Salzburg – July 9
Steps walked: 14,276         Floors climbed: 22	Distance walked: 10.1 km
Details	Time	Notes
breakfast at Café Getreidegasse	10:00 AM
got ticket for Salzach River Cruise	10:30 AM	€3 extra for back seats
Salzach River Cruise	11:00 AM
walked to Mirabell Palace & Gardens	12:00 PM
relived the scenes of Sound of Music
walked to lunch at Café Bazar	1:00 PM
walked to Mozart’s Residence	2:30 PM
walked to Old Town	3:40 PM
Visited DomQuartier	4:00 PM	so many steps!!
afternoon drinks at Stieglkeller	5:10 PM
Walked to Mozart’s Birthplace	5:40 PM	no air-con, very hot
Back to hotel to take a rest & shower	6:15 PM	walked 137 steps up
Walked to Sternbrau for dinner	7:40 PM
Sound of Salzburg Show at Sternbrau	8:00 PM
Back to hotel	10:00 PM

It’s a warm and sunny day (18-28° C). We started by having a delicious breakfast at a little cafe (Cafe Getreidegasse) next to the hotel.

2 regular coffees and 2 apple strudels cost €13. The coffee was super good and the apple strudels were flaky and yummy.

Then we used our Salzburg Cards for a free Salzach River Cruise. We paid €3 each to sit at the back of the ship. It was a good choice. After the 1-hour cruise, we walked to the Mirabell Palace and Gardens.

There we relived many scenes from the movie, “The Sound of Music”, including the Pegasus Fountain & the steps that Maria & the children sang “Do Re Mi” and the Dwarfs Garden.

Soon it’s lunch time so we walked 7 minutes to Cafe Bazar next to the Salzach River for lunch. Both the ham noodles and sandwich were great! The coffee was especially good.

The above lunch plus 1 beer, 1 juice, 1 Coke Zero & 2 coffees cost €41,80. Afterwards, we walked 5 minutes to Mozart’s Residence. It was a beautiful place and I bought a lot of souvenirs there. That was a big pity that Mozart died so young at the age of 35 and his wife Constance was only 29 at that time, having just given birth to their youngest son 6 months ago. We walked back to the Old Town and went inside DomQuartier Salzburg. Again, so many steps!! It’s a hot day and only a small section of the museum has air-conditioning.

We definitely needed a cold drink after the visit, so we used the DomQuartier’s ticket discount to have a “Buy one Get one free” beer at Stieglkeller next to the entrance of the Fortress funicular. The view from the terrace was amazing!

Before we headed back to the hotel to take a rest, we visited Mozart’s Birthplace, just a 5 minutes walk away. The place was so hot and it was just totally like a sauna. Mozart’s family lived in a 3-room apartment on the 3rd floor (the one with all windows opened).

Another highlight of Salzburg was the “Sound of Salzburg Show” held at Sternbrau opposite our hotel. It was very entertaining, with a lot of Austrian folk songs, Mozart and Strauss’ compositions, and best of all, many songs from “The Sound of Music” with a little bit of sing-along fun! The schnitzel there was quite good but the pork roast was just average.

We had so much fun in Salzburg that we’ll definitely go back.

After we got our Salzburg Cards, we went inside the Salzburg Cathedral for a quick walk-around. Then we went to use the Fortress funicular to go up the hill. The whole journey was only 40 seconds long. The view of Salzburg from the fortress was just gorgeous!

We joined a free 30-minute tour of the fortress where we got an audio guide, plus visiting the regency rooms, torture chamber and the watchtower at an altitude of 506 m (1,660 ft). Apart from the spiral staircases and numerous steps, the 360° views from the watchtower were most rewarding.

The dinner before the concert was at Panorama Restaurant. The food was quite good and I loved the delicious and “musical” dessert.

After the meal, it’s time to get ready for a work-out. We had to climb 137 steps to get to the Golden Hall for the Mozart concert. The music was very good, but since there’s NO air-conditioning, it was quite hot and I was all sweaty. Luckily I had a foldable fan with me so I was using it occasionally and gently.  Didn’t want to be too distracting to the performers being seated in the first row in the middle. We paid extras to be VIP’s for sitting in the front row, got a program and a glass of champagne during intermission. To go to the ladies’ room, walk down 2 levels, then up to go back to the concert hall.  There was only ONE toilet there, or you have to walk down even more to use the courtyard washrooms. While I was in the washroom, my husband took a beautiful sunset picture from the concert hall.  Remember? No air-con so windows were wide open.

When the concert was over, my husband got a pretty night view of the cathedral from the fortress.

Then we walked for 20 minutes to the Mullnersteg Bridge to take a night shot of the spectacular fortress.

Using our Salzburg Cards, we took a bus back to Franz Josef Kai, walked 3 minutes to the hotel. What a long day! See how much I walked today!!!

 

Salzburg – July 8
Steps walked: 13,631         Floors climbed: 21	Distance walked: 9.5 km
Details	Time	Notes
arrived at Vienna Airport	8:00 AM
got all luggage	8:40 AM
left big suitcases at baggage service	9:00 AM	€4 per bag per day
waited for OBB Train RJ640	9:30 AM
boarded Flughafen Wien Bahnhof → Salzburg HBF	10:25 AM
arrived at Salzburg HBF	1:48 PM
lunch at OBB Lounge at Salzburg HBF	1:55 PM	1st class perk
Taxi to Hotel Goldener Hirsch, Salzburg	2:20 PM	€10,80 fare + €1,20 tip
check in at Hotel Goldener Hirsch, Salzburg	2:40 PM
walked to Tourist Info at Mozartplatz Sq. from hotel	3:00 PM	bought Salzburg Card
Salzburg Cathedral & surroundings	4:00 PM
funicular up to Salzburg Fortress	5:10 PM	Fortress tour
VIP dinner at Panorama Restaurant	6:30 PM
VIP concert at Golden Hall	8:30 PM	walked 137 steps up
funicular down from Salzburg Fortress	10:30 PM
walked from Old Town to Mullner Steg for night shots	10:35 PM
back to hotel	12:20 AM

We used Austrian Airlines for the first time, mainly because they have direct flights to Vienna from Toronto. I chose to redeem my Aeroplan miles but still had to pay $600 tax for an economy round-trip ticket. Regular price was around $1500 return. I also paid $110 extra to get the preferred seats both ways with extra legroom located at the emergency row 19 (on a 76W aircraft). I brought my inflatable foot stool along so I had no problem sleeping for 6 out of the 8 hours’ flight. It was like sleeping on a lounger…very comfortable. I found it even more comfortable than the premium economy seats. However, the food was SOOOO bad, only the dessert and the coffee were good. Chicken was dry and pasta quite tasteless.

Arrived in Vienna at 8:10 am, got my luggage at 8:40 am, then went up to the departure level in Terminal 3 to leave our big suitcases at luggage storage. Only €4 per suitcase per day. We only took our carry-on’s to go to Salzburg.

Went down to Level -1 where the Vienna Airport (Flughafen Wien) Train Station is located. Our 10:33 am direct train from Vienna Airport to Salzburg Hbf left from Platform 2. Though I already bought the ticket online, I still checked the ticket price on the machine and to my BIG surprise, a 1st class ticket like what I got cost €104 – instead of €29 that I paid online 3 months ago.

I also prepaid €3 per ticket to get a seat selection on the OBB train site. The compartment that I chose was in the last car (Coach 27) where half the car is 1st class and half the class is business class. We ended up having the whole compartment to ourselves for the whole 3-hour journey. In that compartment, only seats 61 & 62 and 63-66 have fixed tables, others are fold-up ones like those on the planes.  The picture below shows the seats that I reserved for DH & myself, with seat 61 facing the direction of the journey. Being a morning train, seats 61 & 62 did not get the sun. Party of 4’s can book Seats 63-66, as they also have a fixed table (odd number seats facing the front of the train).

Upon arrival at Salzburg Hbf, we went to the OBB Lounge to get some free drinks and snacks (a 1st class passenger’s perk).

Then we took a taxi and paid €10 + €2 tip to get to the hotel in the Old Town, Hotel Goldener Hirsch, a 5-star Luxury Collection Hotel. I totally love this old hotel originally built in 1407. As an SPG Gold member, I got a free upgrade to a Festival room of over 40 sq. metre, overlooking the famous pedestrian street, Getreidegasse, but without any street noise from Room 44.

The furniture is all wood which I like a lot to preserve the authentic look, but the mini-bar, the safe, etc. are all quite new inside those wooden cupboards.  The best part is the bathroom which is spacious and loaded with good bath products. There are the double sinks, a bath tub with a hand-held shower, a separate shower stall, a toilet and a bidet.

After check in, we walked to the Tourist Info Office on Mozartplatz Square located 7 minutes away from the hotel at the end of Getreidegasse. There we bought our 48-hour Salzburg cards (€37 each) and used them for Salzburg Cathedral & to go up the funicular to the Salzburg Fortress. I attended the VIP dinner and Mozart Concert there.

Being an SPG gold member, I got the original Mozart chocolates (recipe created by Furst in 1884) as a gift from the hotel. We were told that these hand-made “originals” are wrapped in blue-silver tin foil. All the others, usually wrapped in red-gold tin foil, were just cheap imitations.

It’s getting really late now, so I’ll continue the blog tomorrow.

Finally the day is here! It’s a really long wait since we booked the cruise on March 23, 2017. I chose this itinerary mainly because we have an overnight stay in Vienna both at the beginning and at the end of the cruise. This 10-day cruise also includes a few full day tours to visit Salzburg, Cesky Krumlov & Munich.

Here is the itinerary map:

My full itinerary:

Date	city	Details	Start time	End time
7-Jul	YYZ-VIE	Austrian Airlines OS72  YYZ-VIE	5:55 PM	8:30 AM
(Sat)		Depart T1 (duration: 8 hr 35 min)	(Sat)	(Sun)
July 8-10		2-night Salzburg Pre-cruise
8-Jul	Vienna Airport→	leave luggage at baggage service €4-8
(Sun)	Salzburg	OBB Train RJ640 (€29 – 1st class + €3 seat selection)	10:33 AM	1:48pm
		Flughafen Wien Bahnhof → Salzburg HBF
		Hotel Goldener Hirsch, Salzburg	12:00 PM	12:00 PM
		Getreidegasse 37, Salzburg, 5020
		(43) (662) 80840
		pick up Salzburg cards at Tourist Info	9:00 AM	6:00 PM
		Mozartplatz Sq. #5
		Salzach River Cruise	4:00 PM	5:00 PM
		funicular up to Salzburg Fortress
		VIP dinner at Panorama Restaurant  -€76 each (VIP concert + dinner)	6:30 PM	8:00 PM
		VIP concert at Golden Hall	8:30 PM	10:00 PM
		Fortress Hohensalzburg
		Monchsberg 34, 5020 Salzburg
9-Jul	Salzburg	Hotel Goldener Hirsch, Salzburg
(Mon)		dinner before Sound of Salzburg Show – €20 each	7:30 PM	8:00 PM
		Sound of Salzburg Show – €32 each	8:00 PM
		Sternbrau, Griesgasse 23, Salzburg
10-Jul	Salzburg →	OBB Train RJ763 (€34 – 1st class + €3 seat selection)	8:08 AM	10:57 AM
(Tue)	Vienna	Salzburg HBF → Flughafen Wien Bahnhof
		Pick up luggage at airport
		Meet Crystal rep left of arrival hall
July 10 – 20		10-night Danube River Cruise
10-Jul	Vienna	Crystal Mozart (RMZ180710-10)	12:00 PM	over-night
(Tue)	(overnight)	(check-in: after 12 noon)    Handelskai
		Ship Tour: Austria in a Nutshell (VIE-02)	2:00 PM	6:00 PM
		pick up Vienna 24-hr card at Train Station or Opera House’ Tourist Info
11-Jul	Vienna	Ship Tour: Exclusive Museum of Fine Arts & Art Chamber (VIE-05)	9:00 AM	1:00 PM
(Wed)	(departs 12 am)
		Ship Tour: Imperial Schonbrunn Palace & Royal Carriage Museum (VIE-04)	2:00 PM	6:30 AM
		Complimentary Signature Event: Michelin-Star Dining at Le Ciel by Toni Morwald (VIE-16)	7:00 PM	10:00 PM
12-Jul	Durnstein	Ship Tour: Durnstein Walking Tour & Monastery (DUE-03)	10:00 AM	12:00 PM
(Thur)	(9 am – 12 pm)
	Melk	Ship Tour: Melk Abbey: a Baroque Masterpiece (MLK-02)	4:30 PM	6:30 PM
	(4:30 – 7 pm)
13-Jul	Linz	Ship Tour: Czesky Full-day Adventure to Cesky Krumlov (LNZ-03)	9:00 AM	5:30 PM
(Fri)	(8 am – 9 pm)
14-Jul	Passau	Ship Tour: A Day of Art & Culture in Munich (PSU-05)	8:30 AM	7:55 PM
(Sat)	(8 am-overnight)
15-Jul	Passau	Ship Tour: Roman Times and Roman Dishes (PSU-01)	10:15 AM	12:15 PM
(Sun)	(departs 1 pm)
16-Jul	Bratislava	Ship Tour: Bratislava’s Ultimate Survivor: Chatam Sofer Memorial (BTS-04)	3:30 PM	7:00 PM
(Mon)	(3 – 8 pm)
17-Jul	Budapest	Ship Tour: Beautiful Budapest (BUD-01)	9:30 AM	2:00 PM
(Tue)	(9 am-overnight)	use taxi or metro to the city spa
		Private Tour: Budapest Szechenyi Spa with VIP Massage – €80 each	3:00 PM	7:00 PM
		Signature Event: Princesses of Violin at Budapest History Museum (BUD-08)	7:20 PM	9:50 PM
18-Jul	Budapest	Ship Tour: Feast for the Senses: Parliament Building & the  Great Market Hall (BUD-03)	8:45 AM	12:15 PM
(Wed)	(departs 1 pm)
19-Jul	Vienna
(Thur)	(arrives 6 pm)	pick up Vienna 72-hr card at Train Station or Opera House’ Tourist Info
20-Jul (Fri)	Vienna	disembark any time
July 20-22		2-night Vienna Post-cruise
20-Jul	Vienna	taxi to Hotel Bristol
(Fri)		Hotel Bristol, A Luxury Collection Hotel	3:00 PM	12:00 PM
		Kaerntner Ring 1, Vienna 1010 Austria	(10 am
		(43) (1) 515160	requested)
		Concert: Vienna Mozart Orchestra at Musikverein – €85 each	8:15 PM
		Musikvereinplatz 1, A-1010 Wien
21-Jul (Sat)	Vienna
		Concert: Mozart Requiem at St. Charles Church – €46 each (Cat I)	8:15 PM
22-Jul	VIE – YYZ	take CAT from Main Station to Airport	7:07 AM	7:23 AM
(Sun)		Austrian Airlines OS71  VIE-YYZ (T3- T1) Depart T3 (duration: 9 hr 30 min)	10:40 AM	2:10 PM