Mirabell and Hallstatt

Mirabell Gardens was an easy walk from our hotel through parts of the city we hadn't walked before. Today's tourist buses were already in the town, letting off the tour groups but we got to the gardens before they arrived and spent a quiet half hour sitting to admire the view.

Although our two days in Salzburg were all too brief we did get to see and enjoy it after the tour buses leave around 6 pm. That's when the shops close and we could walk down narrow streets, seldom meeting another person as the sun went down. It was quiet and romantic, such a beautiful old town and a great re-introduction to Austria for all of us. We look forward to returning on our next visit to Austria, lured by the Vienna opera. We just don't know when that might be.

I found a bench 

At some point that morning we had to leave the Hotel Sacher and begin our drive to Vienna. We made a long detour to the Salzkammergut region to visit Hallstatt, and ancient salt-mining town we had seen Rick Steves visit on his American TV show.

Along the way we stopped by a lake so I could stretch my driving legs and enjoy the view.

I can't recall how long the drive took but would guess 90 minutes but I wasn't driving fast as the scenery and the rural roads made me take an easy relaxed pace. In the height of the summer tourist season one often has to park high above the town and walk down but in May I thought we'd have a chance of parking down at the level of the town so I kept on driving to the level of the lake.

 We were here to have lunch-a long way to go to an unknown restaurant but we wanted to eat somewhere relaxing and scenic. We had a long walk from the parking lot we found but the fresh air, hunger and the marvelous mountain scenery spurred us on. We found what was a restaurant with a very good kitchen and had a marvelous meal. Carol had fish that had been caught in the lake earlier that morning while Ciaran and I both had Weinerschnitzels (my favorite German dish and one I have never tired of)

A very pleasant experience and once fed we walked back to the car- destination Vienna. We spent maybe two hours in Hallstatt but again it is a place we hope to see again. We didn't have time to take a salt-mine tour, deep into the bowels of the mountain, nor to walk up into the precipitous narrow streets. Those have to wait for another time.