Kirchberg – Salzburg – Kirchberg
The day started well enough, with the heavy overnight snowfalls clearing briefly around dawn to allow us some magical views from our hotel room balcony. Unfortunately it went downhill from there, as the ridiculous enforcement of seating arrangements on this tour continued at breakfast, with it being insisted that nine of us squeeze onto two tables of four, despite there being plenty of spare tables elsewhere in the restaurant. In frustration, I grabbed a quick cup of coffee and took it back up to the room.
By this stage, the thought of continuing with any of the official tour arrangements was sounding less and less appealing. Indeed, if it wasn’t for the fact that I had never been to Salzburg, I’d have happily stayed off the tour bus today. Vanessa also had the situation where she had injured herself halfway through her previous visit to Salzburg, so she too was keen to see the rest of what she’d missed out on last time. So reluctantly, we boarded the bus.
Outside, in the village, there were lots of ski resort activities taking place after the previous evening’s dumping of snow. Apparently this is the first season for the last three where snow has actually fallen prior to Christmas Day, making us the lucky ones I suppose. The forecast for today was for more snow flurries, with some heavier falls during the afternoon and evening, but for now at least, the clouds had cleared enough to allow me to take some photographs through the bus windows as we headed towards Salzburg.
Although we were going to Salzburg, we’d already agreed that we wouldn’t take part in the official walking tour, and instead we’d go and look at the things we wanted to see, and stop at the places we wanted to stop. It’s become really clear to us that unless a guide can offer some really special insights that go beyond the usual potted history walk and point tours, they’re really not for us.
Upon arrival in Salzburg, another city that has had to install an almost military system of bus drop-offs and pick-ups due to the volume of tourists they receive each year, I was straight off the bus and raring to go. Vanessa stopped to hand back the Vox boxes to the Deryck, our tour leader, who seemed astonished that we should want to miss out on the tour. With another couple already choosing to stay back in Kirchberg for the day, the group would now be reduced to 5 without us. Vanessa thinks he was only half-joking when he said something about not allowing it, but by that stage, I was already halfway down the street and heading for the Mirabell Gardens, so he really didn’t have much choice.
The Mirabell Gardens and Palace are part of a myriad of locations around Salzburg that were used in the filming of The Sound of Music. They were also the scene of Vanessa’s previous injury, and with a thick layer of snow having settled on them overnight, she wisely agreed to not try and recreate any scenes from the movie this time around. The gardens would no doubt be beautiful in the spring, but at this time of the year there’s not much to be seen, so we didn’t hang around long.
Just beyond the gardens we spotted the Salzburg branch of the Sacher Hotel, so we decided to stop in for some of their famous Sacher Torte and coffee. The coffee and torte were great, but the star of the show was a Spicy Gugelhupf Cake, a ginger and spice ring-cake, much like a Bundt cake, that was served with candied oranges, gingerbread crumble and whipped cream.
After a quick loo-break and the obligatory 10 minute delay while we got re-dressed into all our warm layers again, we were back out into the cold. Of course, we had to stop for Rowdy to get his picture taken outside the hotel first.
Just behind the Hotel Sacher is a footbridge leading across the River Salzach and into the old town. We crossed here, past all of the ridiculous love locks (because nothing says “I love you” more than vandalising public property), and onto the far shore.
The entrance into the old town just across from the footbridge was clogged with a solid mass of people, so we followed the river bank a little further until we came to a wider area that allowed us at least some semblance of personal space as we walked.
Reaching the main square, we stopped to check out the Christmas markets, one of the larger ones in Europe. These markets are famous for the “Running of the Krampus” early on in December – actually on the 5th of December to be precise, as Krampus is said to accompany St Nicholas that night, before the feast of St Nicholas on December 6th. During these visits, St Nick is said to leave small gifts for the children who have been good, while Krampus punishes the bad ones by spanking them with birch rods. For the run in Salzburg, young men dressed as Krampus run through the markets and attempt to scare the audience, often whipping them (usually only lightly) with birch branches. By all accounts it’s an absolute hoot, but sadly well and truly done by the time we got here.
After the markets, we wandered around the top of the town for a bit, looking for a shop that was supposed to be somewhere around-abouts that sold camera gear, as I needed a new strap, but despite several attempts, the Maps app on Vanessa’s phone kept giving us the bum steer and pointing us towards houses, rock walls and various other non-camera-shop things. Eventually we gave up, and went off in search of Schnitzel.
We found an excellent hotel that served delicious schnitzels and large pots of beer that required another loo-break before frocking up in the winter woollies again. We had plenty of time left before we had to meet the bus again, so the rest of the time was spent admiring the city and visiting lots of shops. I eventually managed to locate another branch of the camera store we’d been looking for earlier, this time on the other side of the river and not too far from the bus stop. We headed there, but sadly, they didn’t stock any straps, so we had to walk away empty handed.
With still over an hour left before we needed to catch the bus, we decided to stop in at a little wine bar for a drink. We entered in to find the place all lit up and music pumping through the speakers in the roof, but no one around. We were about to leave when the toilet door opened, and the proprietor of the bar walked out, saw us, and screamed. Apparently the bar wasn’t due to open for another 20 minutes, so once we were assured she had only had an anxiety attack, and not something more serious, we agreed to come back at that time. Vanessa took that as an opportunity to do some more shopping, while I looked around for some public seating that wasn’t wet or covered in snow, gave up, and then just tried to find somewhere out of the way to stand where I wouldn’t get crushed by the stampede of pre-Christmas shoppers and tourists. It turns out the wait was worth it, as the bar was excellent, and now that she had gotten over her initial shock, the owner was really friendly. Definitely a place we’d love to go back to if the opportunity ever arose again.
By the time we boarded the bus, all we wanted to do is have a snooze for the hour and a half journey back to Kirchberg, however Deryck had bigger ideas, and had organised with Joerg the bus driver to play the soundtrack to The Sound of Music over the bus’s audio system for the entire journey home. Actually, not quite all the way home – the final track ended while we were still about twenty minutes away, at which point Joerg switched over to the same playlist of 9 or so Christmas songs that we’ve been hearing in every restaurant, shop and bar throughout Europe. With my opinion on the tour having taken an evening bigger battering tonight, we decided we’d had enough to eat at lunch that we skipped dinner, had a couple of scotches and some chips in the room, then went to bed.