When we got to choose how to spend our free day, I knew almost immediately where I wanted to go. My favorite sight of the trip so far had been Neuschwanstein, and I wanted to be near the Alps again. Salzburg, Austria felt like the right answer. Sound of Music country, a castle on a hill, water everywhere, and mountains in every direction.
We started the day with a train from Munich to Salzburg, which was easy and not too long of a ride. Once we arrived, we headed straight for Mirabell Palace, which was stunning. We took some pictures and then walked across a lock bridge into the old town. By the time we crossed that bridge, I was already convinced that Salzburg was the most beautiful city I had seen on this entire trip. The combination of the Alps in the background, the river cutting through the center, and the old architecture all coming together made it feel almost too perfect to be real.
The group stopped for coffee and bakery items, and while everyone settled in I wandered into a shop nearby that completely caught my attention. It was full of gadgets, toys, kookoo clocks, traditional stamps used to make butter cookies, and all kinds of things I didn’t know I needed. I walked out with a card game, a deck of cards, and two lucky mushrooms. I came very close to getting one of the cookie stamps but none of the designs were quite right, so I left without one.
A smaller group of us then decided to take a train out to Werfen, which is the location where Maria von Trapp sang “Do-Re-Mi” with the children in the hills during the Sound of Music. TikTok had led us to believe this would be a manageable, easygoing hike. It was not. It was significantly harder than advertised, but I am not complaining, because the views were unlike anything I have seen before in my life. The scale of the Alps at that elevation felt almost fake. I kept expecting it to look like a backdrop and then a breeze would come through and remind me it was completely real.
The free day also taught me a few things about how I travel. When we were all together as a large group in Salzburg, moving from place to place took much longer because there were so many people trying to get to the same spot at the same time. When the smaller group split off to go to Werfen, everything moved faster and felt easier. I also learned that European trains are simpler to navigate than I expected, but you must be on time, or the train simply leaves without you.
The train ride to and from Werfen ended up being one of the best parts of the whole day. Watching small Austrian towns pass by the window, tucked into valleys with mountains rising behind them, was one of those unplanned travel moments that no itinerary can guarantee. It confirmed something I already suspected about myself. I will always choose the scenic route.
