These cities were just supposed to be stop-overs for us but they held some delightful surprises. We checked into our little hotel in Salzburg and asked the rather large man at reception for a dinner recommendation. We always try to ask locals for good places to eat with the proviso - not where tourist eat, where they eat. He suggested a restaurant just a couple of blocks from the hotel that he raved about, but when he gave us a card with the hotel’s name on to give to the restaurant we became a bit wary. Then he asked us if we liked beer! Hello! He told us about a monastery across the river where the monks make beer said we must try it before we go to the restaurant.
So we followed his directions, along a beautiful river walk, across a bridge and up to the monastery. We entered this quiet old building with high beamed ceilings, wooden floors and wondered if we were in the right place. At the end of a long echoey hallway we saw a sign that said “Bier’ and pointed downstairs. As we descended a couple of flights the sound of a room full of people came up to meet us. At the bottom of the stairway there was a very busy noisy place with many food kiosks offering everything from sausage, to pork knuckles, chicken, schnitzel, ribs, fish, sauerkraut, potatoes in many incarnations and of course beautiful baked goods! We quickly gave up on the idea of going to the recommended restaurant and settled in for a real Austrian eating experience. While I shopped the food stalls Robert went in search of beer. He found huge shelves of crockery 1/2 litre and 1 litre beer steins that you choose from and line up to have them filled! There were 3 huge rooms and a beer garden outside filled people from all ages. It was a great experience, we left full and happy.
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| Beer Hall? |
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| Not what we expected. |
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| Food! |
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| Beer Hall! |
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| Steins |
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| Some music in the beer garden. |
The next morning we had a few hours before catching our train so we walked down the river path one more time to the stunning old town and explored the many little squares each one prettier than the last. There is a huge old castle up a hill overlooking the old town that can be reached by a vernacular - that will have to wait for our next visit.
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| Salzach River |
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| Fountain in one of the many squares |
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| Mozart in Mozart Square |
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| The Castle - next time! |
On board the train for Zagreb and were wowed by the Austrian countryside - so beautiful! We must go back and spend some real time there. Our compartment mates were a delightful German lady on her way to Slovenia to visit her sister and a young Croatian man who lives in Munich and was going to Zagreb to visit his Dad. This bright fellow spoke excellent English and works in IT so he and Robert had an animated conversation that lasted the entire 6 hour trip. Robert asked him about the best way to stay connected to the internet in Croatia and he showed us a portable WIFI router that you just need to purchase a SIM card for. Robert asked where we could buy one and he said Amazon - but he generously sold us his brand new unit and said he would just order another one for himself when he got home. It has proved to be the perfect solution. When we got to Zagreb he showed us how to get to our hotel and we parted friends.
Once more we spent the next morning exploring an old city before catching the train. We found Zagreb to be very pretty, we walked through lovely city parks with statues and fountains to the city centre. There is a stairway up to the old town and at the top of the stairs there was a huge outdoor market with beautiful fresh fruit, vegetables, olive oil, crafts and flowers. It is so hard for me to see this abundance and not buy, but alas I had no place to cook for a couple of days and a long way to travel to my next kitchen! We had time for a quick visit to the cathedral that is undergoing some restoration work. There are examples of the old worn carved adornments along side the new ones that will be used to replace them. It was very interesting to see that. Inside the cathedral I lit a candle for my sister and had a quiet moment with her in my heart.
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| Park in Zagreb |
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| Stairs to the old town |
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| Outdoor market |
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| Zagreb Cathedral |
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| Restoration Work and an old clock. |
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| New Gargoyles |
We left Zagreb on the fastest train in Croatia. All I can say is, if that’s the fast one I never want to take the slow one! After 6 long hours on this slow, swaying train I was so ready to arrive in Split. The countryside through central Croatia is not all that different from where we live in the BC interior so beautiful, just not as unique as some of our trips. There were many places along the way that looked like they had been damaged in the war and wondered if in fact that was correct. We travelled first class so we had the entire compartment to ourselves which was great because we could move around to see out which ever window showed the most interesting scenery.
We arrived in Split just as the sun was setting so had some nice vistas as the train descended from the hills to the seaside. The train station, ferry terminal and bus station are all in the same area so with our train and ferry just having arrived it was a bit chaotic as we tried to determine where to find our hotel. As we dragged out suitcases through the mobs and passed the loud seaside party bars we decided that perhaps Split was not our kind of town. We found our hotel, which was far from the madding crowd, and found a little place to have a bite to eat and fell into bed! The next morning we caught the 8:30 ferry to the island of Hvar so Split will remain unexplored.
More to come......
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