A journey to Salzburg

We took a little road trip! Ryan had 2 days off and we definitely wanted to take advantage because this doesn't happen very often. We decided really quickly, I booked our hotel and we left the second Ryan got home from practice. We were off on the 4 hour drive to Salzburg, Austria! It was a beautiful drive and it actually flew by. If you know me well then you are aware of the fact that I don't like driving for long periods of time! This was a time that I actually didn't complain once! Here is a run down of our trip...

We checked in! I slept like a baby in this bed! The mattress was actually soft and Ryan enjoyed having some extra space compared to our bed here in Italy. Our hotel was in a perfect location right on the main shopping and restaurant street. It was also about a 2 minute walk to the beautiful river flowing right through Salzburg and a 5 minute walk to the base of one of the biggest castles in all of Europe. I'm not sure if that's an actual fact about it being one of the biggest but that's what we were told so I'm going with it!

The night we got there we asked for a recommendation to the best Austrian Cuisine. We went to a restaurant called "Alter Fuch's." pronounced fooks! We decided we would give it a try! We looked through the menu and I had no clue what to get. I was going to keep it simple with a soup and a salad but then we decided that was boring so instead I went all out. I order the Beef goulash and don't ask me why. I'd be lying if I told you I liked it. It was definitely different and I made it through about 3 bites.

Ryan got the Weinerschnitzel plate that had 3 different kinds of what I like to call hot dogs. He liked his! I liked his a lot better then I liked mine also! The restaurant served the yummiest, huge, warm pretzels that I devoured! Since I didn't like my meal we ordered a bowl of potato vegetable soup. It was delicious! I should have gone with my first instinct!

Those are all hand painted eggs. They were AMAZING!

The next morning we started off our day with an American Buffet at the hotel that was delicious! We then headed out to start our day. We started on the main shopping street but no one was out yet because the stores hadn't even opened. So we then started to make our way up to the castle.

Of course on our way we walked by a bakery and tried the yummiest cream filled donut! My goodness...we miss good donuts!

That is the castle that we were making our way towards. Of course with our luck when we arrived we were told that the tram up to the top of the hill is currently shut down for reconstruction. This meant a little hike. Yikes! I'm definitely not in hiking shape but we managed to do it. It was hilarious! I needed drink breaks a few times but other then that it was great! Everyone would point at me when we were hiking up and seem so concerned since I'm pregnant. I survived and am still alive and well!

A picture on our way hiking up to the top. Ryan was so funny the whole time we were hiking up. It was a little bit icy with tons of gravel and I was in Uggs. Every time I would barely slip he would flip out and grab me as hard as he could even though I wasn't close to falling which would then make us both almost fall. You probably had to be there but we laughed and laughed and laughed pretty much the whole hike up and down (in between my drink breaks of course).

The view from the top of the castle. To be honest the actual castle was non-eventful. Ryan wanted the torture chamber to be really cool but it "only" had about 5 different things they would use on the people. That wasn't creepy enough for him. He wants to go back to London to see the "good stuff" again. But since we were there in the off season they were doing lots of construction and so a lot of the castle was closed. All well...

Of course when we got back down we passed this little street market and had to try something. We weren't even hungry but in my family you have to try things when you see them. Our first pretzel we tried was a cheese and bacon pretzel. It was amazing.

Of course about 5 minutes later when we were still walking around we tried another pretzel that was pizza flavored. Not my favorite but Ryan loved it!

I thought this was so random right in the center of Salzburg. "Bye honey! I'm going to play life size chess for a few hours!" And you should have seen how serious the players and the little crowd were taking this game of chess. It was SILENT all around them so that they could contemplate. Interesting!

Look at those blocks of cheese!

After the castle and the street market we went to the main shopping street. We bought Ryan some sunglasses finally! He has the hardest time finding sunglasses that he likes. We found some and didn't even think twice about getting them because it has taken us 2 years to find some he'll wear. This picture doesn't do the street justice. It was beautiful with amazing stores! We roamed this street for a few hours!

After shopping we headed back to the hotel to get ready to head home. We had to stop and take a picture with the beautiful river that flows all the way through Salzburg. Don't mind my coat that makes me look even more large than I am! I call myself a burnt marshmallow in this puffy maternity coat but AT LEAST I'M WARM! Back off people ;)

The famous chocolate of Salzburg. It is milk chocolate with dark chocolate, white chocolate and marzipan on the inside. It was pretty good! It's named after Mozart because he was born in Salzburg. We had been told to "be sure to try the chocolates in Salzburg!" So we walked and walked and walked trying to find what looked like an amazing chocolate shop. Every single store had the exact same chocolate! Same red boxes or wrapping and the exact same chocolate. We were confused! Then of course we found out that this ONE kind of chocolate is what they are famous for. Had we known it would have saved us a lot of confusion as to why all these different shop owners want to sale the exact same stuff. Why would you ever have 5 "Hershey's" stores right in a row?

This picture is for my family! It's the cafe at the Hotel Sacher where we stayed a few years back!

A picture as we were driving to head home. Look how pretty the buildings are!

Another castle right when you leave Salzburg.

This little vacation was exactly what we needed to get rejuvenated for the rest of the season! We called it our Anniversary trip because I will be ready to pop any second on our actual Anniversary. I loved going on a little getaway just the two of us!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!! xoxo