Grand Designs

We had our adventurous hats on today and as Austria seems to do every thing really well, we decided to go on a train to Salzburg. What a good idea, especially as our host has given us a local tourist card which meant that we got on the train for free.

Salzburg does everything bigger and better. A fantastic city over looked by a massive fortress/castle. On our way to the castle we walked through Schloss Mirabell which is a palace with amazing gardens including a realm of dwarfs. These dwarfs have over 320 years under their belts, were sculpted from Untersberg marble, then auctioned off, now finally brought back to their original home.

The funicular took 54 seconds to get up to the castle. We spent the next 3 hours exploring including lunch in the panorama terrace restaurant. We had Austrian goulash with hand made potato dumplings and a glass of beer. Deeeeeeelicious.

The castle includes various museums some of which are very inventive with their presentation making them really interesting.

Back down into Salzburg center we ventured into the cathedral which was again massive. The newly reconstructed crypt had the strangest room imaginable in a cathedral. Lit candles showed flickering silhouettes of skeletons and demons, and a moving ghost silhouette on the back wall!!

Finally coffee and gelato before catching the train back.