A Day Trip to Salzburg (2024)
While planning this trip a few months ago, we had read from multiple sources that Salzburg is a good day trip to do from Munich. While I’m not a huge Sound of Music fan, I have seen it multiple times, and I love Julie Andrews, so this sounded like fun. Also, all the pictures I’ve seen of Salzburg make it look so idyllic, so we had to experience it for ourselves.
Since we were planning on seeing a few sights during our one day there, we did some research and read about the Salzburg Card. It’s essentially a day pass that offers free transportation on the bus and free entry into most of the main attractions there (as well as discounted prices to other sights). We weren’t sure if we would be ahead in value if we bought the card, but we would be close, so we purchased one for each of us.
You can buy them in person once you arrive in Salzburg, but I purchased them online to save some time. The only concern with the online method is that you need to choose your date ahead of time. We didn’t think this would be an issue when we bought the cards, but as we got closer to our trip, we noticed that the weather forecast for the day I purchased the cards for called for thunderstorms. If we hadn’t pre-purchased the cards, we could have gone on a different day and purchased cards when we arrived. As it turned out, we got extremely lucky with the weather, as you’ll see later in this post.
One nice thing about purchasing the card online is that I could send each person their own digital card. Also, it saved us time with having to register each person with a ticket agent, giving us more time to see Salzburg.
Anyway, the train ride from Munich to Salzburg is about 90 minutes, and from Salzburg station, we took a 15 minute bus ride into the city center.
Our first stop was lunch at Afro Cafe. We were seated at 11:30 and noticed that their breakfast menu ended at 11:30. We asked the server if breakfast was still available, and she promptly replied ‘no.’ While we were initially excited by their unavailable breakfast menu, their lunch menu looked good too. I ordered their curry chicken pot, Nick got their club salad, Tiffany ordered some type of quinoa salad, and Mike ordered a sandwich:
They also had some delicious coffee drinks and a small case of cakes:
With our bodies caffeinated and hunger satiated, we were ready to see Salzburg! A very short walk away was one end of the Getreidegasse, the main shopping street in Salzburg. The cute store signs hanging over the street with the beautiful homes above with the brick lined street made for a wonderful stroll through the area:
And with shopping streets comes distraction for Tiffany and me, with our first stop being this pop up candy store:
While their selection of wafers looked good, they were all in fairly large bags, so I didn’t get any. I think Tiffany got a couple of small items, so it was still a productive visit.
Further down the street, we noticed a Starbucks, so we stopped their for Mike and Tiffany to get an Austrian specific Starbucks souvenir mug to take home.
Our actual destination was Mozart’s birthplace, and while in Starbucks, I asked Nick where it was, and he said to go outside and look to my right, and yeah, it was right there:
Salzburg is very proud being the birthplace of Mozart, with many of their souvenirs incorporating Mozart in some way. They even sell Mozartkugel, which is a chocolate ball filled with marzipan and nougat. There are numerous shops selling their version of them, and they definitely make it known:
So I’m not a big classical music person, and to be honest, I couldn’t name any Mozart pieces by name. But when listening to some of his works, I was like “oh, I know that!” So apparently I can recognize at least his most well known compositions.
Inside, the house was rather large, covering something like four floors. There was a free audio guide that you could download, but there was a crowd of people in front of the QR code, so we skipped it. Next to each area was some information about the room, including some biographical information. There were various family portraits and other items, but the unique items were his childhood violin, a replica of the piano he played on as a young adult, and a lock of his hair:
It was also a little stuffy inside, so I sort of rushed the group through the rooms. But it was included with the Salzburg card, and the ticket itself was like half the price of the card, so it was a good deal.
Next, we would walk to Mirabell Gardens, known for the beautifully manicured gardens and also the stairs where Maria and the Von Trapp children sing “Do-Re-Mi.” We needed to cross the river on a pedestrian bridge covered with many love locks:
A few minutes from there, we entered the Gardens, and it was so beautiful!
We couldn’t resist taking a selfie with the scenery behind us:
Around the side was a fountain with a Pegasus statue that looked rather high or stoned, or just living its best life, you decide:
It’s also the fountain used in the scene with Maria and the children skipping around it. I guess I never noticed the Pegasus statue in the center, and definitely not its face.
Next to the fountain is the famous staircase, and I think everyone visiting the gardens knew this because it was extremely difficult to get a photo without people crowding around the area. We did our best though:
We wanted a break from being on our feet, so we headed off to the Hotel Sacher to get a slice of the “original sachertorte.” Except, the sign over the door leads to a shop where you can buy whole sachertortes to take home. A couple in front of us asked us where we can eat a slice, and the woman at the counter pointed to the cafe around the corner. It seems like this is a question she gets asked quite frequently.
We made our way to Cafe Sacher, where a beautiful display of all their cakes was by the entrance:
We were told we could sit anywhere, so we grabbed one of the four tops available and browsed the menu for a bit. I felt like it was obligatory for one of us to order the sachertorte, so I did and Tiffany ordered a malakoff torte:
I’ve never had a sachertorte before, so I didn’t know that the middle layer is apricot jam. Nick also wasn’t aware of this, so when he took his first bite, he did not like the apricot filling at all (he generally doesn’t like chocolate and fruit together). I didn’t mind it, but we both felt that the cake was a bit dry. Tiffany’s malakoff torte was similar to that of a tiramisu in that it had what appeared to be ladyfingers inside surrounded by a cream of some sort. She liked hers, and I think Nick preferred hers over the sachertorte. I still felt like it was worth trying the original sachertorte once.
From there, we made our way to Hohensalzburg Fortress, which is perched on a cliff overlooking Salzburg. While walking there, we stopped to take photos of various plazas, fountains, and statues:
One such fountain is the horse fountain, which is featured during Maria’s walk to the Von Trapp residence when she sings “I Have Confidence.” At one point during her song, she stops by the fountain and splashes water in its face:
I didn’t think it would be OK to do that, and also the water looked a bit green, so I wasn’t very keen on touching it to begin with.
We eventually made our way to the funicular that takes you up to the fortress (about 1500 feet up). Our Salzburg Card gives us one ride up and one ride down, but you can also opt to walk it if you want to get some exercise. Also with the card, once you’re inside the ticket booth area, you can excuse yourself to make it to the right and just scan yourself through the turnstiles. The funicular ride itself was quite short, about a minute or so, and once you’re up there, it’s only a few steps up a hill to get these amazing views of Salzburg:
As I mentioned before, we got really lucky with the weather and were able to get some amazing views and photos of the city.
The Salzburg Card gave us entry into all of the exhibits in the fortress, so we made our way through each, including the interior of the fortress and some of the staterooms:
There was also a marionette exhibit, which was two small rooms, but enough to creep us out a bit. I was able to take a couple of photos before we felt uneasy being there:
Before heading back on the funicular to go down, we took one group selfie with Salzburg in the background:
Next, I made the group head to the Nonnberg Abbey, which is where Maria and nuns lived. We really were there to see the cemetery, where the final scenes of the movie were shot, but couldn’t find the entrance. I did, however, get a photo of the gate that was used for the scene when the children try to visit Maria after she leaves the Von Trapp family residence:
Since the abbey’s located atop a hill, there were also some nice views from there:
We needed to get dinner before heading back on the train to Munich, and since we were in Austria, we needed to get some schnitzel, so we went to Zwettler’s Wirsthaus. There were a few variations of schnitzel on the menu, but I chose the original; Nick and Tiffany got one that was stuffed with cream cheese, mushrooms, bacon, and onion; and Mike ordered some meatballs.
We were all very happy with our choices, and quite full from all of the food, so we decided to walk 25 minutes back to the train station. As we rode the train home, we were all still amazed at the beauty of Salzburg and were so happy we made this day trip!