangry moods so the first open place we came upon in the village, we stopped at.
But one picture of the glorious mountains and lake first. Then it was this lemon dill fish that was phenomenal!!! And then bread dumplings that were also quite delicious.
Also got some steak with vegetables and a very nice apple strudel. Everything was wonderfully fantastic but that also could be my empty stomach rejoicing for having any sort of food to fill it up. But also, it was just really good.
Now that bellies were full, on we went in our exploration of the village. We found many picturesque scenes and shops. The region is also known for its salt mines, so they had tons of salty goods in all sorts of shapes! If it wasn't winter, we could have gone into the salt mines but alas, they were closed.
Some of the buildings seen while walking around the town.
It was really too pretty for words. I mean I could basically make my own post card from these photos.
But eventually we had to say goodbye because we wanted to be out of the snowy mountain roads before dark fell.
So to Salzburg we went! More scenic mountain passes and then some time exploring the city that was home to some of the scenes from The Sound of Music.
Our day in Salzburg started out with a fabulous traditional breakfast with homemade cream cheese--it was to die for!
Fortified by sustenance, we began our explorations. First stop was a walk across the river to Alstadt which is the old town district. In the pictures above, we have the Hohensalzburg Castle which was built in the early 1000s and is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe!
The bridge we traversed had locks similar to the bridge in paris, each with initials for the couples who locked it onto the bridge. Since it was still pretty early, we walked around a bit to get the lay of the land before some of the churches and things opened.
We also noticed this phenomenon where they covered a lot of the statues and fountains so I guess the water in the pipes wouldn't freeze? Not sure but it made for some interesting pictures haha.
Here we have the Dom Cathedral which originated in 700s but was rebuilt in the 1700s and still has the baptismal fount that Mozart was baptized in. They really like this Mozart guy (understandably, of course).
Next we took the funicular up to the castle, which afforded us some wonderful and snowy views of the city below us.
The Castle today still has state rooms and also has a lot of things that relate to the military history of Austria.
There were little ken dolls with the fabulous army uniforms of the past--clearly the prized fashion over function, but I guess battle was a lot different back then. And here we have some of the medals that the kings and queens of Austria (Hapsburg Empire) once wore.
On the left is what the fountain in front of the Dom Cathedral would look like if it wasn't covered! And my personal favorite of the military uniforms because I'm just imagining this feather hat--how ridiculous.
They had some from WWI and WWII as well as Austria played a part in both. Remember Franz Ferdinand? I also thought the display on the far right was intriguiging.
You can see the progression of technology, from bows and arrows and shields to the musket revolvers. And a nice heating oven!
And I wouldn't be me if I didn't play around in the gift shop. I really couldn't resist. Thanks Daniel for humoring me :)
Some more snowy landscapes!
Next we took a gander into St. Peter's church which took an interesting twisty, winding, route.
But it was worth it! Another baroque catehdral, I really liked the lighting inside.
And we had yet another manger scene!
After that, the Dom Cathedral was open to visitors so we went in to this one. Similar to the previous church, it had really cool paintings on the ceilings and I loved the dome details! I am always impressed when churches have ceilings like this because I just imagine how painful it was for the artists to paint it.
I mean, would you want to be on your back on scaffolding for hours to paint these masterpieces? My arm gets tired holding my phone above my face for 5 minutes, I can't imagine hours with a paintbrush (and not to mention the paint splatters)
but I'm glad they managed it because, it makes it!
Then we found the house where Mozart grew up. If you didn't know, he's from Salzburg and that yellow building is where he spent his early years before coming to Vienna and playing for royals at the age of 6.
We then went to the St. Sebastian's where you may or may not recognize the colonades that hid the Von Trapp family from the Nazis. Maybe you'll remember better by seeing my remake in the pictures on the right.
Also at St. Sebastian's, the famly plot for the Mozart family. Mozart himself is not buried here but here rests his family. It was a very picturesque cemetary.
We also went inside the Mirabell which has the concert hall shown above where there are many classical concerts.
And of course, cherubs lined the staircase leading to it and they were clearly asking to be posed with.
And here we have the gardens of the Mirabell, home of the Do Re Mi scene from Sound of Music--but this one you may not be able to picture as much since there's snow instead of flowers.
But it was a lovely time and totally worth the hours of driving to see another side of Austria.
And this was our trip to Vienna/Salzburg. Totally worth it and would definitely go again!
