After three busy days of driving, the pace of our trip changed today. We began not by bundling into the care for a three-hour sojourn across hills and valleys. Instead, we started the day by exploring Salzburg on foot. We started at the manicured Mirabell Gardens (opposite our hotel) and then crossed the river into the Old Town. Here we picked up breakfast and coffees… enjoying them al fresco in the morning sunshine. We also visited the Dom, considered by many to be the finest baroque cathedral north of the Alps. But, mostly we wandered the cobblestone lanes exploring the city. We also purchased a set of delightful (if perhaps overpriced at 25 euros) handmade, German finger puppets for Emerson.
Inside Salzburg's Dom
We departed Salzburg around noon. Timing worked out ideally as Emerson fell asleep immediately, awoke an hour and a half later in time for lunch (more wursts!), and finished her lunch just as we arrived at our afternoon waypoint: Melk. For those that aren’t familiar, Melk is a smallish town located in the Danube Valley approximately two-thirds of the way from Salzburg to Vienna. It contains Austria’s most famous abbey and otherwise is just a pleasant city to stroll, which is precisely what we did.
View of Melk's abbey...
After leaving Melk, we quickly arrived in Vienna… on the opposite side of town from our hotel! Much to my chagrin, this meant that I had to navigate through Vienna’s traffic during “rush hour” (assuming they have such a thing). I must confess, I found this to be a bit stressful… a fair amount of traffic, seemingly all of the streets intersecting at odd angles, motorcyclists zipping between and in front of cars (they’re as much of a nuisance as bicyclists can be to pedestrians, who seemingly zip at and between people with little regard for anyone’s safety—which is somewhat ironic because the damn bicyclists are always complaining about aggressive automobile drivers and then act like douche bags to pedestrians… but, I digress…), and of course street signs that make little to no sense to me. Needless to say, I was glad to reach our Marriott in Messe (slightly outside of the center of town, close to the Prater, and very convenient for parking and getting toddler suppliers, such as a variety of fresh fruit).
We actually did something I almost never, ever do: we ate dinner in the hotel’s restaurant tonight. And, it was excellent! Most of the family had traditional Weiner schnitzel with fresh greens and potato salad (though Emerson had French fries). I went a little rouge and ordered the Viennese creamy potato soup (with leeks and bacon) and followed it with a bowl of barley risotto with summer vegetables and fresh “mountain” cheese (perhaps something lost in translation there?).
Tomorrow, we plan to leave the car safely ensconced in the hotel’s garage as we go out to explore Wien!