Ordinarily we do not purchase city cards marketed to tourists, for the simple reason that we have no interest in running to and from as many tourist sites as possible in one or two days just to save a few bucks. Many of those tourist sites would not appeal to us anyway. I do not…
Author: Garrett and Stephanie Estep
Retired early to travel the world.
Innsbruck, Austria. (July, 2022, Part I).
Innsbruck (meaning bridge over the inn, referring to the Inn River) is situated in the Inn Valley between the Tux Alps (Austrian Central Alps) and the Karwendel Mountains (part of the Northern Limestone Alps). After only a few days here, Innsbruck dethroned Salzburg as my new favorite city. Just barely. Innsbruck’s location in the…
Salzburg, Austria. (July, 2022, Part II).
After walking past Augustiner Bräu for several days in a row, we finally ventured over to the largest beer hall in Austria. Augustiner Bräu has been producing beer since 1621. Its beer hall has five large indoor halls (total capacity inside is about 1,000), a few small private rooms for rental, numerous food stalls, and…
Salzburg, Austria. (July, 2022, Part I).
We spent our first hour in Salzburg wondering how in the hell we booked an Airbnb with no living area. No couch. Seriously. Notably we have air conditioning and a bathtub, neither of which are particularly common. After much confusion and discussion, I blamed Stephanie for booking one of the few places in town with…
Hallstatt, Austria. (June, 2022).
Hallstatt is an absolutely beautiful small town (population: less than 1,000). It is postcard pretty, which is probably what lures most of the tourists to the area (tourists: greatly exceed 1,000). The town is squeezed between the Hallstätter See (lake) and the Salzkammergut Berge (mountains). The entire area, Dachstein Salzkammergut, is a designated UNESCO World…
Vienna, Austria. (June, 2022, Part V).
Der Prunksaal der Ӧsterreichischen Nationalbibliothek, the State Hall of the Austrian National Library, is fascinating. Constructed in the early 1700s, it contains around 200,000 books published between 1500 to 1850, four large antique globes, and over a dozen statutes. The State Hall is definitely worth a 20 minute visit, even though it is a bit…
Vienna, Austria. (June, 2022, Part IV).
The two big ticket tourist destinations in Vienna are the imperial palaces of the Habsburgs, the Hofburg and Schloss Schönbrunn. We visited each palace complex multiple times. It is near impossible to see everything at each in one day. The Hofburg, situated in Vienna’s city center, was the winter residence of the Habsburgs. Originally a…
Vienna, Austria. (June, 2022, Part III).
No visit to Vienna is complete without a trip to Wiener Staatsoper, the Vienna Opera House. We toured the building, but did not take in a show. On the afternoon of our tour we gathered in the main lobby with over a hundred other folks. Tours are offered in German, English, French, and Spanish. Signs…
Vienna, Austria. (June, 2022, Part II).
Albertina was the first art museum we visited in Vienna. It is located in a wing of the Hofburg imperial palace that served as a residence for the Habsburgs family. Unfortunately the restored State Rooms were closed for a private event during our visit. While relatively few tourists were present, we again found ourselves…
Vienna, Austria. (June, 2022, Part I).
We are getting better at using local transportation. For only the second time we took a train from the airport into town, the S-Bahn (S7) from Flughafen Wien (Vienna Airport) to Praterstern. From there it was a five-minute walk to our Airbnb. This easily saved us over €30 compared to the cost of a taxi….