Day 4 – Friday – 24 May – Salzburg – Innsbruck

Next morning we had a hearty breakfast in the breakfast room on the first floor, a beautiful place decorated with local furniture and pretty historical pictures of the hotel on the walls. The breakfast spread was vast with everything from eggs which you could boil, muesli of various types, six types of juice, cold cuts, cut fresh fruits, a variety of breads, jams and spreads, tea and coffee on offer.

I choose muesli, orange juice, some fresh fruits, a croissant, slice of apple strudel and Mansi had some bread and cheese, fresh fruits and juice. Both of us couldn’t do justice to that spread. Completely stuffed we headed to the station for our train to Salzburg, it was drizzling by now and even with my two layers of sweaters, thermals, hat and gloves I was shivering and my teeth were chattering as we walked to the station.

I was stuck with taking pictures with my iphone as my Canon camera had suddenly died on me as soon as we reached the cooler climes of Innsbruck, I changed the batteries hoping they were the problem but it simply refused to turn on. I had to abandon it hoping it would start working later which it never did.

We both hoped for better weather at Salzburg so that we would be able to explore the town and enjoy the boat ride we had booked online. We had taken tickets to the Hop On Hop Off Bus which departs from the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof and had planned to see as many attractions as we could pack before our departure by 4pm. Our train was at 8.50am, a local train to Salzburg which reached there by 10am. We boarded the Austrian train – Railjet (RLJ 663) a sleek black and red coloured train and located our seats and settled in. The train had free wifi for 30 minutes and screens across the cabin showing the train speed and the next station in English. Salzburg was the first stop for the train.

Our compartment was filled with Austrian/German ladies all chattering away and prepared for the long rail journey with an assortment of cards, drinks and snacks in their bags. They entertained themselves throughout the journey with loud conversations, drinks and snacks.  The train has 4 seats facing each other with tables in between and two seats without a table. We were in the two seats without table. Mansi listened to music and took pictures of the pretty scenery passing by. I read a book and watched the scenery intermittently as I pleased.

On reaching Salzburg Hauptbahnhof we headed outside the station to the bus stop which was one of the stops on the hop on hop off bus route. The timetable stated that the bus was due in half an hour, it was drizzling by now and both of us were very cold. We decided to head into the warmth of the station rather than shiver at the bus stop. There was a coffee shop just at the entrance and we settled at a table outside as the inner space was occupied, I chose a cappuccino to warm myself. In Europe they always give a small glass of water with coffee.

We boarded the bus and handed over our voucher to the driver, he gives us the tickets and headphones to use on the bus along with a map of the route. The tour starts with what else but Mozart’s musical pieces as the bus takes us to the famous Schloss Mirabell (beautiful gardens and castle we plan to visit last in the evening, as its closest to the station). We look over the map and decide we will get off at the boat trip stop and get the boat trip done before we venture around town sightseeing. On reaching the boat dock we are told that the first boat is full and we can only be accommodated in the next one at 1pm, we have to reach the dock by 12.30. It’s a one hour round trip down the river.

Our River Cruise Boat - Amadeus on the Salzach River - Salzburg

 


Left Bank of the Salzach River - Salzburg

 


Salzach River - Salzburg

We wander onto the Bridge of Locks located right next to the dock; this bridge across the Salzach River is marked by hundreds of colourful locks and has dozens of tourists posing around it. We find space and pose for some pictures of our own. 

Me on the Bridge of Locks on the Salzach River - Salzburg

We have over an hour to kill so we decide to linger near the dock and do some sightseeing, luckily its very close to the main attractions of Mozarts Geburtzhaus (his birth house) and the Dom Cathedral, we make our way down the streets past covered alleyways with stores selling expensive leather goods, shoes, baked goods, chocolates etc. Everything looks good and expensive here. The streets are very pretty and filled with tourists at that hour.  As we near Mozarts House I spot some fire engines in the street attending to a fire in that building itself. We discover that it’s closed to tourists till the fire fighter’s finish, disappointed we head down the street to the Cathedral.


Mozarts Birth House - Salzburg

 


Dom Cathedral - Salzburg

The Cathedral is also closed for renovations, now we are annoyed that our top 2 attractions are off our list. We pose for pictures against the cathedral just as it starts to rain. After wandering in the surrounding streets for a while and doing some people watching we head to a Burger King for lunch.

Post lunch its back at the dock for our boat tour, the boat is called the “Amadeus Salzburg” and is a huge riverboat which takes a tour on the Salzach River up to the Uberfursteg Bridge and back again. Since we are still a bit early we sit at the pretty Salzburg island bar which is also a restaurant on the river. We queue to board the boat and after a brief introduction from our pilot we are off. There is a commentary in English and German about the attractions we pass on the tour. The Hohensalzburg fortress is on our right as we make our way down the river, its imposing presence dominates the city. I wish we had time to spend at the fortress as I am sure the views must be remarkable. 

Left Bank of Salzach River - Salzburg from the Amadeus River Boat

 

 

Right Bank of Salzach River with Hohensalzburg Fortress dominating the city

There are beautiful old homes on the banks of the river which are well maintained and painted in pastel shades along with these strange trees which have no foliage. It’s drizzling continuously so our view through the glass viewing panes is a bit hazy. There is an open viewing space at the back of the boat where some passengers venture to take pictures. They also have a bar where you can purchase snacks. The boat stops at the bridge to let off some of the passengers who have taken one of the shorter tour options. Our pilot turns the boat around and we head back. The trip gets a bit boring at this point as we are going past previously seen attractions. The pilot did a few 360 degree turns just before we reached the dock for the passengers and we all heartily clapped for his efforts. He is an ex British Navy officer and entertains us with some stories about the boat. One of the passengers is a boat enthusiast and they hit it off.

Once off the boat we decide to take in a full round trip of the sightseeing bus to get a glimpse of the other attractions, take some pictures and then head to the Mirabell Gardens as our train departs at 4pm and it gives us just 2 hours, we think the Gardens definitely will take at least one hour. Luckily for us our bus driver is amused by Mansi’s enthusiasm to click pictures and halts patiently at each attraction on the way while she clicks away, there are just two elderly couples on board the bus who don’t mind the delay. The round trip takes the better part of an hour and we just have an hour at the Mirabell Gardens when we get down from the bus.

I desperately need the rest room and spot a sign for one in the Gardens so we split and decide to meet up at 3.30pm near the entrance to the Gardens. Of course it’s a paid restroom but clean, I have to wait a bit in a queue and now have hardly any time for the garden. I wander around the garden admiring the shaped hedges and flowers and before I know it’s time to depart.

Mirabell Gardens

 


Mirabell Castle & Gardens

Reaching the entrance I wait for Mansi who has lost track of time. With no way to contact her I have no choice but to wait, with hardly 20 minutes for our train I suddenly spot her running towards me. We just have time to catch the next bus to the station and run to the display to find out our platform number. Of course as luck would have it our train is missing from the list. We head to the inquiry office and the man there tells us the train number is different but it’s the same train and its running late, it’s some strange train where it has engines at both ends and the train gets broken into two at one of the stations where one part heads to Innsbruck and the other goes in the opposite direction.

Armed with the new train number we reach the crowded platform and await the train, I go and check the display on the platform which shows the compartments to see if I can pinpoint where our seats are located. We stand where we think our compartment is going to come and wait for the train. I am suddenly panicked by the thought of getting into the wrong section of the train, the one heading away from Innsbruck as we are without our passports or any tickets. We are also carrying just travel money having kept all our cash in the hotel safe. Mansi asks me to relax and trust the inquiry officer.

When the train arrives we can spot the train number on the electronic display on the side of the compartment and it’s our old train number, thank god....we are close to our compartment and have to run to get in and find our seats. Unfortunately we are sharing our compartment with a school trip to Munich and is filled with teenage boys and girls and a couple of teachers. The whole ride is noisy with kids running in the aisles and playing tricks on their friends. I read my book - House of Silk, the new Sherlock Holmes and Mansi tries to listen to music and we go through the pictures she has clicked. We both get 30 minutes of free wifi on the train which we use to whatsapp with friends. Since it’s raining and snowing in some parts along the route the train halts a lot between stations and is running late, we reach Innsbruck by 6.30pm almost half an hour later than planned.

Both of us are famished and decide to eat at one of the restaurants we had spotted on Maria Thereisen Strasse on the earlier evening. Unfortunately most of the places are closed, we are lucky to find an Italian restaurant near the Triumphforte which was open and we happened to be the only customers. The owner cum chef was more than happy to accommodate us; getting some table wine...red of course and bread for us to nibble on while he cooked for us. Mansi chose to go out and click some pictures of the streets around while we waited for the food; I stayed inside sipping on my wine. I chose a spaghetti carbonara and Mansi took some pasta. While we waited we were joined by a family of four on the next table and they ordered pizzas. The serving was huge, I barely made a dent. Feeling bad about leaving almost half my spaghetti; we paid up and left.   

Julie had told Mansi about a place which rented bikes and she also wanted to click some pictures from the bridge across the Inn River which we had passed on our way to Wattens. There was also a funicular railway which went up the hill and provided an opportunity for some panoramic pics. While there was some light she decided to wander around clicking pictures, I decided to head back to the hotel for some rest. Mansi returned much earlier than I expected as it started to get quite chilly. She decided to return the next morning to try and get some of it done. We had a strange incidence in the middle of the night when our TV suddenly switched on, we hadn’t  switched on any TV till date on our trip and it was a bit bizarre to wake up to the TV blasting away in German. Both of us couldn’t locate the remote in the room or the off switch on the LCD and were forced to call the reception desk, the night receptionist was kind enough to come to our room and switch off the TV.