I grew up watching the Sound of Music like many people because I was shown it at school. However, when we decided to go to Salzburg, it was more because it was a train stop for me. My husband loves musicals and I’ve always been kind of indifferent because I didn’t grow up with them; don’t worry, I’m being reformed and have a few that I really like now. Our trip to Salzburg, Austria was beautiful though and so family friendly. We spent most of the trip saying “we should definitely revisit this trip to Salzburg, Austra when we have kids.” There are a ton of completely kid’s focused activities, and frankly, our trip to Salzburg, Austria was very charming. We loved our self guided walking tour in Salzburg and I hope we can go back and visit again someday!
A WALKING TOUR OF SALZBURG, AUSTRIA
Hohensalzburg Castle
Hohensalzburg Castle started being constructed in 1077 and is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe. The castle was refurbished in the 1800s and became a major tourist hot spot after the funicular opened. In World War I, Italian prisoner of wars + Nazi Activists (before 1938 when Austria was annexed) where held in the cells. We stopped by the prisoner of war cells and they were pretty dark and dreary. Like usual, these European castles had stair wells that made me want to pee my pants, but as you can see below… the view was definitely worth it.
Mirabell Palace
Mirabell Palace was featured multiple times in the Sound of Music during the “Do-Re-Mi” song. My husband was great at spotting different places from the musical, but I admit that I wished I had watched it closer to our trip. Mirabell Palace was built in 1606 and is surrounded by beautiful gardens (we went in August and it looked like this) and sculptures that are mythology themed. The gardens were beautiful, smelled wonderful, but my favorite part were the gnome sculptures- they had a lot of personality!
Getreidegasse + Mozart’s birthplace
Getreidegasse is a shopping street in the Old Town part of Salzburg, Austria. Located within the area, is Mozart’s birthplace and home until 17. I don’t like to take a lot of photos in packed tourist places because I get overwhelmed with how close people are everywhere + I wanted to just enjoy it, but the streets were very charming. We wove in and out of the streets and enjoyed looking in shop windows or looked at menus (thankfully, a lot of European restaurants put the menu out on the street so you can see them which helps our pocket book!).
St Peter’s Abbey, Salzburg +Petersfriedhof
St Peter’s Abbey in Salzburg, Austria is one of the oldest monasteries and has the longest history of use; the foundation was laid in 696. Surrounding the Abbey are beautiful tombstones and flower gardens as well as Petersfriedhof, which is the cemetery. Within the cemetery grounds there are catacombs which are available for touring.
Salzburg Cathedral
In the 1600s, this Baroque cathedral was built on the remains of Roman town. The original founding of the church dated back to 774 and was rebuilt in the 12th century after a fire. The Salzburg Cathedral still has the baptismal font the composer Mozart was baptized in, a day after his birth.
Kollegienkirche
The Kollegienkirche means “college church” and is the church for the University of Salzburg. It is built in a Baroque style that later became the model of German baroque churches. This church is a part of UNESCO World Heritage site for Salzburg’s historic center. I loved this church because everything was so white and beautiful- it was a big departure from the very colorful churches we saw in Italy.
Mönchsberg
We took a walk along the river and ended up finding our way winding up to Mönchsberg. The area is 1.5 miles above Old Town and has fortifications from the 1400s. Honestly, out of all of the beautiful places we saw in Salzburg, this was my favorite. The hike was free, the views were beautiful, and it was amazing to walk through the forests with wildflowers surrounded by antiquity. There is an elevator that you can take, but we opted for walking. I honestly felt like we were in a fairy tale forest the whole time!
MEMORABLE MOMENTS FROM OUR TRIP TO SALZBURG
Beyond places we visited, I have three memories that made our trip to Salzburg humorous.
- We booked a hotel that had no air conditioning, which wasn’t a big deal at all with the weather and ventilation in the hotel. We also booked a no smoking hotel… except it wasn’t. The visitors below us smoked outside their window directly below our window. Since the whole hotel operated on having open windows to ventilate the whole place, it meant the whole place was completely full of cigarette smoke. We ended up having to shut our windows until those guests left because of my asthma and we didn’t want all of our things to smell like smoke.The next night, we opened up our windows again as did everyone else around us. At around 3 AM, some very drunk people came through screaming and yelling. I was about to open the window and start yelling at them until we heard a chorus of neighbors begin yelling out the windows in German and English, very humorous. It made the experience of losing sleep when we were jet lagged worth it.
- With our food one night, we received chocolates. I took one bite and realized that they had to have alcohol in them. We ended up hiding them in our napkins because we don’t drink alcohol. However, we were laughing because I ended up having alcohol in my gelato in Florence and we don’t drink alcohol for religious purposes. I can honestly say that the only time I have ever had alcohol was by accident two times in Europe haha!
- We were rounding the stairs to walk up to Mönchsberg and I stopped to smell flowers. I told Devin the flowers literally smelled like dog crap and I was so confused. I looked down … and someone had not been able to clean the residue of their dog’s bath-rooming experience from the cobblestones I was standing on. It seriously smelled so bad that I started gagging. We still had a lot of stairs to go up and we ended up taking breaks every once in a while. Every time we turned around to look down, there were other tourists being assaulted by the smell as well. I’m not going to lie, we laughed pretty hard.
RESOURCES FOR OUR WALKING TOUR OF SALZBURG, AUSTRIA
- This blogger covered more places in their time in Salzburg, Austria than we did and they have some more suggestions of places to see here.
- This website offers information for a free walking tour of Salzburg, Austria with great information with business hours of service (although, it is always best to check before purchasing tickets too as things change!). There is great historical information included as well.
- This website offers great tips on how to find The Sound of Music video stops as well as other information like a succint map with these locations.
All in all, we loved our trip to Salzburg, Austria. The weather in August was perfect, we had some humorous times, and the hills and vantage points were really gorgeous. As I feel like I always say when I end these posts, I would love to go back and visit. However, I also know that my wanderlust knows no bounds.
