Salzburg: Hohensalzburg Fortress and more

We made our way up to the Petersfriedhof (cemetery) at the base of Festungsberg and debated whether and how we wanted to get up to Hohensalzburg Fortress. 

Here you can see part of the Salzburg Cathedral at the end of the street: 

And here's a sneak peek of the fortress location on top of Festungsberg, behind the cathedral, behind the Mirabell Gardens (I took this picture in the evening):

When Rachel and Miriam came out to visit Uncle Patrick with Auntie Josie, they all bravely took the stairs. We weren't sure our group was up for that on this particular day, but Josie felt it was important to go, so she pushed for us to take the funicular to the top of the mountain so we could tour the fortress. 

This was a good call. We were up in less than a minute and had plenty of energy (or at least some energy) left to walk around once we were up there (again, we were doing this on very little sleep). But first, I suppose, I should share some pictures of the graveyard and area below the fortress.

Here is the Sphaera on the Kapitelplatz (there's a life-sized statue of a man on top):

Here's a gate into the cemetery:

And some of the beautiful graves inside. I rather liked how so many of the graves were covered with a flowerbed rather than simply...grass.

And here's a view of the fortress:

I think taking the stairs up would have been cool as well, but the funicular certainly was more fun (and less exhausting). From the top of the mountain you can look down below to see the square, the cathedral with the golden statue, and...the rest of Salzburg.

We climbed up to the fortress tower and enjoyed the views from up there:

This window promised a great view:

Patrick remembered the museums being subpar, but I thought they were pretty good for fortress museums. They shared the history of how Salzburg (salt city) became so wealthy through controlling the mining and sale of salt in the region (white gold, Salzburg tea...) as well as the use of the fortress as a prison and during wartime. Some rooms and corridors were left empty, but others had little displays. I thought it was worth it (especially with the combined ticket). The fortress ended up being my favourite part of Salzburg so I'm glad we convinced Patrick to go!

Here are some of the royal chambers, very ornate:

These fancy tiled stoves were in many residences that we saw in Salzburg (including in Mozart's homes, though his stoves were not quite this fancy):

I liked these door-within-a-door designs. I suppose if I had a door this big—big enough to allow a carriage through—it isn't a terrible idea to have a human-sized door to open as well. It takes far less energy. I almost wonder whether we need a cut-out like this on our garage door, like a little pet door, but for kids. My kids love to use the garage door to go outside (though they're usually also getting equipment out from the garage as well...and we already have a front door). Anyway, I thought it was cool:

I also liked these sundials on the sides of buildings...here's one: 

And here's another:

And here's another view down an alleyway on our way back into town to find some lunch:

We ate at a little Mexican restaurant—The Burrito Factory—across the street from the AirBnB Rachel and Miriam stayed at when they visited Salzburg with Patrick and Josie (they also went to the Mexican restaurant, and enjoyed it so much that they decided to become repeat customers). It was surprisingly good (surprisingly because I didn't expect to be enjoying Mexican food in Austria), even if it was lacking in beans. 

We crossed back over the Salzach river on the Mozartsteg, returning to our hotel for a nap before hitting up the quiet nightlife of Salzburg. 

I suppose I should mention the name of our hotel in case I want to remember in the future—we stayed at the Plaza Inn. Josie was worried about it because it was so close to the train station, but it ended up being just fine!

When we were looking at what to do to enjoy an evening in Salzburg we found a post that suggested: just sleep. There isn't a lot going on. Most of the shops and things are closed. But the gardens were still open for us to enjoy, so we went on a little walk.

Here we are, back at the Mirabell gardens, this time in the evening! It actually was fairly booming with activity. Everyone seemed to have purchased a bottle of wine to enjoy (we skipped that part) and there were college students blasting music through the square. 

This tunnel gave us access to a playground where families were still playing with their kids:

We sat at the top of a hill and talked on a bench for awhile as the sun went down:

And here's a view as we were leaving the gardens to go back to our hotel—with everybody:

And just me:

This sign was consistently confusing because it's not like the pedestrian pathway ended—it kept going. 

I looked it up and it simply means that the footpath dedicated to pedestrians-only was ending (and merging in with, in this case, a bike path as well). But it definitely looks like the sign forbids further walking, at least to my eyes. But that would be indicated by a picture of a pedestrian in a white circle with a red border (and usually only on roadways would that be seen). 

Oh, wait! I remember—before we went back to our hotel we went out to dinner. Hadis suggested Asian food and found a place online called "Happy Asia" that had good ratings from what she could see, so she went ahead and made a reservation for us. While we were out walking we passed a pho place that Josie was intrigued by, but decided to head to "Happy Asia" instead. 

We got there and were so embarrassed that we'd made a reservation. Our server came out of "Way to India," our food came out of "Happy Asia" and apparently they owned the "City Pizza" place next door because that's where our utensils came from. 

The food was bad. 

At that point we should have just gone to "Way to India" because clearly the owners of this trio of establishments was from India, and that menu was very specialized (with a rather short menu) while the menu at the Asian restaurant was long (we do not know what the menu at the pizza place was like). Patrick said they probably actually knew how to make whatever was on the Indian menu and were...doing their best with the rest. 

I got the fried rice "with vegetables" and Josie got fried rice with chicken so that we could split (we both had a hankering for vegetables). Unfortunately, it didn't seem like I got any extra vegetables aside from the ones already in the fried rice. And the chicken was suspiciously like schnitzel...

But we survived and we didn't starve. And it was really quite funny (given all the other...much nicer...restaurants that we passed by on the way...Hadis was embarrassed, but she didn't need to be—we've all been there, done that). 

Here's a picture of the "hot drinks" (heiße Getränke) offered at the restaurant we ate at (picture taken because "Heiss"): 

And here are some pigeons for Phoebe: