Frazier Family Travels: Day 5: From Venice to Salzburg

Day 5 - To Salzburg!

Today was a VERY early day. Turns out there wasn't a convenient train that would get us from Venice to Salzurg in time for our planned evening activities (river cruise, dinner, concert), so we had to book a 7:20 am plane on Lufthansa. So, after our 4:15 am wake up call, we caught a 4:45 am water taxi to Venice airport.

Early morning wait for water taxi. Hard to believe the driver showed up!

Venice in the early morning, with no crowds, was beautiful:

We thought we had beat the airport rush, but we were wrong. The security line was... long.

After an uneventful flight to Vienna, we went to catch our connection to Salzburg, but Lufthansa had actually sold us a train ride. We were... surprised. So, we caught the train to Salzburg for a quick and easy ride. The scenery was straight out of "The Sound of Music."

We made it! We were fairly tired, but happy to check into Hotel Elefant, in the center of the old town.

After a quick nap, we made it to our river cruise, a short walk from the hotel, with plenty of time to spare. But, then we got thirsty. So, we went to a local brewery, Sternbrau. We enjoyed a pretzel and a local beer in one of the biergartens.

Then, we made it to the river cruise.

The main river is Salzach River. With salt being at the heart of Salzburg's history, this river is literally named the Salt River. It was the main artery for transporting salt around the region. The boat captain said that the salt traders used to only allow the salt to be transported by people who could not swim so that they would be highly motivated not to capsize the boat and lose the bounty. That's fairly mercenary...

After the river, we took a short walk to the dinner/concert venue, which is the famous Fortress Hohensalzburg. We saw some beautiful scenery along the way.

We have to make it all the way up there??!!

Fortunately, there is a funicular, called the FestungsBahn, up to the castle.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal over looking the city.

Admittedly, the cuisine in Salzburg is not as extravagant as Venice. The meal was straightforward, although my trout was wonderfully prepared. And, of course, I had to have another Aperol after that Venice experience... We had the traditional Salzburg dessert, called Nockerl (link to the recipe).

Nockerl

The Nockerl looks pretty, but this American palate had some trouble with it. It's an egg soufflé with vanilla sauce and berries...

From the dinner, we had to walk up several flights of stairs to get the absolute top of the castle. Good to work off some of the nockerl. Here are a few shots from the walk: