Sightseeing in Salzburg

 While Thanksgiving was still a week away (and not celebrated here), all of Slovakia was given the day off for Democracy Day on November 17th.  The odd thing about holidays here is they fall on the actual day, meaning if November 17 fell on a weekend, citizens would neither receive the prior Friday nor following Monday off.  Unfortunately, You would celebrate over the weekend and get no day off (not fun).  And if the holiday falls in the middle of the week on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, employees would not get an extra holiday for the prior Monday or following Friday, and you must use a vacation day.  However, laws here provide a minimum of 20 days of vacation, plus additional days for weekends and holidays worked, so it will not be a problem.

 As the long Holiday weekend quickly approached, I got a late start on my travel planning.  With winter weather and limited sunlight around the corner, exploring the Nordic countries of Finland, Norway, and Denmark had to wait until another time.  In addition, beautiful nearby places within Slovakia and cities like Prague (Praha), Vienna (Wien), and Budapest are better suited to be visited multiple times while I have family and friends in town.  With those facts in mind, I embarked on a couple different train transfers across Austria to the western part of the country near Germany, to the city of Salzburg.  The interesting thing about trains here is you buy a ticket valid for anytime over a five day period and finding seats can be challenging at times because you never know the demand for a particular departure time.  Arriving at the train ten minutes prior to departure, I was excited to find a forward facing window seat and quickly occupied the spot.  Then just before departure, I come to find out that a family somehow reserved the seat I was sitting in with their ticket.  While nothing is posted to identify reserved seats on trains, your comfort comes down to chance, and I was stuck riding backwards into town, but luckily I had a seat for the three hour trip.

Surrounded by two small mountains, Salzburg is on the banks of the Salzach River, at the northern boundary of the Alps and was the birthplace of Mozart.  The Christmas markets of the city were in full swing, with large crowds sampling traditional food, drinks, and crafts.  I sampled a variety of Bosnas and Bratwursts, as well as the local beers.  

  The next day I toured different parts of the city, including Hohensalzburg Castle and the Salzburg Cathedral.  The castle provided nice views of the city from above, however the weather did not always accommodate my photos.  And the cathedral was beautiful; especially interesting were the candle/shadow photos I took in the church crypt.  Overall, it was a nice short side trip that I am looking forward to taking advantage more while I am here in the middle of Europe.