The very first question you might ask is: why did I pick Munich, Salzburg and Vienna for this trip? Well, I have a very specific time frame when I am free to go anywhere in the world. I decided to focus on two of my favorite activities: music and cycling. I found that most guided bike tours start on Sunday but I fly out on Monday so they are ruled out. The top music festival on my list is Bayreuth (at which Wagner's opera are performed) but it is almost impossible to get tickets (I read that the waiting list is 5+ years) So the "second best" would be Salzburg festival. I planned my trip around it basically. Since it is a small city, it is easier to find flights that fit my time frame and budget when I expanded my search to its nearby metropolis: Munich and Vienna. And I started reading up on attractions at these 2 cities, mainly museums and bike routes, from the Lonely Planet guides to Bavaria (which includes Munich) and Austria.
For biking, there are city tours for all 3 cities I went. In addition, the Danube river runs through Vienna and there is a trail (Donauradweg) along side the river. In fact, it is mentioned and highly praised by one of my favorite biking book about tours around the world.
What I could have done differently was taking the train from Salzburg to one of the city along Donauradweg, rent a bike there and then ride one-way to Vienna but there are several challenges:
1) I need to carry all luggages with me while I ride the bike. Even though I packed really light, it is still too heavy to ride long distance. Biking round trip between Vienna and Melk, I simply leave most of my clothes in the luggage stored at my Vienna hotel.
2) I need to find a bike store that do one-way rental, i.e., allows me to return in a different city (Vienna in my case) I figure it would be possible to arrange this but I don't feel too comfortable. Also, automatic rental system (bike share) is popular in various Austrian cities which was another possibility but I'm not sure how far I could go with those bikes.
Once I decided on where to stay each night, the rest is easy: simply go on the familiar Expedia.com to buy my air tickets and booked my hotels. One might think Expedia.com is US-centric but you would be surprised by the many choices available in major European cities (even non-major one like Melk) My criteria were: close to where major landmarks (plazas) are concentrated, and between US$60-100 per night. Turns out all hotels I stayed at also offered free Wifi, which is a big bonus! I unlocked my phone before the trip and originally planned to buy a prepaid SIM with data plan in Austria but unlike HK or US, phone companies are not everywhere in Austria. Three days into my trip I gave up looking. I ended up relying on Wifi to Facebook and Whatsapp with friends and family.
As far as train tickets are concerned, I asked on forum and I was told it's not necessary to buy in advance because trains run regularly and frequently between European cities. People who are familiar with me know how lazy I am and would be surprised that I booked the trip DIY. No travel agent required! It is actually easier than one thinks.
Looking back I think I made good choices of hotels:
1) The Munich hotel is right next to the Central Train Station (Hauptbahnhof in German) There were trains (S-Bahn) ran directly fro airport to Hauptbahnhof (S1 or S8 train) And the museums are also within walking distance.
2) The Salzburg hotel is within 30 min of walking from Salzburg's Hauptbahnhof. And it is also 10 min away from the concert hall and the Mirabellgarten.
3) The Vienna hotel is 30 min of walking from Vienna's Westbahnhof. I could have taken a train/lightrail but it is not easy to figure out how and how much to pay because info was all in German. The best thing is that the hotel is 5 minutes from the Museum of Art History and right next to MQ (Museumsquartier) where artists and the hip crowd gathers.
4) what I didn't like about the hotels is the lack of A/C. Central European summer nights are hotter than what I'm used to in the SF Bay Area. Still, the heat was tolerable when I was there. I just won't recommend them to those bringing wife/gf. Just avoid something you know she will complain for sure!
On the other hand, I would 100% recommend all three bike stores I worked with. In fact, it is a good idea to reserve the bike/bike tour online in advance (same price as walk-in) because biking IS popular in Europe. I was fortunate that the tours were not sold-out. The only store I contacted in advance was Vienna's Pedal Power. I paid a few more euro to have the bike delivered and picked up from the hotel to save the trouble of public transportation between hotel and bike store. Pedal Power is quite responsive via email and provided me a reliable, well-performing and reasonably comfortable touring bike. It was recommended to me by an online travel review website/forum. I saw quite a few other bikes rented from Pedal Power in the streets of Vienna. I also ran into some bikes from www.radurlaub.com on Donauradweg. You might wanna check them out.
Showing posts with label salzburg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label salzburg. Show all posts
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
2012 Euro Cycling and Art Trip - Salzburg
I arrived in the Central Station of Salzburg (yes, it's also called Hauptbahnhof. Austrian speaks German too) around 2:30pm. The ride from Munich was about 2 hours (there's a train or two leaving Munich for Salzburg every hour.) This station is not as busy as the one in Munich and seemed further away (North) from the actions too. I found one major street near the station (Rainerstrasse) and headed South. The famous Mirabell (think Do-re-mi from the movie "Sound of Music." Chamber concerts of Mozart's music was often performed here too) was on this street. I turn left into Franz-Josef from there and walked all the way 'til the end. The entrance to my hotel (AllYouNeed Hotel Salzburg), which was right next to a hill, was hidden behind another building (basically I needed to go through a passage in this other building!)
After I checked in, my mission was to picked up concert ticket from Salzburg Festival's ticket office before it was supposed to close at 4:30pm. Fortunately, everything was pretty much concentrated in one small area in Salzburg so it took me 10 minutes of walking (including crossing the Salzach river on a bridge) from hotel to the ticket office on Herbert Von Karajan Plaz (named after the late great conductor who was also a Salzburg native like Mozart)
Now I got 4 hours to spend before the concert so I grabbed a super late lunch (a bratwurst. I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food and tend to stick with what I'm familiar with when I travel) and walked around the Old Town area (Altstadt) to follow Mozart's footsteps so to speak. I visited the Dom (hugh church) where Mozart's parents were married, the Kollegienkirche (another church) where Mozart's D minor Mass premiered, the Residenz palace where Mozart gave his first court concert at 6 year old. Another great church in the Old Town was St Peter. I wasn't planning to enter the church but I saw a bunch of people going in continuously (few came out) so I just followed the crowd. Turns out there's a free choral performance of Thomas Tallis' motet by the Salzburg Bachchoir. The atmosphere inside this greatly decorated church was awesome for hearing religious music like this. The sound of music was indeed everywhere in Salzburg, literally. There were many street musicians in the Old Town. I saw a classical guitarist performing there (and an acoustic guitarist playing "Tears in Heaven" in fingerstyle at the same spot the next day! Not sure if it's the same guy)
Finally it's concert time at 8:30pm. The concertgoers were really well dressed. I tried my best with a long sleeve shirt and even worn a tie but still way underdressed. Oh well, cut some slacks for the tourists! I read up a bit on the history of the festival. It seems that even though it's the premiere classical music festival, it was criticized for its commercialism (high priced ticket and mass appealing program?) for a while. The 2012 season certainly won't have this problem 'coz it is part of the multi-year program "Spiritual Overture." This year the religion was Judaism and the religious piece of the concert I attended was Ernest Bloch's "Sacred Service", sung in Hebrew, performed by the Israel Philharmonic and conducted by Zubin Mehta (of the Three Tenor fame :P) IMO, the vocal was very emotional and powerful as if it would reach heaven and the Man up there. It was certainly moving. The concert was opened with a secular piece: Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5 with Rudolf Buchbinder (who appeared in the award-winning German-Austrian documentary Pianomania which I gotta watch) on piano. To be honest this was the piece I wanted to hear originally but I ended up impressed by Bloch's piece even more. Please read this NYTimes article for a professional review.
Starting with the Christian-themed paintings at Alte Pinakothek in Munich in the morning, then the Motet at St. Peter and finally the "Sacred Service" piece at night, I had a very religious experience on 7/25.
It's after 10:30pm when the concert was ended. I walked around a bit more (to see the house when Mozart was born) and went back to hotel and slept so that I had enough energy for the "Sound of Music" bike tour the next day! Basically Salzburg tourism was all about Mozart and "Sound of Music." Who would imagine back in the day a movie could become a golden egg nest that generate revenue years after years, generations after generations? The Fraulein Maria's Bicycle Tours' meeting place was much easier to find than Mike's in Munich. It's near the entrance to the Mirabell palace and opposite to the St Andrew's church. For some unknown reason the tour guide asked me whether I'd prefer a mountain bike to the cruiser bikes that she gave to every other customers and of course I accept it: it's a Merida (famous Taiwan brand. It's the first time I rode a Merida. They had 2. The first one I tried couldn't shift at all but the 2nd one I was given was very smooth.) As I mentioned before, parts of "Do-Re-Mi" was filmed on the stairs at Mirabell so it's the perfect place to start and end the tour. We rode across the Salzach river to the Riding School where Edelweiss was sung. Went through Old Town to see catacomb (cemetery) and Residenzplatz where Maria splashed water from the water fountain and sung "I have confidence" Then rode up a slightly steep cobblestone road to the bottom of Hohensalzburg Castle and then the Nonnberg Abbey (Maria waltzed her way to mass. That's also where the kids went looked for her) From there we rode away from the city center to Schloss Leopoldskron (the house next to it was in the film) and finally stopped at Hellbrunn palace (the Summer residence of the archbishop.)
Basically the following video summed up what I saw during the ride:
Here is the link to pictures taken by me.
After I checked in, my mission was to picked up concert ticket from Salzburg Festival's ticket office before it was supposed to close at 4:30pm. Fortunately, everything was pretty much concentrated in one small area in Salzburg so it took me 10 minutes of walking (including crossing the Salzach river on a bridge) from hotel to the ticket office on Herbert Von Karajan Plaz (named after the late great conductor who was also a Salzburg native like Mozart)
Now I got 4 hours to spend before the concert so I grabbed a super late lunch (a bratwurst. I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food and tend to stick with what I'm familiar with when I travel) and walked around the Old Town area (Altstadt) to follow Mozart's footsteps so to speak. I visited the Dom (hugh church) where Mozart's parents were married, the Kollegienkirche (another church) where Mozart's D minor Mass premiered, the Residenz palace where Mozart gave his first court concert at 6 year old. Another great church in the Old Town was St Peter. I wasn't planning to enter the church but I saw a bunch of people going in continuously (few came out) so I just followed the crowd. Turns out there's a free choral performance of Thomas Tallis' motet by the Salzburg Bachchoir. The atmosphere inside this greatly decorated church was awesome for hearing religious music like this. The sound of music was indeed everywhere in Salzburg, literally. There were many street musicians in the Old Town. I saw a classical guitarist performing there (and an acoustic guitarist playing "Tears in Heaven" in fingerstyle at the same spot the next day! Not sure if it's the same guy)
Finally it's concert time at 8:30pm. The concertgoers were really well dressed. I tried my best with a long sleeve shirt and even worn a tie but still way underdressed. Oh well, cut some slacks for the tourists! I read up a bit on the history of the festival. It seems that even though it's the premiere classical music festival, it was criticized for its commercialism (high priced ticket and mass appealing program?) for a while. The 2012 season certainly won't have this problem 'coz it is part of the multi-year program "Spiritual Overture." This year the religion was Judaism and the religious piece of the concert I attended was Ernest Bloch's "Sacred Service", sung in Hebrew, performed by the Israel Philharmonic and conducted by Zubin Mehta (of the Three Tenor fame :P) IMO, the vocal was very emotional and powerful as if it would reach heaven and the Man up there. It was certainly moving. The concert was opened with a secular piece: Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5 with Rudolf Buchbinder (who appeared in the award-winning German-Austrian documentary Pianomania which I gotta watch) on piano. To be honest this was the piece I wanted to hear originally but I ended up impressed by Bloch's piece even more. Please read this NYTimes article for a professional review.
Starting with the Christian-themed paintings at Alte Pinakothek in Munich in the morning, then the Motet at St. Peter and finally the "Sacred Service" piece at night, I had a very religious experience on 7/25.
It's after 10:30pm when the concert was ended. I walked around a bit more (to see the house when Mozart was born) and went back to hotel and slept so that I had enough energy for the "Sound of Music" bike tour the next day! Basically Salzburg tourism was all about Mozart and "Sound of Music." Who would imagine back in the day a movie could become a golden egg nest that generate revenue years after years, generations after generations? The Fraulein Maria's Bicycle Tours' meeting place was much easier to find than Mike's in Munich. It's near the entrance to the Mirabell palace and opposite to the St Andrew's church. For some unknown reason the tour guide asked me whether I'd prefer a mountain bike to the cruiser bikes that she gave to every other customers and of course I accept it: it's a Merida (famous Taiwan brand. It's the first time I rode a Merida. They had 2. The first one I tried couldn't shift at all but the 2nd one I was given was very smooth.) As I mentioned before, parts of "Do-Re-Mi" was filmed on the stairs at Mirabell so it's the perfect place to start and end the tour. We rode across the Salzach river to the Riding School where Edelweiss was sung. Went through Old Town to see catacomb (cemetery) and Residenzplatz where Maria splashed water from the water fountain and sung "I have confidence" Then rode up a slightly steep cobblestone road to the bottom of Hohensalzburg Castle and then the Nonnberg Abbey (Maria waltzed her way to mass. That's also where the kids went looked for her) From there we rode away from the city center to Schloss Leopoldskron (the house next to it was in the film) and finally stopped at Hellbrunn palace (the Summer residence of the archbishop.)
Basically the following video summed up what I saw during the ride:
Here is the link to pictures taken by me.
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