We finally arrived in Innsbruck, but it was rainy and gray. Innsbruck is a very small town so we were able to cover most of the attractions in Old Town (Altstadt), including the Golden Roof (Goldenes Daschl) and the museum inside it.
Emperor Maximilian ruled the Holy Roman Empire at some point. He also commissioned the Golden Roof to be built. He was kind of an asshole, based on what I learned in that museum, but I don't remember any specifics, other than some questionable affairs with women...
Innsbruck is very well-preserved, historically speaking. The buildings themselves are still pastel-colored in what seems to be the Tyrolean tradition. The streets were narrow and cobble-stoned, housing many tiny shops. One store had the largest selection of cuckoo clocks I've ever seen. Cuckoo clocks are an Austrian specialty.
Found a special deck of cards.
Gotta love the juxtaposition: Golden Arches and the Golden Roof
As a generally frugal Asian, I couldn't help but get excited when I saw an Aldi, or Hofer in German-speaking countries.
The color-scheme of the shutters was pretty common in Innsbruck. Also, depictions were found on some other old buildings as well. The Austrians were quite artistic.
The mannequins were hilariously posed. This would become the norm for the rest of Austria. Also, gotta love the traditional Germanic attire -- lederhosen!
Interesting flyer.
View from the top of a church tower. There's a badass ski-jump stadium in the hills, but we didn't have the time to go there.
After slightly less than 24 hours in Innsbruck, we hopped on the train for Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart and the setting of The Sound of Music.First stop after checking in: Mirabell Gardens. Not nearly as pretty when blanketed in snow, unfortunately. The Hohensalzburg Castle (Festung Hohensalzburg) is visible in the distance.
Did a bit of walking towards the fortress and came across this interesting piece in a square.
Hiked the hill to reach the Hohensalzburg Fortress. Here's the lovely view of Salzburg, including the Salzach River.
A 10-minute timeout in the Torture Tower was probably much scarier than a timeout in "the corner."
Austria had a lot of intense statues. None of the average "Hey I'm standing regally and admiring my conquests" statues. Here's an angry baby doing his momma's bidding?!
We found Schatz in Salzburg. Little did we know that we'd continue to find Schatz throughout Germanic Europe. Schatz means "treasure." Oh the irony! Also, gotta love the ironic pairing with "A1."
Peeking into a random alley in old town Salzburg (Altstadt).
Ordered hot chocolate at an Italian café. Mine was the #13, with coconut shreds. Delicious! It was literally melted chocolate with a tiny bit of milk added to it, thus it was thick.
Being enthusiastic tourists because it was still early in the trip, we decided to be very tourist-y and eat at the oldest restaurant in Europe, for about €27 a person. We ordered turkey wiener schnitzel and beef goulasch, the previous being a glorified breaded turkey patty and the latter being a fairly decent stew with a bit of a sour kick (I think there was sauerkraut). We ordered red wine because it was cheaper than ordering water. This would continue to be the case in most (if not all) of western Europe. Delicious meal and wonderful conversation was had, partly due to the alcohol. The waiter was so nice and considerate despite us being clearly impaired and talking nonsense.
Red wine at dinner wasn't nearly enough. We stopped in a liquor store and helped ourselves to what we thought were free samples. However a shop lady eventually found us and told us it's only free to members. But she was nice enough to let us go without paying. Salzburgers are so nice! But we still bought a bottle of chardonnay because we felt bad.
Wandering back to the hotel, couldn't help but notice an Asian supermarket.
We finally wandered back to the hotel (a really nice one, btw) and proceeded to play Egyptian ratscrew with Chardonnay. Also did some channel-surfing and noticed some risqué public television programming, like strip poker! Uhh, changing the channel...Got up early the next morning to catch the The Sound of Music bus tour. Remember, we're still enthusiastic tourists wanting to do everything, so we didn't mind dropping €37 to do this...
And it was well worth it! For one thing, our bus got hit by a negligent sewage truck backing up. Yes, we were still in the bus when it happened!
Everyone took pictures of the damage, so I didn't feel so bad!
The Sound of Music tour was excellent, but I'm too lazy to upload any pictures here, since I already uploaded them on Facebook.
Off to Vienna we go! Pretty much hopped on a train right after the The Sound of Music tour ended.
Had breakfast Austrian-style the following morning in a bakery. Supposedly Austrian coffee is special, though I don't think I got the specialty coffee (n00b). However, it still tasted better than most coffee I've ever drank! I paired it with apple strudel (apfelstrudel).
Wandered to the 1st-ish district in Vienna and into Parliament. Some traces of Eastern European design were apparent, like in this archway...
Had mid-afternoon snack at Demel, one of the most highly-regarded dessert shops in Vienna. Also quite pricey. We tried the Austrian specialty chocolate cake (sachertorte), but it didn't taste very special to us.
Because we had a good bus tour experience in Salzburg, we decided to do the one in Vienna, but it was really overpriced (€37) and lame. We didn't stop anywhere, so people were hopping across the bus to snap pictures of famous Viennese landmarks. So dumb (I'm guilty of this too, since I figured I needed to get my money's worth somehow). We did stop at the Schonbrunn Palace (Schloss Schonbrunn).
And it was all yellow...
Again, Austrian statues don't depict ordinary scenes...
Made it back to town, but Franz Josef doesn't seem very pleased...
Stephan's Church (Stephansdom). Probably the pointiest building I've ever seen.
Opera house at night.
Opera toilet in one of the metro stations!
Vienna actually was a letdown. Sure it was pretty, but it didn't have much uniqueness to offer, probably because it's a major city, thus making it more tainted by modernism. Although, I did find it strange that the proprietors near our hostel could not understand English. If anything, I thought Vienna was probably the best city to communicate in English in Austria, but not the case. I had to break out the German phrase book for the first time here, which led to John learning how to say "I'm pregnant," and "I'm breastfeeding." Good to know.
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