The magic of Salzburg

On Saturday morning despite not having a great night's sleep I got up early and caught the 9:15 bus from Niederalm to Salzburg. I'd checked with my hosts that you paid on the bus, and when I got on I just sort of kept handing small coins over to the driver until he stopped looking cross at me.

Well, I might have found Niederalm a bit provincial and Anif quiet, but Salzburg is absolutely stunning. As you enter the city it is like entering a fairytale land, with the castle up above, and churches and houses with turrets on the hills all around.

I got the 170 bus to the end of the line, the main train station, or Hauptbahnhof. As soon as I stepped off the bus the magic continued as a real live working steam engine pulled into the station. I managed to run up to the platform to get some pictures, and got close enough to it to get showered with steam as it pulled out of the station again.

I went strolling through the city for a while, and then stopped at a great little cafe called Republic. The sun was shineing so I could sit outside, it had free wifi, and a comprehensive guide to the local clubs and entertainment, so I've picked a couple of places we might visit next week.

I then walked on and came across the inevitable Irish pub - Murphy's Law (ho! ho!) - which showed English football. I'd never really found a regular place in Chania to watch footie, but at least it looks like I'm sorted in Salzburg.

I walked around the city for another hour or so, not really "doing" anything, because I want to save it all for when Claire gets here, but at least I was getting my bearings. I also enjoyed a massive chocolate coated sweet apple pretzel. Yummo!

It was soon time for the Saturday games in England to kick-off, so I made my way back towards Murphy's Law. Before going in I decided to go just a little further along the road to see what was there. That turned out to be an error, as I started walking up the hill, and then ended up walking for about another hour, expecting at any second to be able to simply turn left back into Salzburg rather than re-tracing my steps, and failing. In the end I had climbed to the the summit of one of the peaks either side of Slazburg. I would describe the view as breath-taking, but frankly by the time I got there, I didn't have much breathe left. My fitness levels were put to shame by a sprightly old nun who had been climbing the steps up ahead of me.

Fortunately I found the terrace of the modern museum cafe, and discovered that they had a lift down to the base of the hill back to Salzburg's street level. This cost €1.80 for a single trip, but frankly if they had told me it was €30 I would have paid just so that I didn't have to climb back down again. As luck would have it the lift deposits you literally 50 metres from Murphy's Law, so within a minute or so I was happily supping some Zwickel and watching Bolton vs Liverpool.