Today, Friday, May 17th our group headed off independently to Salzburg, Austria. We caught a 9am 3-hour train ride to Austria. We arrived around noon and to our dismay, it was drizzling rain. Despite the ominous-looking clouds, nothing could dull our excitement to explore a new town in a new country! Lucky enough, the weather improved as we walked closer to the center of town. The first stop we made was the Residenzplatz Square & Residence Fountain. We threw coins into the fountain and wished for good luck. I took many pictures of the fountain and surrounding buildings. The tall historical buildings in this square left us speechless when we first entered this section of the city.

Next, we ate at a traditional Austrian restaurant. It was so fun trying new Austrian dishes like pancake soup and cheese dumplings! The cheese dumplings were very similar to mac and cheese bites in my opinion. The pancake soup tasted like beef broth with strips of bread mixed in. I loved all of the dishes I tried.

By far a highlight of my day was taking the funicular (Salzburg’s equivalent of the incline in Pittsburgh) up to the Hohensalzbug fortress. Once we reached the top, the view of the entire city scape and the alps in the background was absolutely breathtaking.

Pictures truly don’t do the views justice. As we circled the Fortress, we kept stumbling upon new views that we hadn’t uncovered previously.

After spending an hour exploring the Fortress and views, we headed back down and did some souvenir shopping. At around 6, we headed back to the train station to go back to our home base in Augsburg.