I love Austria. I love the historic cities, the rugged countryside, the winter wonderlands, and the summer hikes.
I managed to get the weekend off work for my birthday, and I had a craving for some mountains. Thing is, if you don’t have much time, it’s hard to find a cheap, direct flight to a mountain range. So I flew to Munich and got the train to Salzburg! 😍
Mönchsberg
Views: 8/10
My hotel was on Franz Josef Kai, the path leading along the river, so it made sense for me to try Mönchsberg first. Once I reached Staatsbrücke I veered right, up a steep hill, feeling like I was about to trespass into someone’s garden. Don’t worry, keep walking up that hill, and you’ll come to Franziskanerkirche. This was great for me, because it was raining, so I could wait for the shower to pass here, and double check my map!
You’ll go by St. Peter’s Church, abbey and graveyard next. That’s when you have a couple of choices; You can continue going all the way to the Fortress from here, or you can follow the steps a bit further and they’ll lead you down into the Old Town.
Fortress Hohensalzburg
Views: 9/10
This is the hike I chose for my birthday. Hey, I didn’t say I was normal. I got myself a HUGE pizza pretzel 🥨 and off I went. Again, in the rain.
I chose to walk up, rather than pay the extra for the Festungsbahn (cable car). And, really, it wasn’t far, but it was steep.
Hohensalzburg is really cool. You have amazing panoramic views, the grounds are interesting – make sure you try opening even the most secretive looking doors – some open to a staircase you can explore!
I learned a lot here too. I’m not so into museums (unless they catch my attention, usually for a morbid or gory reason), but the castle was genuinely fascinating! It has a cool salt model, some puppet shows, yeah, yeah, for the kids, but it kept my interest, too!
And when I thought I was finished, I left via the steps directing to town, and I ended up finding a whole other viewpoint of domes and steeples at Nonnberg. Worth the slight detour, and ended up in Alte Stadt again with more pretty pictures!
Kapuzinerberg
Views: 10/10
This one surprised me! In a good way! The internet hadn’t sold this hike up the monastery to me, so I made the decision that if I didn’t have time for all of these trails (what with all my pretzel eating and schnapps shopping), then this would be the one to sacrifice. Don’t!
So, once more, in the rain. ☔︎︎
I started up, and saw more people here than I had on the other paths. Again, super steep, but super worth it. You come up to a small church, a bust of Mozart, and then enter a forest. All forests are beautiful, as was this one, but it didn’t particularly stand out. So why am I rating it the highest?
I went for a silly little wander, down a silly little path, and I got a view of the Alps that was NOT very silly.
There’s not many benches as you’re walking up this way, so when you see a bench on your right, that bench has a gorgeous view. That’s plenty enough if you’re a regular human. If you were raised with an adventurous idiot as a dad, then you’ll see if you can do one better. 🙄
So I followed the view. I saw a (faintly) marked (trodden down) pathway and went down. Hmm, bit steep, but wait! There’s steps. Kinda.
I climbed down these slippy (because if I hadn’t mentioned it, it was raining 😂) metal steps, with the rope in one hand and my umbrella in the other. Then I came to the sound of a little waterfall, buuuut that meant that the trail had turned to mud, and boy, do I mean mud. I saw a couple a long way ahead, and they were walking along the wall. Well, if they can do it, why can’t I? I’m not even afraid of heights, but I did start feeling uncomfortable on the way back, y’know – when I had to do it all again! Good to get the heart pumping though! 🫣
