fortress of fun and food fiascos

Hi everyone! We had another slow start to the day, but we are headed to Fortress Hohensalzburg!!

We started at a cafe near our hotel and despite Conner’s lifeless lead paint stare, it was pretty good. There was a bit of a fiasco with the panini’s though. To preface, there is a more significant language barrier here than we would have anticipated and most people just assume we speak German so that can sometimes lead to confusion. Anyways, Conner opted for Viennese schnitzel (turkey) for lunch and I ordered (what I thought would be) a mozzarella, pesto, tomato, prosciutto panini, but I guess there were multiple options on the menu. One of which was a ham and cheese, the server did not ask which I wanted and I thought there was only one option so he brought me this! Conners food came out a bit later than mine and I was waiting so that we could eat together. I guess the server thought I did not like the food or wanted the other panini option so he came and just took my plate walked away and said “This one no good I bring you better one”. Conner and I became super confused and felt really bad because we weren’t trying to turn down the food it was actually quite good with the sauce. He yelled to Conner from across the cafe after seeing I took a few bites “Do you want to keep this one and I will give you the other” to which he said “ummmm sure yeah thank you” because he was not really sure what was happening. So the server ended up bringing the ham panini back and a new panini with just arugula, pesto, and prosciutto on the house. Conner and I felt bad so we tasked ourselves (mostly Conner because my stomach was bursting) with eating the extra panini on top of both of our food and when he checked out he asked about the extra panini and told them it was delicious and said thank you mentioning specifically that we really enjoyed both of them.

After the cafe, we had a 20-minute walk to the beginning of the climb to get up to Fortress Hohensalzburg. During the spring and summer, they have a tram that takes you up the top but since it is the winter time, it is closed for restorations. This meant that we had quite the trek ahead of us up this super steep gravel path. Definitely gave us quite the workout! Luckily it was not too long and there were some lookouts on the way up! Most of the views were captured on Conners film camera so stay tuned for those post-trip! or reach out to let him know you’d wanna see them and he will send them over when they are developed.

Once we got into the fortress we had an absolute blast! The fortress was constructed in 1077 because of Archbishop Gebhard and was used for defensive purposes. Over the years its use and purpose have changed from the Archibishop’s residence to a prison to even a military base. We had access to several different parts of the fortress from the prison tower to the armory. We accidentally went to the different rooms out of order, but in the armory, there were fun games (that of course Conner and I had to beat the record for the day on our second attempt) some weapons, and some silly interactive things to test our strength and knightly abilities.

After the armory, we headed to the observation deck the views here were absolutely stunning. Just off to the side of the courtyard conner spotted a stone wall that seemed to overlook the city. It was not marked on our tour map but we decided to check it out anyway and well let’s just say the pictures don’t do it justice at all. The vast mountain range felt as if it surrounded us on all sides towering perfectly over the town. Our jaws dropped when we first saw it and stayed that way for a minute or two. Thankfully a nice maybe Australian girl asked if we wanted a photo of us with the backdrop which turned out really cute. We asked if she wanted one as well and then we awkwardly followed each other not talking for the remainder of our time at the castle.

The rest of our day was mostly prep to set out for the next destination tomorrow. First, we stopped by the lock bridge to see if there was a guy still selling locks by the street. Unfortunately, he had left and we didn’t get the chance to leave one behind :( After the bridge, we went back to the train station to purchase our tickets for tomorrow and orient ourselves to how it all works here. Everything seems pretty straightforward forward but as Conner likes to say we will be exercising a healthy level of skepticism until tomorrow.

We ended our night at a restaurant we had been meaning to go to since we got her, but it had been closed. We were both looking forward to our lasagna, but the restaurant never gave us menus. There was a miscommunication and we thought the specials were all they had on the menu (lasagna was not included in the specials). Right after we ordered, I kid you not, every table at the restaurant had lasagna at it lol. Even worse the same girl who took our photo and avoided conversation/eye contact for the rest of the castle “tour” (It was self-guided) walked in and sat right next to us still avoiding eye contact or saying anything! Regardless our pasta was still delicious and we are super excited to head to our next destination tomorrow!