If you only had one full day to spend in Salzburg Austria, what can you do?
Salzburg is a charming picturesque city in the northern part of Austria close to the German border. As you walk along the river Salzach, which runs through Salzburg, you will see the old town side of the river with the tall fortress topped hill as a backdrop, then on the other side of the river, the newer part of town with a monastery on the side of the hill. On a warm fall day, lining the river were chestnut trees changing colors and some trees even had ripe shiny brown chestnuts peeking through their prickly shells.
Since we only had one full day, we decided on an itinerary of 3 places to visit: the Mozart birth house and museum, Mirabell Palace gardens — one of the many Sound of Music movie location site in Salzburg — and the Fortress Hohensalzburg on the hill. These sites were all within walkable distance, which I like as it’s one less thing to figure out when you’re in an unfamiliar city.
In order to beat the crowds, we visited the Mozart birth house first. Salzburg is the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the famous classical music composers from the late 1700’s. You can visit the house where he was born on the busy Getreidegasse, which is now a shopping street. It’s a pedestrian only street as the old town area is blocked off for most cars. The house is also a museum about the life of Mozart including items that he owned and musical instruments that he played. You’re not allowed to take photographs while inside the museum, so the only picture from this visit is of the outside. This place was definitely well worth the stop if you’re a fan of Mozart to better understand his life and the times he lived in.
The busy Getreidegasse (street)
Mozart’s Birth House on Getreidegasse
Once we left the Mozart house by the back entrance, we found ourselves in the middle of a farmer’s market in the University Square. There were stands selling produce, cheeses, meats, flowers, and ready made items such as sausages and breads. I could’ve easily bought one of everything to snack on, my husband did get a sausage to eat, which was first cut up and served on a paper plate with freshly grated horseradish, mustard, and a roll.
Meats and cheeses stand at the market
Various flavored pretzels at the market
Flower stand at the market
To get to the Fortress Hohensalzburg, which is on a very steep hill, you can walk or take the funicular, which is what I recommend. I was glad we had chosen to ride in the funicular — a quick ride up — as later on when we were walking down from the fortress, we found that it was very steep pathway. The tickets for the fortress and funicular can be purchased at the entrance for the funicular ride. There are different levels of admissions tickets you can buy and we did the all inclusive, which then included the funicular, an audio guide, and also all the different parts of the fortress interiors. We climbed the circular stairs up one of the towers and ended up on a roof platform where you had a spectacular 360 degree view of Salzburg, and the surrounding countryside. While we were up there, several of the churches’ bells started to chime (it was 11:30 am) and it was quite the cacophony of sound.
We learned about the history of the fortress, which was built up over the years by various archbishops starting in 1077, and of Salzburg, which has a long and varied history from being part of a archbishopric for the Holy Roman Empire, to being independent, to part of Bavaria, then the Austria-Hungary Empire, and currently to Austria. The city did not get too damaged during World War II, so the baroque style buildings were preserved lending to the charm of the town. The city gets its name from salt (salz) and fortress (burg) since there are salt deposits in the mountains nearby, in fact one of the archbishops, who sponsored a lot of the building of the fortress got the money to do so by trading salt.
View of Salzburg from Fortress Hohensalzburg
Part of Fortress Hohensalzburg
It’s easy to spend a couple of hours at the fortress, and by the end of this time we were hungry so it was time to eat lunch! We walked down the hill part of the way to the Steiglkeller Restaurant. They have a nice view from this place and especially from the terrace. We would’ve liked to sit and each lunch outside, but at the time we were there, they were only serving drinks on the terrace, so we ate lunch in one of the indoor dining rooms. We sat at a communal table with a local family and a Canadian couple. We’d heard of a dish that they served here of filled dumplings called Knödelvariation mit Sauerkraut — 6 dumplings stuffed with 3 different kinds of pork fillings, one was a spicy sausage (not spicy hot, but with more seasonings than the other fillings had), a smoked pork, and a bacon filling with crispy bits. The dumplings were served on a bed of sauerkraut that was very flavorful as it had been cooked down with bits of pork and onion.
Stuffed dumplings on a bed of sauerkraut at the Steiglkeller
Cross section of the dumplings, with spicy pork, smoky pork, and crispy pork fillings
Salzburg is famous for being the movie location for the movie The Sound of Music. In fact there are tour companies giving tours that take you to the spots from several scenes of the movie. We watched the movie before the trip, and just walking around the city you can recognize some of the locations in the movie, such as the horse fountain in Residentzplaz, or the Mozartstieg bridge. We purposefully went to the Mirabell Palace gardens, which is where part of the “Do-re-mi” song was filmed including the gates at the north end of the garden. It’s a pretty garden with statues, colorful flowers planted in patterns in the grass, and fountains. There’s also a section of the garden where there are some fun gnome statues.
Our evening meal was near the Airbnb apartment at a restaurant that served traditional Austrian food. Zwetller’s had traditional decor with wood paneling and the friendly servers were wearing lederhosen (traditional leather shorts).
We chose some traditional dishes to eat, Kasnock’n mit Röstzwiebeln — cheese spaetzle sprinkled with crispy onion — and Tiroler Gröst’l mit Spiegelei un Krautsalat — roast potatoes and meat (beef, pork, bacon) topped with a fried egg. These were comforting, filling, and delicious, especially the Tiroler Gröst’l which was like a chunky hash, with local smoked meat that made it special.
Zwettler’s restaurant serving traditional Austrian food
Kasnock’n - Cheese spaetzle with crispy onions
Tiroler Gröst’l - Tyrolean meat and potatoes dish
At the end of the day as we wandered back towards the apartment, we came around the corner and stopped. The sight in front of us was so wonderful - the full moon rising through some misty clouds over the fountain in the Residenzplatz. This is why I like traveling so much, the unexpected sights that you get to see no where else in the world.
Full Moon rising over the Residenzplatz in Salzburg, Austria
Salzburg is easy to get to, a 1 1/2 hour train ride south from Munich, Germany, which is what we did. You can also fly into the Salzburg Airport, or arrive by automobile. We stayed in an apartment we found on Airbnb, but there are also many hotels around for lodging. It is definitely worth visiting this charming and picturesque town!
Note: There are no ads in this post, I was not paid by any businesses mentioned in this post.
