The great part about doing a tour of some sort in the morning is that we can take it easy in the afternoon since we feel like we have done some major touristy things already. It was almost 2pm when we finished the tour so we had to find lunch fast. We walked towards University Plaza, stopping by and snapping a picture near the house where Mozart was born. Unfortunately, we knew that the kids were too antsy to go through the museum, so we just had to skip it.
What did we have for lunch? Bratwursts of different kinds. And some pastries.
After lunch we walked over to the Toy Museum. It was a peculiar little place in the middle of the city (admission fees included in our Salzburg card). Kids zoomed by various collections of toys—from teddy bears to dollhouse people, from antique little cars to Legos. There were a lot of hands-on games and toys as well. Sorry, didn’t take very many pictures in there.
Some of the games that we could have played looked very interesting, but there were no English instructions available.
Finally we got to a really cool exploration floor. There were marbles and all sorts of tricky squares, but most importantly, the kids found BUILDING BLOCKS!
The construction started right away
.
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Mark IS inside.
Hi, Mark.
Needless to say, the kids really enjoyed this little stop over. We were at the museum for only an hour, but it was enough to let everyone get a chance to rest BEFORE….
we headed to our final sight of the day—Fortress Hohensalzburg. It’s an imposing structure overlooking Salzburg, one of the largest 11th century fortresses in Europe. To get to the top, we took a cable car that lasted maybe 2 minutes. And we came out to the beautiful view on top.
Well, looks like Katya disagreed.
We found the entrance into the fortress and got in line just time for a quick 30 minute audiotour. Kids actually listened very intently to the audioguide. They had a kids version telling them about the history of the fortress and how it was built, as well as what went on in this execution room (kids favorite part, of course).
The tour led us to the top to overlook the whole city of Salzburg and surrounding mountains. It was a gorgeous view.
I definitely recommend Salzburg visitors to stop by the fortress. You see it from almost every angle while walking around the center of the city, and it’s neat to go up and see what it’s like on top.
We took it easy after the tour and played for a bit.
Robert was just contemplating life and dentistry.
And Alex sat and played with pebbles in the middle of the courtyard….like a homeless child…or a kid who doesn’t have to have electronics to be entertained.
These two were unstoppable! So much fun!
We took the cable car down to the city. I snapped a picture of one of many Salzburg’s water fountains. These actually have drinking water in them, coming from underground. Love how pretty they are.
After a quick discussion of where to go for dinner, we decided to try a restaurant that was recommended by Rick Steves and had great ratings on Tripadvisor. The name of it is Zirkelwirt. If you know what that means, let me know. Maybe it means a hog’s head, don’t know. There were many head hanging out from the wall-haha.
The food was great! It was very Austrian and filling. The waitress was so attentive that we think she needs a raise. She helped us all pick good dishes and made sure we didn’t order too much because of size portions. We all came away from there with a full tummy and smiles.
After dinner, in search of gelato, we walked all over Salzburg once again. This was a Saturday night, after 8 pm, and most stores that sold ice cream were closed!!! Well, we got to see Mozart Plaza finally.
Walked by the horse fountains once again.
Oh yeah, and we found these Mozart chocolates that just scream “Salzburg!!!”. They did not make it all the way to England. Yes, I ate most of them.
After strolling around the center, we finally made it to the bus stop (we took a bus into the city center and parked outside of Salzburg, great option, by the way!). And we saw a gelato place! So everyone was happy. We finished up our long day in Salzburg (we got to the park and ride around 8:30 am!) on a sweet note. Loved, loved, loved this place!
Lyana.
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