On our third day in Krakow, we went for a tour of Auschwitz, which was around an hour away. Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp, or death camp as it’s now known, during World War 2 and during it’s 4 years over 1.3m people were sent to the camp and more than 1.1m of those died there. The conditions were horrendous and there were three gas chambers on site, that each held up to 1000 people. The camp is opened to the public, to ensure that people remain aware of the horrors that occurred here. You go round with a guide, and taking the tour was absolutely chilling. There were exhibitions showing the clothing, hair, shoes and prayer shawls that were taken from prisoners, and seeing the volume of these puts into perspective the number of people that passed through these terrible gates. We won’t talk too much about the experience, but it gave us a deeper understanding off the horrors of the past, and should be a compulsory trip for anyone visiting the area.
Entrance to Auschwitz: “Work sets you free”
That night we went back to the hostel where there were other people who had also done the tour that day and no one felt like doing much after an emotionally draining day, so we just spent the evening having dinner and watching TV.
The next day, we were sad to find out that there was definitely no room at the hostel we were staying at that night, so we would have to move that night. As our bus to Warsaw wasn’t until the next day, we had to quickly find ourselves somewhere else to stay for the night. We found somewhere on the other side of Old Town that looked good enough for a night, so we booked in there.
We still decided to spend the day lazing around at the Mosquito hostel, as it had our beloved bean bags to chill out in and quite a few other people were leaving that day too, so they were also hanging around so there was quite a bit going on. The Irish girls were also going today, but first they were going to get tattoos. They had tried to persuade me and Matt to get them too…. I think “I ❤ Krakow” on Matt’s arm would have looked great, but he wasn’t feeling it.
We also used the day to plan the next leg of our journey, as we had bookings and a plan up until this point, but after that we didn’t have much of a plan of action except which countries we we’re going to, and if we weren’t careful we were never going to leave Krakow! So we planned a route for the next few weeks, and booked a few hostel along the way.
After our very lazy day, we said goodbye to our new friends and we headed to the new hostel, got ready and went out for some dinner. We went to Polish resturant where I, of course, ordered perrogis (I’m obsessed!) and Matt tried a dish we cant remember the name of, but it was meat, wrapped in onions, wrapped in pasta and covered in a sauce. It was huge and he loved it. We had also been so lazy that we had skippped lunch, so we also got a side fries and they brought out such a huge portion with lots of ketchup – it tasted like home!
As it was our last night in Krakow, we wandered around the Jewish quarter in the evening and enjoyed walking round Old Town and watching the hustle and bustle of the evening for the last time.
After breakfast at the hostel, we headed off to Schindler’s factory in the Jewish quarter. This is a museum based in the old enamel factory, where Oskar Schindler helped protect his Jewish employees during the war. The museum itself isn’t just about Schindler, but is about Krakow in general during the Second World War.
When we arrived their was quite a queue, as we had gone on a Monday morning when they had free enterance. But it was worth the wait, as the museum itself was really interactive and so interesting. We watched a 20 minute video about the role of Schindler and the factory in helping Jewish people avoid concentration camps and about life during the War. The rest of the museum had excellent displays, taking you from the beginning to the end of the war, explaining the terrible things that happened to the Jews and the people of Poland. The whole place was really emotional and a lot of it was really difficult to read but it was so well done and gave us a real understanding of what Krakow had been through.
We ended up staying at the museum for hours, much longer than we expected, so it was time for a late lunch when we got out. We went to a traditional Polish restaurant that was well rated on Tripadvisor, so was a bit priceier. But, when we got there we spotted that they had a lunch menu, where you could get 3 courses and a drink for just £4… bargain! This only included meaty food, so I ordered cottage cheese and cabbage perogis from the main menu instead and I was more than happy! Matt had stew and bread (which came with seasoned lard instead of butter) for starter and a big hunk of pork, with mashed potatoes and grated carrot for main, and he said it was amazing. Pudding was a yoghurt mousy thing, that was not a texture either of us could handle, but we’d got our moneys worth already!
Mmmm lardMatts meatWe headed back to the hostel and hung out for a while, chatting to people and relaxing on our bean bags again. At 7 each day, they serve dinner, and tonight was a big, cheesy potatoe dish (with meat), so Matt decided to have dinner with everyone, and because we had a late lunch I didn’t mind missing out. Though at this point I didn’t realise where the night was headed and should probably have lined my stomach!
Note says “sorry Rosie we accidentally drank yours” . Nice of them to replace our cider…. not so nice when we realise they’ve accidentally replaced it with apple beer not cider …. just awfulLater on they start the games which tonight was a mix between beer pong and flip cup, where you play in two teams of three against each other. I volunterered to go first, so we did girls against boys. Right at the end, I managed to flip my cup from upside down to standing on the first go (harder than it sounds), and won my team the game. I turned round to Matt to celebrate my unexpected glory in a sports-like activity…. and he had missed it all because he’d been talking. Talk about role reversal.
Matt downing his apple beerAction shot of Matt’s hole in one!We had a few more games of this, and after some persuasion from the Irish girls we’d met at the hostel, Emma and Mell, we agreed to go on the bar crawl that night. So we quickly changed our of our PJs (yes we are getting old!) and headed out. After many 1 Euro shots (one of which had Tabasco in it…. why??), and a really fun bar crawl, we headed to a club for a few dances.
When it started getting late (or early really) we made our escape and walked to the 24 hour perogi shop. Yes we love perogis! We were starving by this point and I was really regretting skipping dinner, so we ended up ordering meat ones, veggies one, and apple filled ones. So good, but sooo much food! After that we bumped into some people from the hostel and walked home, and got straight in to bed!
We love where we’re staying, the Mosquito Hostel, so much so that first thing this morning we decided we would book in for another two nights. Sadly they only had one extra, but we decided to take that and cross our fingers that someone would cancel. The hostel has lots of places to chill out, and everyone here is really friendly, and it also has free breakfast and dinner, meaning it saves money and is also really social. There was a bit of strange moment when the guy from the bunk below was staring at me when I woke up and started talking to me and asking me questions the minute I opened my eyes this morning. We’ve talked to him today and he seems like a nice guy and we don’t think he’s a weirdo … which is a relief because we didn’t want one strange guy ruining our favourite place yet!
Common room in the hostel
Today, we made the most of being in a nice, clean hostel, and spent most the day just chilling out on bean bags half asleep. After our busy few days in Budapest and all the travelling, we were completly knackered!
Bean bag corner which we have now claimed as our own
In the mid afternoon, when our tummies decided it was time we made a move for some lunch, we took a walk around the area. We were right next to the main town square, which was filled with load of stalls, selling food and souvenirs. We went to one of the stalls and decided to try perrogis, and went for the 10 for 15 zlotys offer. I ordered 6 veggies ones so that me and Matt could try 3 each and 4 meat ones for just Matt to try. The lady then felt sorry for Matt only having 4 (though he was also going to eat half of mine!), so topped his up to 6 for free too…. so he ended up with an even bigger plateful! The perogis fillings didn’t sound too appealing, they were cottage cheese, cabbage, spicy lentils, but they were so, so tasty!
Matt feeling smug about his extra perogisSitting by town hall munching our lunch
Krakow Old Town SquareThe market under town hallThe old town is also surrounded by a big ring of park, which is really pretty, and perfect for a walk, so we enjoyed stretching our legs and having a wander until it was time for a few games back at the hostel and bed!
So, in honesty, I didn’t write a word of the blog while in Budapest as we were just too busy! And Matt also got a little lax on the photo taking front… so we are going to piece together a summary of our 4 days discovering Budapest and have also stolen some photos from Katy, Laura and Beth. So we cant take the credit for some of these pretty shots!
In short, it was an amazing few days!!! It was so great to see the girls, and have a big catch up, and Budapest is one of the prettiest and fun cities we’ve been to!
View from our Airbnb windowOur apartment building
So the first day after Katy and Laura arrived, we had a lazy morning and spent plenty of time gossiping. We decided to take a stroll to Parliament, which was just down the road and is a huge gothic building and really stunning. Then it was time to stop for lunch, and we chose to try Langos, a Hungarian street food, which were big round fried things (kind of reminded us of a greasy Yorkshire pudding) covered in sour cream, cheese and other toppings.
Langos!!Parliament … a short stroll from our Airbnb
We’d been told that Budapest was a big city so it might be best to explore by bus, so we got ourselves tickets to the open top bus and took a tour around the city. As well as taking us to all the main sites, it took us up to the top of a hill facing over the city, and the view was gorgeous!
Girls on TourView from the CitadelLater that day we headed out to the ruin bars, which are bars built in abandoned buildings in the Old Jewish Quarter, stopping for street food on the way. We went for “real cheeseburgers” so burgers where the patty is made all of cheese. Yum! Though after the Langos for lunch and a Brie patty for dinner, this was turning into a very deep fried day!
Few drinks in the flat before dinnerMe and my love… and Matt
We went into Szimpla, the biggest Ruin bar for a couple of drinks, and it was definitely unique! It was huge, with lots of different rooms, and was full of strange decorations, like a bathtubs to sit in, wall full of old telly monitors and an old car for a table and chairs. We then headed back to the flat to wait for Beth to arrive on her very late flight from London.
The next day, we got up nice and early, as we were heading to the Széchenyi Thermal Baths, and we wanted to make the most of our day in the sun! Me and Matt also had to head to the Chinese embassy before that too, so that we could attempt to get our Chinese visas, as it had been too soon to apply for them before we left the UK. After getting photos of ourselves taken that morning, filling in a huge form, and waiting in line for an hour, we were told we couldn’t get a visa anywhere but the UK. Despite the Hungarian Chinese embassy’s website saying we could and having a price listed for UK citizens. Oh well, never mind, time for plan B – getting the girls to take the passports back to the UK and sorting them from there. Not ideal, and would mean being without them for a few weeks, but we didn’t have a lot of choice! Luckily we were in the Schengen area, so we can travel without a passport over borders. In theory at least… But we didn’t have much time to worry to about visas and passports, though, as we had to hurry to meet the girls for a day of relaxing!
The baths are a huge complex of saunas, steam rooms and pools, with three outdoor pools and loads of sun loungers (though we still had to fight to get enough for us all!). We made the most of relaxing in the saunas and warm pools inside, and we also had a go at a few plunge pools, which were so cold they took your breath away. They were my favourite, but no one else agreed with me. We spent the whole afternoon relaxing outside in the sun, and playing in the lazy river. At one point it hit 30 degrees outside, and it felt like we were on a beach holiday rather than a city break. This is what made Budapest so good, it was a good mixture of relaxing, sightseeing and fun.
So damn hotPicnic for lunch
Later on us girls went back to the flat to relax (it’s tiring spending the day lying in the sun!) and getting ready, while Matt was very good and went for a crossfit session.
That evening we went out for a delicious traditional Hunagarian dinner, where I discovered cottage cheese and dumplings (which were more like small gnocchi pieces than what we’d think of as dumplings), which sounds disgusting but was actually great. The meat eaters also got to try proper Hungarian goulash, which especially made Beth happy as she realllly loves goulash. We spent the evening trying out a few more ruin bars and having a dance!
Matt choosing the manliest drink on the menu as usualMe excited to have foundation and straighteners for the first time in almost a month!
Day three, we had a little lie in (needed after our drinks last night) and we were surprised with chocolate croissants and ice coffee from Katy, who had got up early and gone to the shop. Perfect start to the morning! We then took a long walk along the river, and stop at an al fresco restaurant for some lunch. Greek salad for the girls, slow cooked, BBQ meat for Matt. In the afternoon we took a boat ride up the river and round the big island that sits in the middle of it. It was another boiling day, so the girls enjoyed sunning themselves on the top deck, while me and Matt slathered on the factor 50 and kept ducking inside for cover. Matt also made a new friend on the boat… a Peruvian man wouldn’t stop talking to him. “Do you like to party? Where are you partying tonight?”. Think he might have pulled.
Charles Bridge
After our boat ride we headed over the Charles Bridge, and to the castle on top of the hill. At first we were going to take the funicular up, to prove to Katy we weren’t just making the word up, but we realised it was really expensive so we decided to stretch our legs instead and walk up, which ended up much more fun anyway! We got to the top and the view was fab, so we spent a while walking round the grounds and staring out.
We were all supposed to be pulling faces…In the castle
View of castle from the river
When it was starting to get late, we wandered to the main shopping and restaurant area for a look around, and to search for some food. We ate at “The Hummus Bar” which we had already eyed up a few days earlier. It had all different dishes, each served with a huge portion of hummus and a big flatbread. Yum! We also stopped a pretty little cake shop, which had the nicest looking homemade cakes, so we each grabbed one for later. It had got late after dinner, so we decided to spend the rest of the evening with a glass of wine and a film. We watched the new Beauty and the Beast (Matt’s choice) and chatted the evening away.
Gorgeous view from our flat
Day four was our last day in Budapest, so we got ready, packed up all our stuff and found somewhere to store our bags for the day. We had been recommended the House of Terror, which is a museum about the facist and communist regimes which together affected the country for 40 years. The museum itself is the building used by agents in these regimes to torture and kill victims, and the basement itself, where people were kept prisoner, was particularly difficult to visit. The museum was interesting and definitely hard hitting, but each room had a big A4 piece of paper full of writing to read, so in hindsight we’d have paid for an audio tour to go round with!
This is apparently one of the best attraction in Budapest according to Tripadvisor…..House of Terror
We went for lunch and everyone got pizzas, except for Beth, as she had to have one last goulash before leaving the country. Then it was time for the girls to catch their fight. After our goodbyes, me and Matt stood on the pavements waving off their taxi, and we both felt really sad…. We’d had such a good time! Nutella muffin to cheer us up
After a coffee break to cheer ourselves up, it was time to head off to the bus station, and get on our way too. At 5pm we took a 7 hour bus to Krakow, which we actually really enjoyed as it was our first long bus journey, so we were excited to just chill out, stare out the window, and watch some films on the TVs. I’d eyed up Katy’s book when she first got to Budapest and really wanted to read it, so I nagged her into finishing it all before she left so I could steal it. I spent the whole journey reading it and managed to finish it just in time to pull into Krakow! We walked the 15 minutes to our hostel, where we went straight to bed absolutely exhausted.
We woke up at 8 on the dot this morning with a plan of action to make the most of our few prescious hours in Bratislava – we had a self guided tour to take around old town. However, we’d had an absolutely awful nights sleep due to the selfish people in our dorm talking all night (to the point Matt had to tell them off). Very typical the only time this has happened is the morning we needed to get up early and be productive. So we still got up, walked in from the hostel to town, but we added a long breakfast stop for a much needed caffeine hit!
Matt’s breakfast said sausage and beans…. by which they meant hot dogs and kidney beans straight from the tin!
Looking round Bratislava was actually really easy and enjoyable. It’s a really small place, and to make it even easier, the floor of the old town is marked with little gold crowns in the floor, which you can follow round to do a route that hits most the major sites. We completed this route, with a few strays off the path here and there when we found something interesting.
The presidents residence
Bratislava is full of life sized statues. This was our fav, popping out from the floor
UFO in the day
After our little tour, we decided there wasn’t enough time to visit the castle, which was ok considering we think we saw it at its best the night before. So we headed up one of the old city towers, to get a view of the city from above, and we could also get a look at the castle from here too.
View from the tower
The tower we climbed to get a view all over Bratislava
Then it was time to catch the bus to Budapest! When we arrived only a couple of hours later, we found the Airbnb, spent 20 minutes staring out at the fab view, did all our clothes washing and drying (clean clothes, such a dream!), went to Lidl for supplies, cooked dinner and then happily lazed in front of the TV waiting for the girls to arrive in the early hours of the morning. It felt nice to be in a proper home after a few weeks on the go…. we even enjoyed doing the laundry!
We were sad that today was our last day in the Czech Inn, it was a really fun hostel, and we had basically made a home in one of the window seats! But we were also really excited as it meant that there was only one more day to Budapest and seeing the girls!!
My window seat, which I hogged for the last three days
We decided to take it easy today, and take a slow stroll up to the castle for a wander round. Little did we know the route we took to get up there included the Castle Staircase, which consisted of 208 steps, which never seemed to end. There must have been an easier way up, as we seemed to be the only ones walking upwards while hundreds of people were walking down!
When we got to the top, we were really happy to find out that we could walk round most the castle without buying a ticket, so we spent a while just wandering round the grounds – which actually filled a large part of our day considering that Prague Castle is the largest castle complex in the world, meaning there was plenty to see. Main gate of the castleMarching to the changing of the guards
Inside, was a big, gothic cathedral, which you can see all over Prague and is even better up close.
The castle complex is also surrounded by gardens, which we loved strolling through in the sunshine, especially as they had great views over the whole of Prague. We sat enjoying our surroundings in the gardens for a while, before we realised that we were running seriously low on time and had to get back.
Snap of me and Matt chilling in the castle groundsView from the castle gardensCharles Bridge from the castle
We had to catch our bus to Bratislava at 4pm, so we quickly gathered our bags from the hostel, spent the last of our Kurona on lunch and headed to the bus station. Just as we got there, we received a text to say our bus was delayed… by 2.5 hours. Argh! Luckily, it was a nice sunny day, so we were able to just sit outside reading our books while we waited, but we wished we hadn’t spent all our cash, considering even using the loo costs money here!
Final lunch in Prague, and the last of our Kurona spent
We eventually got the bus, and 5 hours later we were in Bratislava – however, we were now too late to go up the UFO as planned. The UFO is a viewing platform and restaurant that has been built over the bridge that leads into Bratislava centre. We still got to see it lit up in the dark, where you can really see where it got its name from – it’s like a flying saucer has landed on the bridge!
UFO from the bus stationFirst spot of the castle from the bus
A quick Uber to the hostel – again not exactly our plan but we were very relieved when we were able to use the app when we realised we had no way to get back! And straight to bed ahead of an early morning – we need to make the most of our sight seeing time tomorrow!
Matt had discovered that there was a Crossfit gym not far from our hostel, so this morning he decided to brave the tram alone, and head off to a class. I decided to use this time to catch up on my beauty sleep. Now, I didn’t get any photos of the morning, but I imagine Matt’s looked something like this:
And mine looked something like this:
After our morning’s apart, we met up over a very late, long breakfast at the hostel, as this was the longest we’d been apart in three weeks, so we had a lot to catch up on.
Today we decided to explore some of the areas we hadn’t seen on our tour yesterday. So we set off on a walk along the river, over Charles Bridge, which is full of buskers and stalls selling souvenirs, and around a big park at the bottom of the hill from the castle. It was a warm, sunny day and it really nice just to discover a bit more of Prague walking wherever our feet took us.
We also came across Lennon wall, which is a wall full of graffiti originally of John Lennon’s face, Beatles lyrics and political statements, which started after his murder in 1980. It was continually whitewashed by the secret police as Western pop music was banned by the communists, but kept reappearing as a sign of protest.
The start of Charles BridgeView of Prague castle from the riverCharles BridgeLennon WallWe took the rest of the day pretty easy, and had a relaxed evening in the hostel, where I whipped up some culinary delights and we watched the Truman Show in the common room.
Packet noodles for tea… Just call me Nigella Lawson
We woke up after a surprisingly good sleep… despite our dorm being huge we actually managed to find two beds in the first section which only had 8 beds, so it wasn’t really like being in a big dorm. The hostel itself was also really nice – it has a bar downstairs to relax in the evening, comfy window seats to hang out in upstairs and a kitchen to make food and for a cuppa and a chat.
We decided to head straight out for a free walking tour to get a feel of the city (our third tour in three days!). We had another very strange guide – a middle aged man who had only lived in Prague a year or so, he was pretty bossy and made a lot of dad jokes. But, we could understand what he said, so that was a plus.
Prague’s main square and the start of our tour
We started our tour at the astronomical clock, which is supposed to be the most disappointing tourist attraction in Europe. Considering, we’d seen the second most disapppointing attraction in Munich yesterday, we were excited to make up our collection. It didn’t disappoint us, we thought it was really nice! It is the oldest functioning astronomical clock in the world having been made in 1410, and it shows the actual time, the position of the sun and the moon at that point, the current zodiac sign and loads of other things.
The tour then went round the old town and the new town, where we learnt a bit more about Prague’s history.
Half way through our tour it started to chuck it down, so as soon as it was finished we decided to head to inside and play glow in the dark mini golf… and it was hilarious. When you go in they give you face paint to apply to each other, and a bunch of glow in the dark bands, they then give you two drinks each (which included cider which made Matt very happy!) and send you out into the dark to complete your 18 holes. It was so much fun, despite the fact I was terrrrible.
We stayed for a while playing glow in the dark Jenga and a few really competitive games of air hockey. Then we headed back to the hostel, and as it had got late and we were a little tipsy, we decided pizza was in order!
TimberrrrrrrMatt’s mega pizza… too big to fit in the box!There was a bar crawl organised at the hostel, but after our long day, we decided instead to go and see a late night movie as the cinema was only a few doors down from the hostel. We definitely made the right decision – Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was one of the best films we’d seen in ages and we got to go in our pyjamas!
The day has finally arrived… the day we hand back the car. It was also our last day in Germany. We had only booked our little road trip in Germany, after I hurt my back. We thought a few weeks to get me used to walking and carrying small weights might be sensible before I go full backpacker and carry all my belongings with me everywhere I go! However, we have had so, so much fun in Germany and can’t believe how much there is to do and see here. It’s so beautiful, with mountains, lakes, cities, castles, all in one countries. It’s crazy that we had never considered visiting here before! We are definitely going to be recommending it to people for a long time.
So we drove into Munich centre bright and early to begrudgingly hand the car back (after a good hour of tidying up – it had turned into our suitcase/dumping ground on four wheels). We were really going to miss the freedom, and Matt has grown to love driving here and was definitely going to miss speeding along the autobahn! But there was also a breath of relief when we gave it back, and we got the thumbs up from the company that there were no extra charges. I am so, so impressed by the way Matt handled driving on the other side of the road, the other side of the car, in unknown cities, surrounded by the crazy German drivers, without so much as a bump, scratch or incident. I can hardly make it a day without reversing into something, so I’m so grateful Matt took on the burden and did all the driving for the last two weeks.
So, now we are in full on backpacker mode! We headed straight to the train station to leave our bags in the lockers, then headed to a cafe for a coffee and breakfast as the 5 minute walk with our backpacks had worn us both out… note to selves: we need to get rid of some stuff!
We decided to join a walking tour, despite yesterdays very strange experience, to give us some history on the city. We decided to go back to our trusty “free” tours, who work off tips, because then they have an incentive to actually give you a good experience. And this tour was the best one we’d been on so far – Veronika our tour guide has lived in Munich her whole life and was so enthusiastic and knowledgeable about her city. We spent almost 3 hours looking round and found out loads of interesting facts… such as Oktoberfest first originated in 1810, as the King of Bavaria was getting married, so threw a party for all citizens of Bavaria, where there was beer and food to celebrate. People enjoyed it so much that they begged for another party next year, which the King agreed to if people paid for their own food and drinks, meaning beer stalls were set up all over the park it was held in, and was the start of the festival. We watched the Glockenspiel go off, which only happens 3 times a day. It is Europe’s second most disappointing tourist attraction… we thought it was cute!One of the two matching towers of Munich Dom – the tallest building in Munich. Inside there is a footprint in the floor, which is supposed to have been let by the DevilThe Micheal Jackson Memorial… he didn’t do anything special in Munich. German music fans are just very loyal. We have first hand experience of this from listening to the radio in the car the last few weeks – we have heard at least one Phil Collins song a day.“Hanging Gardens of Munich”Munich’s maypole. If you steal a towns maypole, the town must throw you a party to get it back. Munich Airport has there own Maypole, and last year it was stolen by the Munich Police Force, when they called to report it missing the police just laughed and demanded a party. So many people were involved in stealing it (they are pretty huge) they had to throw two parties to get it back!
After the tour, we were recommended a good place to get lunch so we headed for some food in the sunshine. Matt was finally able to try pork knuckle, a Bavarian speciality, and it was worth the wait. It was huge!! And for me, more asparagus soup… the fail safe veggie option in Germany. Also, we were recommended wheat beer by our tour guide, as it is a local speciality and is apparently more fruity tasting, and we actually really enjoyed it, even Matt who would never usually touch beer!
Then time to head to our first bus of the trip – a five hour journey to Prague. We were actually really excited about it, 5 hours of relaxing and reading were just what we needed! We found our hostel for the night when we arrived, the Czech Inn, and found a space in the 36 bed dorm….
We woke up this morning to another stunning view from our bedroom window, and we felt excited to explore, so we headed straight out to the most famous road in Salzburg – Getreidegasse. This is full of a mix of designer shops, high street shops, and shops selling ridiculous amounts of Mozart tat (Mozart perfume anyone?). It is also home to the house where Mozart was born – which is now half museum and half a Spar shop. We didn’t go into the museum, as we had a lot of ground to cover today, but we did go into the Spar for snacks, so it’s basically the same thing.
Main shopping street. The building you can see on the hill is our hostel. Location location location!Sadly they didn’t have our sizesIt was almost midday after our wander, and Salzburg was getting busy, and very very hot. We decided that there was no way we had the energy today to guide ourselves round, so when we stumbled upon the tourist information we decided to book onto a tour. We have only done “free” tours so far, where you tip what you think the tour is worth at the end, whereas this was a paid tour…. and it’s the last paid up front tour we will be doing! It’s not that it was bad, it was just very very bizarre. The guide was dressed up in tradition Austrian gear (which we loved!), but even though he spoke English perfectly, he didn’t seem to have the timing quite right. He spoke very very very quickly. Matt reckons the tour was originally four hours and he was trying to fit it into one. We can’t really complain, as we did get to see all the sites, and a few added bonuses that we would never have found on our own, and we literally laughed the whole way round. Not that it was intended to be funny…
If you look closely you can see there is a golden crown on the church, which lines up exactly with the top of the head of the Virgin Mary statueSomething to do with Mozart, wish we could have understood what! On the plus side, it’s very prettyOur tour guide
After the tour, we took a little wander round the market area that we had ended up, and tried a Mozartkugel, an award winning chocolate and marzipan ball that was invented in Salzburg in the 1800s and is now a tourist “must try”. Not my cup of tea, but when in Salzburg!
We decided to spend the afternoon exploring the castle, as we had been staring it from our bedroom window for the past 12 hours! To get up, we used the funicular, which we found out when we got to the castle, is actually one of the oldest funicular railways in existence, and it was first built in the 1500s, when it was used only to move materials up the hill to the castle, and was powered by horses.
This was actually really high … definitely the steepest we’ve been on before!
We took an audio tour of the castle, which was actually really interesting and interactive, but the highlight was getting to the top and seeing the view all over Salzburg. Gorgeous!
King of the castleView over Salzburg from the top of the castleView from the other side of the castle, over the AlpsOn the castle grounds, there was also a Marionette museum, which was full of puppets in different scenes from Mozart’s opera and from the Sound of Music. Matt wasn’t keen to go in, as it was mega creepy looking, but considering I had resisted booking us a full Sound of Music tour (where you listen to songs from the musical the whole way round), I thought this was a fair compromise.
After the castle, it was sadly time to leave Salzburg, and to go onward to Munich for the night – our last stop in Germany!
Matt and Rosie's Travel Diary 
