Austria (Mozart not Kangaroos)

Salzburg, Austria home of “The Sound of Music” and Mozart. This Alpine city is filled with shops serving coffee, gelato, and giant slices of apple strudel. It also has a convenient cycling path that cuts through the heart of the city.

I recently joined a friend on a 48-hour layover in Salzburg where we fit in a nice cycling tour of the city. It was March and the mountains were still white with snow but the temperatures in the city were still pleasant enough to ride a bike and work up a sweat. After a quick search on google we found a bike shop called aVelo that had a decent selection of city, road, and gravel bikes. We rented a pair of gravel bikes, and we sat off the see the city.

Our first stop was the Red Bull Hangar-7, a museum showcasing a historical of airplanes, helicopters, and other Red Bull sponsored vehicles such as jet packs and Formula 1 cars. This museum is also home to a coffee shop and restaurant.

We also stopped for a tour of the most iconic structure in Salzburg, the Fortress Hohensalzburg. This castle is hard to miss as it’s tall white towers and stone walls overlook the old city below. You can choose to walk up the steep path to the entrance or pay to ride a glass cable car. Once at the top you can walk around the courtyard and visit the museum and gift shop full of medieval themed toys and “The Sound of Music” souvenirs.

The river Salzach cuts through the city and a cycling/walking path can be found on either side. Judging by google maps, this path goes for miles and miles. If you are planning on visiting Salzburg by bike, most of the tourist attractions are along side or just minutes away from this path. There are also plenty of bars and coffee shops along the way.

If you are looking for a place to eat, there are many local restaurants serving hearty Austian foods. Our first night out we went to the Agustiner Braü Mülln, one of the largest beer halls in the country. It has a warm atmosphere and a cafeteria style dining experience where you select your food and drink from a stall then take it back with you to the dining hall.

The Altstadt or Old City is filled with tourist shops including some amazing gelato shops that serve one of my favorites, pistachio gelato. While walking through the Altstadt we were lured into a local restaurant that displayed meter long rolls of apple strudel that they serve with a dish of crème. It’s safe to say that we left Salzburg with a few extra kilos than we arrived with.