EUROPE BLOG April 17th, 2023 - SALZBURG

 

4/17/23- Four countries down and several more to go before this trip is all said and done. It’s been very exciting to say the least and can’t wait for what is to come.

We get a late start to the day figuring it’ll be raining for most of it, but when we leave around 2pm we’re pleasantly surprised to not need our umbrellas. Our Uber takes us across the bridge and back toward the fortress for St Peter’s Cemetary (figured this would be perfect for the weather), and the driver gets turned around. The Uber app has him driving his nice, black car through small corridors in Old Town making the original 15 minute drive more like 30. At one point I consider the notion of possibly having to walk if we get stuck, but somehow he makes it all the way through, dropping us off at the top of the hill.

We walk down the street for a minute only to find the path to the cemetery non existent. Unsure of where to go from here, we continue the steps down to the bottom fortunate at least to get some great views along the way. This is when we realize that the Uber directions were completely wrong and should have dropped us off at the bottom of the hill. At least we get a nice walk to our morning.

The cemetery is quite interesting and free to view (only the catacombs had a small charge which we did not go in). The church is also very beautifully laid out inside with intricate paintings and statues throughout.

Continuing on, we reach the Salzburg Cathedral around the corner. We passed by this yesterday on the way to the fortress but chose to wait until today to venture inside. 5 Euros each is all it cost and it didn’t disappoint with very large ceilings and several domed tops. We’ve seen cathedrals like this before as they’re all over Europe, but it’s still interesting to see each one for their unique characteristics.

As we exit, the sun fully comes out, lighting the courtyard in arrays of yellow and orange, allowing us plenty of opportunities to take photos and enjoy the sunlight. What a great few days this has turned out to be as the forecast called for rain every day.

We stop in a local restaurant for some freshly made burgers (that are extremely well done and satisfied our hunger), go back to Mirabel Palace to see what was inside (turns out it’s mainly offices and can’t go in), before going to the local SPAR grocery store for a few items. We even pick up some excellent Mirabell chocolates that are absolutely perfect.

Back at our AirBnb, we gather our things to leave for the day. This was one of the changes we made last week as originally we were to stay for 7 nights. I tried to cancel the booking but it was already too late unfortunately for a refund. Instead, we’re choosing to go to Zurich, Switzerland for the next few days (country #5). 

Around 6:40pm, we call an Uber to take us to the train station (even though it’s only a few blocks away, it was worth not killing our legs this time and spending the 7 Euros). The driver shows up and immediately goes into a rant of why we called for a ride when it was so close. I point to our bags and say, “we already paid” before getting in the car. I mean WTF, the driver accepted the ride, he knew how far it’s going before he even got to us. Once inside, he tries to accuse me of cancelling the ride on him. I show him my phone app that proves it’s current and finally we’re off.

As soon as we get out, I give the driver a 1 star. I would’ve said something directly to him, but in a foreign country I have no idea if they can just refuse the ride and drive off… so I wait for the review section to pop up.

The first train we take has plenty of open seats and takes two hours to get to Munich (our first change). During the ride, we run into some crazy characters on the local train. Kids blaring music, toddler yelling, people behind us talking non-stop and with bad breath to boot, guy that gets kicked off due to not having a ticket… oh and several uniformed police storming the cabin at one of the stops asking random people for their passports. It literally is something out of a movie; you know the one where the audience gets to know the passengers before something crazy goes down. We’re very happy to arrive in Munich and move on to our next train. We’ll have three more station changes before this night is through so stay tuned.

*Update- after one stop the conductor on the second train announced that it’s not going to our destination and everyone needs to get off to be re-routed. Went to information and got our change, but stuck here for another two hours. Looks like we still have 3 more changes but at least our destination time will only be 30 minutes later than before. This should be interesting.