For our free day, most of our group decided to go to Salzburg, Austria! I learned this is where the Sound of Music was filmed, and students from prior Plus3 trips recommended Salzburg as an easily accessible place to day trip to!

We took the train from Augsburg to Munich around 8am, and then transferred to another train that took us to Salzburg. Today was the nicest day of the whole trip. The sun was out, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and everything look so saturated. The train ride was so scenic with views of the gorgeous mountains, grassy fields, and rivers and lakes.

When we got to Austria, I couldn’t believe we made it to another country and didn’t have to go through any sort of customs. Everyone’s excitement to be in Salzburg was contagious, and I felt so lucky to be travelling with such a positive group of people. Our first stop was the Mirabell Palace where we admired the beautiful gardens. For some reason in this moment it felt like the first time I was being a true tourist probably because I was there on my own time and was deciding what I wanted to do.

We stopped and grabbed coffee and matcha (some of the best matcha I’ve ever had), and then the group split up based on who wanted to do the Sound of Music hike and who wanted to stay in Salzburg. I decided to stay in the city so I could really say I saw as much of Salzburg as I could. The city center was much bigger than I had anticipated with more stores and opportunities for shopping than anywhere else we’d been other than Munich.

After walking through a lot of outdoor vendors and taking cute pictures in the city, we decided to make our way up to the fortress on the hill. We took the incline up, and when we first got a look at the view of down below, I was taken aback. The buildings below put into perspective just how massive the mountain ranges were. They stretched the entire horizon and went on for as far as I could see. Maybe it was because it was so unsuspecting, but the view truly left me speechless. It was really special to share this moment with the group that stayed in Salzburg because we all couldn’t believe what we were seeing.

We did our best to see as much of the city as possible, and when it was time to go back to Augsburg I was really sad. Salzburg was the perfect finale to the the best two weeks of my life, and I feel so lucky to add Austria to the list of countries I’ve visited!