This is a rundown of three activity-filled days spent in Salzburg on a beer-themed trip organised by the local tourism board in May. A.K.A How to have fun in Salzburg!

I've been to Salzburg twice before, but always only for a fleeting day or so, en route to (or coming back from) the beautiful mountains of Austria. I didn't remember much other than visiting Mozart's house and doing a Sound of Music tour!

We were super fortunate with the weather, which was warm and sunny, and really too good for the start of May.

BEAUTIFUL IN SPRING

I spent the first day walking around the city and along the river. I didn't really know where I was going, but Salzburg isn't big and I'm not that ambitious a walker.

The whole place seemed to be glowing in the sun. It was pretty and almost.. heavenly? This seemed the most apparent at the famous Mirabell Gardens, where I stopped to relax and take a few photos.

This is where you can find those steps where part of the Do-Re-Mi song was filmed in The Sound of Music movie. Now, you'll often find crowds of tourists trying to get a photo on one of the steps. 

I felt a bit nostalgic being there. I thought of when my mom and I ran through the tunnel (like Maria did), laughing all the way. My mom is a huge fan of The Sound of Music and that was one of the reasons I brought her to Salzburg last time. She loved it!

AN E-BIKE TOUR!

Have you been on an e-bike before? This was my first time and it was a REVELATION!

Ricardo loves cycling - he's constantly trying to get me on the bike at home. But I usually crush his hopes with my two main excuses:

"I hate cycling in in the city"
"There are too many hills here!"

Well with an E-BIKE, cycling was a complete breeze! It's like, not even cycling. It gave me the boost I needed to feel more confident in urban areas (and like a hero on empty/countryside paths).

We started the tour in the city in Mozartplatz Square, where we picked up the bikes. I was happy to know that we were going to cycle straight OUT of town!

Within 5-10 minutes, the scenery had completely changed. We were soon on a path flanked by green grass on each side and mountains in the distance. 

I wanted to stop SO MANY TIMES (so many beautiful spots!) but as per group tour etiquette that was a bit difficult. I did almost get left behind a couple of times because I took too long taking pictures somewhere.

My favourite part was cycling along Hellbrunner Allee - a long (5km), straight road lined with tall chestnut trees. It was along this road that Maria had danced and sang 'I Am Confident' and entered into the grounds of the Von Trapp mansion - in real life known as Schloss Frohnburg (Frohnburg Castle) It's the yellow building seen in the photo above.

Hellbrunner Allee connects to Hellbrunn Castle and its gardens, so that's where we ended up next. Again, it's a popular spot for Sound of Music fans as this is where the famous gazebo is now located!

I have to note that I loooooved this part of the trip the most - it was so exhilarating to be speeding through the beautiful countryside with so little effort! Haha

KALTENHAUSEN BREWERY

Our bike tour ended at Kaltenhausen Brewery - Austria's oldest brewery. It's been around since 1475!

We were treated to a whole variety of beer to taste - from traditional recipes to more innovative, specialty beers. I couldn't finish all of it.. I'm not a great beer drinker (I'm very slow). I generally prefer dark beers and I remember they had a really good one.

I couldn't decide what filled me up more - all the ham and cheese or all that beer!

Still, I had a sweet tooth and asked for an apple strudel after. That was my favourite part :p

 

AUGUSTINER BREWERY

Another day, another brewery!

This time it was Augustiner Brewery (or Augustiner Bräu - not to be confused with the one in Munich), which seemed to be a popular beer hangout as they had a huge outdoor seating area. They also served a variety of snack food to go with the very large mugs of beer they served.

The spiced sausage things (sausage cake??) were really good.

Fun fact: the building used to be a monastery, and the monks who lived there began brewing beer in 1621! 

MAKING MY OWN BEER!

Our trip included a beer brewing experience at Bierkulturhaus, which is a kind of.. beer academy.

I can't say I'm super interested in brewing any of my own beer in future, so I've easily forgotten everything they tried to teach us here. But what's important is that I remember I had fun doing it!

Oh yeah and.. undeveloped beer smells a bit like Marmite. 

Also they had a cool toy/game downstairs, which was a strong magnetic stick and a bunch of bottle caps you can throw at it!

LEDERHOSENDONNERSTAG

I'm just going to quote the information that was given to us to describe #lederhosendonnerstag as it is straight to the point:

In 2013, two guys started encouraging people to wear their Lederhosen (or Dirndl) not just for baptisms and for the Festival. The picked Thursday randomly and the project spread through word-of-mouth. Every Thursday, men dress in Lederhosen and combine them with Chucks and business shirts. No rules. Once a month, everybody gets together for an after-work-clubbing with live DJs and everybody dresses in their Lederhosen or Dirndl.

Doesn't it sound like a super fun event!! I looked forward to this evening the most.

We had our attire rented locally in Salzburg and we were ready to go on Saturday evening - Saturday because Salzburg had advanced in some football tournament and the usual Thursday was a no-go, haha.

Our experience was supplemented with lessons on how to play the alpine horn.. and also how to yodel.

With the alpine horn.. I think we all just made a lot of fart noises with our mouths. I think the key to playing the horn well is to be able to make the most well-controlled fart sounds with your mouth. I could be wrong. But I sure was a lousy alpine horn.. artist? haha

Yodelling was less challenging but so hilarious. We all laughed a lot and I think found the whole thing amusing and a lot of fun. I have not practised my yodel since leaving the party, however.

^With Christine, who was so great to party with!

The party was set outdoors and I was really entertained by the sight of so many people in traditional clothes and dancing to hip hop/whatever that's popular these days.

It was good to dance - all that beer made it easy for me to tolerate the music (hahaha). 

In fact I had so much fun that I was sad when we had to leave!

RAISING THE MAYPOLE

Since it was early May, we were lucky to be able to attend the raising of the Maypole festivities taking place at Stiegl Brewery. Basically another reason to drink yet even more beer!

I'd never witnessed such an event before and it didn't occur to me that it literally meant raising a giant, wooden pole upright from the ground. Using a series of sticks of varying lengths. It took a few hours.

The place was packed with people and their families. I think everyone was extra happy as it was a sunny day too.

TWO MORE THINGS I LOVE

THIS VIEW!

You can find it by using the Mönchsberg lift that takes you up (60m in 30 seconds!) to a popular lookout terrace.  Just look it up on Google Maps.

 

ICEZEIT ICE CREAM BAR

The weather was so hot that this place really saved me. Also, the staff were so friendly and nice that I got free ice cream when they noticed I kept coming back!

 

This post was created in collaboration with Visit Salzburg - check out the website for lots of useful info on how to plan your visit, how to make the most of your time, and most importantly how to have fun in Salzburg!

Recent Posts

• Best Restaurants in Lahore For First-Time Visitors
• Rusutsu Ski Resort Ski Holiday Planning Guide + Where To Stay
• Guide to Supermarkets in Porto, Portugal – Everything You Need to Know + Handy Tips!
• Celebrating Halloween in Transylvania’s Bran Castle
• Visit Trentino for a Taste of Nature

The post Fun in Salzburg: Beer & Dirndls! appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

I’ve really tried to reduce the number of photos this time because I figured people (including myself) must be pretty sick of looking at my holiday snaps by now. Haha.

Sound of Music Tour & Salzburg City

Let me just say now that I LOVE OMG LOVE the Sound of Music, it’s like the best film ever (besides ‘A Little Princess’), being able to go on this tour made me feel so lucky, and 34 Euros poorer.

The price is a bit high, but it’s one of those things you’ll do anyway, just like the London Eye – £15.50 a person to go around ONCE when clearly you would need at least 1000 revolutions before you can hope to see the sights in good weather. I suppose you could say that a good-weather day in London is worth more or less £15500 then. Possibly more. HAHA OK ENOUGH ABOUT THAT.

REMEMBER THIS??

That’s the lake and the back of the building that they used to film famous scenes from the movie such as when Maria and the children fell off the boat! And when that awful Baroness tried to play ball with the kids when she should’ve been the ball herself!

The Sound of Music Tour Bus!

YES It’s the gazebo from Maria & Georg’s first kiss/’I am 16 going on 17′, moved into a park now because the people from the building it used to be outside of complained of the noise produced by tourists swamping around it taking pictures and pretending to be Liesl.

Unfortunately the gazebo is now locked (apparently because an old lady once tried to leap around the benches and fell, breaking her hip instead) so I had to be Liesl elsewhere.

I *think* this was Wolfgangsee

That tree-lined road where the children could be seen hanging from it in their playclothes/old curtains!!

Of course, the trees are much bigger and taller now

None other than the church in which Maria and the Captain got married in.
The interior of the church was recreated as a studio set so it may be bigger and better and all that (that’s why it looks huge in the movie).

BEEP BEEEEP

We had a quick lunch near this little town (where the church was located, and there the tree-lined road was) by a big, BEAUTIFUL lake full of ducks and birds under a bright, bright sun. I sat by the bank and got to dip my legs into the water! SIGH!

//

The following pictures were taken at Mirabell Gardens:

The famous do-re-mi steps!

The fountain where the children go running around the sides of 🙂

The tunnel where they come singing and skipping out of

Am I lame?

We later went and visited Mozart’s house

*BOOSH!*

I just thought this old lady looked really nice in her dress!!

//

The post Salzburg Day 6 – The Sound of Music Tour appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

Last picture near our room balcony

The new hotel was awesome!
The rooms were so cosy and we had a magnificent view
Here’s a picture of the balcony:

After checking-in in a hurry
Dumped our bags and away we went on our first tourist attraction in the area!

Liechtensteinklamm

Apparently one of the longest and deepest gorges in the Alps
I haven’t got anything to say about this
Partly because I’m tired, but mostly because I wanna ZOOM! straight to my next set of photos cos they’re so much more pretty! HAHA.

So very quickly:

Cafe at the entrance

ME at the entrance!
Those shorts are too big for me.. poo

REALLY WINDY OVER THERE!

That’s all!!! HHAHA Ok now for the better part..

Jagersee

We found this Jagersee (‘see’ in German means lake I think), a tiny little blue blob on the map that we had in the car and decided to drive to it. What made it so beautiful is that it was sort of a secluded spot that not a lot of people knew about.

Even the journey there was amazing.. we passed through tiny towns and rolling greens and perfect hills.. all under the magnificent blue sky and brilliant sunshine.

Altogether it was about 45 minutes from St Johann.

First view of the lake!

We hired a boat for only 4 Euros per hour.. that’s quite cheap!

Me pretendig to row.

The last time we hired a rowboat was in Oxford last year and realised at the end of the hour that, we had rowed the boat BACKWARDS the WHOLE TIME. And the only reason we realised was because we had to ‘reverse’ into the ‘parking’ spot and it suddenly became so much easier to move!

Fatty on the boat!! HAHAAHA

Anyway. We could see fish in the water swimming about! And lots of ducks.. tried playing catch with them but they won because they could half-fly. Cheaters.

😀

Yea, I’m always wearing that necklace because it’s my favourite one. I don’t really know why. It just is. No, there is no sentiment to it. I bought it myself on sale for £3 at Joy.

The water was ICE COLD.

I packed my swimmers in my bag thinking I could have a lovely dip in one of those Austrian Sees (lakes) but I was gravely mistaken. Sigh.

As you can see the sunshine was so bright that it kinda ruined this photo..

Strawberry juice from the little cafe on the bank to complete it!

//

The post Salzburg Day 5 – Liechtensteinklamm & Jagersee appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

Großglockner High Alpine Road

The Grossglockner is the highest mountain in Austria and apparently the second-most prominent in the Alps. The Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse ie Grossglockner High Alpine Road
takes you through the mountain range and it is the most amazing experience ever!

A day-ticket for one car cost 28 Euros.

On the way up!

First glimpse

First picture-stop!

My knees are kinda weird :S

Ice patches on the mountain..
For some reason they look kinda.. yummy, as though edible like ice cream!

Lunch by the Lake

We were really nerdy and so brought sandwiches and rolls that we bought from the local bakery before we left that morning! We passed this small lake and had our lunch by big rocks on a hill.

*ZAP* those grey clouds!

We sat somewhere up here.

Dino came along too!

If I were in Lord of the Rings I would be drinking water from this stream, instead of from the bottle I was holding.

Spotted some kids playing on a patch of ice!
I wanted to join in and climb up (and then slide down) but I was too shy as everyone there was probbaly under 12 🙁

I just poked and prodded the ice with my thong… lame!

The Pasterze Glacier

The Pasterze glacier is Austria’s biggest glacier and lies right under the Grossglockner mountain. It’s about 9km in length and has been melting away gradually every year.

That whole flat thing down there is the glacier!

Did I ruin the glacier photos? HAHAHA.

Tourist ‘area’ nearby. Big parking block on the left.

We took this funicular/whatever thing down. That brings you about halfway to the glacier which of course, reduces your walking/climbing work by half. Crazy people opt out of this ride.

Almost there..
…not really.
This photo is deceiving because the glacier really is still a fair distance away at this point.
Let me show you..

SEE THOSE TEENY TINY DOTS DOWN THERE??
Those are people walking on the glacier!!
That’s how tiny they are compared to that big piece of ice.

Thought this was rock at first. It’s actually ice!

FINALLY arrived at the glacier:

Everything underneath is ice.. just covered in dirt

Needless to say it was freezing up there.. my toes felt like frozen grapes.
But it was so crazy just standing on that giant piece of ice
Another unbelievable experience
Like wtf? I walked on a glacier!!!

We spent quite a long time on it just exploring
Taking heaps of pictures and videos
Touching and poking things
Licking a piece of the glacier even… HA HA

Dino enjoyed it too 🙂

The post Salzburg Day 4 – Grossglockner High Alpine Road appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

The ice caves in Werfen is apparently the largest in the world

Shall start with a picture of me in Maria Alm village

We’d gone there to buy a bunch of sandwiches for the car ride

Construction does go on in scenic places too!

Passed this castle on the way there
Sadly this was the best picture I got of it
I wonder who lives there
Certainly no carrots, I’m sure

Thanks to some clueless guide/attendant/whatever, we ended up parking the car quite a long way from the first entrance to the Ice Caves. I say first entrance as assuming you park at the nearest possible bay to the attraction, there is about a ’20 minute walk’ to the gate. At this gate you purchase tickets to go on a very steep cable car ride many metres up. Once up, there is another ’20 minute walk’ to the actual entrance to the caves.

Can I just say.. ’20 minute walk’ is such a lie unless you use a car as your legs!!!
Climbing up took AGES – I don’t even remember how long exactly – plus with the heat and steep incline it was all very exhausting. AND I was carrying a sweater and a bomber jacket in my backpack for when I’m actually IN the ice caves.

Somewhere on the way up.. must’ve been before I became yucky with sweat

Again.. awesome views

The final path to the ice cave
That hole on the left, that’s the entrance

That’s me (duh) at the starting point of the shaded section

Got my nerdy sweater on!!

Looking down from the entrance/hole
Right before discovering more terrible news from the cave guide which was
‘Inside the cave there will be 700 steps up and 700 steps down’

Fortunately, somehow I hardly felt tired climbing up the many crazy steps in the caves.. must’ve been too exciting just being there.

A couple of pictures from inside, even though you weren’t allowed to take photos in there as you might hold people up or blind people with your camera flash (it’s really dark) and kill them. Nevertheless I managed a few with my SUPER SNEAKY AND STEADY HANDS with no flash!

The tour of the caves lasted about an hour and it was fantastic
Nature is so crazy

Some pics after getting out..

Me in my favourite green sneakers which I later lost during the course of the week. Very very upset, although bought myself a replacement pair already (HEHE).

Had a late lunch at a cliff-side cafe at the bottom end of the cable car that’s apparently been there for like a hundred years

Such an amazing experience – something I never thought I’d have a chance to do.

Birds were flying about and the view was umm amazing.
Aren’t I just amazing with words.

I had apple strudel for dessert.
I’m a cream girl – I love cream with almost everything.
Just not with carrots.
Eew can you imagine carrots and cream.. YUCK!

My lunch friend that day Mr Crow! I fed him bits of strudel and umm salad.
He even shared my cream! IN FACT I have a short video so you can see how he cleverly and greedily ate up all the cream that I gave him!!

HA HA HAHAhaa

And.. This is Mr Corn. Isn’t he so cute!

One last scenery pic for this post..

The cables on the left are from the cable car
Steep!

//

The post Salzburg Day 3 – Eisriesenwelt / Werfen Ice Caves appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

Our second day there was my birthday so I was determined to have THE perfect day. And I *did* have the most perfect day.

Again for anyone curious to know, the first half of the holiday was spent in Maria Alm, a small village about an hour (by car) south of Salzburg city.

So here’s a summary of the day in pictures:

Hintermoos Chairlifts

Spotted this as we were driving out – about 10 minutes from the village where our hotel was.
I remember saying something like ‘we have to go there NOW I want to go on that thing NOW’!

At the small car park.. the beginning of my tan.

Waiting for our turn on the chairlift!
See this couple here preparing their bums.. ^ haha

This photo was taken as we went up UP UP into the mountains!

Dino came along too!

Looking behind us there was a couple of teenagers playing music out loud (probably from their mobile phone) which turned out to be quite enjoyable!

Lunch on the Mountain

On the way up I also spotted this cute little tea house/restaurant.. just THERE. On the mountain. I told myself that I HAD TO HAVE MY LUNCH THERE.

People already there..

This was where we got off! Somewhere high, no doubt.

Two of many, MANY photos taken up there..

Found our lunch place! Not the best seats in the house, but thinking ‘Hmm where would I be having lunch if I were in London now’ definitely made everything better..

I know it doesn’t look like much, but lunch was JUST SO BLOODY DELICIOUS. I loved the sandwich with the egg on top. The bread was perfect the salad was wonderful. To top it off, the prices on the menu were actually quite fair (if not cheap) and not what I expected (when I was still excitedly looking down from the chairlift) as it seemed like a tourist magnet..

The mug is as big as my face 🙁
(I only had a teeny tiny sip)

Resident bunnies enjoying the sunlight!

Left foot + Havaianas + Mountains! HA ha ha!

After lunch we began our long and sadly quite painful descent down the mountain. We bought one-way tickets thinking ‘OH we can enjoy a scenic walk down’.

WELL

Walking downhill for 2-3 hours non-stop is really tiring on the knees and makes them wobbly!

Pretending to be happy – taken on the way down, somewhere..

Spotted some mushrooms too!
They’re real mushrooms ie not plastic ornaments.

Sommerrodelbahn

Sommerrodelbahn in German means something like ‘summer toboggan’. Basically you take a chairlift (or any other lift I suppose.. OR you could hike up..) up a mountain, and get either on a small car attached to a rail or plastic ‘toboggan’ with wheels that goes on a slide that takes you down the mountain like a rollercoaster ride. You have a lever to hold on to – push forward to go faster and pull back to brake!

Went to the one in Saalfelden, about 20 minutes west of Maria Alm.
This ride was (I think) about 1.8km long.

Entrance to the lifts

Didn’t wanna bore you with more scenery pictures here, and unfortunately don’t have any further pictures of the actual ride – which, can I say, was AWESOME – as I was too scaredy cat to hold my camera!! H ahaha.

//

Between this and dinner we drove around the popular Zell Am See lake nearby and stopped at an outdoor pool/playground where I had fun on the swings.. unfortunately it poured for most of that time so I’m going to leave out those pictures!

//

Dinner at Maria Alm

Had the most amazing dinner at a restaurant in the village after seeing a live band play some Austrian music.. sad to say the music wasn’t too great but the atmosphere was nice.

Beef goulash! Yummy..

Best steak ever.
Served with potato pancakes and pineapple! Lol.

//

The post Salzburg Day 2 – Hintermoos & Maria Alm appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

We flew into Munich airport and rented a car to drive to Salzburg as flights were much cheaper that way and it worked out fantastically. Without it we wouldn’t have seen or done half the things we did.

For anyone curious, prices per person:

Return flights from Heathrow to Munich via Lufthansa £160 (cheapest at £90, book very early)
Car rental from Thrifty for 7 days, we picked a small but practical Fiat Panda, including GPS and insurance ~£100 (shared by two)
4 and 5-star hotels for 7 nights – birthday gift from my wonderful parents 🙂
Sound of Music Tour £34
Petrol for the week £65
Paragliding £65
AND A BOMB ON OTHER ACTIVITIES/PARK ENTRANCE FEES/FOOD/DRINK/ETCETC

Ha haha.. sorry. It’s a bit difficult trying to recollect now but it’ll be easier to point out when I’m posting about the other parts of the holiday later on.

At the tube station – 6am

IGNORE MY BORING CLOTHES THIS IS NOT A FASHION POST 😀
It was the nearest comfy thing I could find in my confusion and tragedy of having wake up at 5am, what more in a bomb-hit room!!!

Introducing my lovely bag:

As you can see it’s quite battered.. This bag is very dear to me as the doodles and scribbles on it were lovingly put on by my little sister hours before flew off to London for the first time. I miss her every day.

Easiest to spot on the baggage reclaim carousel. I’ve received both weird looks and interested glances from people who’ve been so lucky as to encounter my lovely bag.

A couple of pictures from Munich city:

Sweaty helmet-hair!

Reminds me of the Melbourne tram lines!

Bet it reads something-‘hof’ on one of those papers..

At the main train station in Munich:

Something quite popular there – the CurryWurst!
Oh wow even found a Wiki entry for it here.
You can have it with bread or chips.

And lastly some pictures taken during the journey to the hotel:

Stopped by one or two lakes.. unfortunately none of that beautiful, scenic drive photos as I was exhausted as a flattened prawn and it was getting dark.

More tomorrow!
And by ‘tomorrow’ I may or may not mean the day after tomorrow.

//

The post Salzburg Day 1 – Driving from Munich appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.