Story & photos by Dinna Chan Vasquez
Salzburg, aside from housing many of the locations showcased in The Sound of Music, is a city known for its Baroque architecture. Its Old Town is a Unesco World Cultural Heritage Site. Salzburg is also where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born.
We took the train from Vienna (round trip train ticket costs about P3,000 round trip) to Salzburg on an early morning for around two-and-a-half hours. It was a very comfortable journey. The train seats are way more comfortable than airline seats, that’s the truth. The WCs on the train are also clean so make sure to use them before you get to your destination because most public toilets cost 50 cents to access and this one is free. When you’re in Europe, it always helps to cut corners when and where you can.
After getting to Salzburg, we took a bus to Mirabell Palace and Gardens (a Sound of Music location), where we experienced a fall of graupel (a form of snow). It wasn’t not exactly snow but certainly good enough for us.
We then proceeded (also by bus) to Getreidegasse in the heart of Salzburg’s Old City, which is Mozart’s birthplace. The Mozart Museum is a favorite among tourists because aside from being the great composer’s birthplace, it is located in a shopping destination with a good mix of designer and high-street brands, chocolate shops, restaurants and coffee shops, and many others like Longchamp, Zara, Marrionaud, Starbucks, Aesop and Café Mozart.
We ate at Nordsee, a seafood restaurant, and it was my most expensive individual meal in Europe for this trip at nearly €30 (P1,600 ) but it was worth it. It was just a casual dining restaurant but the seafood was so fresh and tasty.
For Day 4, we made a trip to Budapest in Hungary. Travel time was around three hours, and the bus fare around P1,100 round trip. Before we left Vienna, we were told that Hungary has its own currency (Hungarian forint) that we should use while we were there unlike other member-countries of European Union where we could use the euro. One Philippine peso is equal to about 16 Hungarian Forint. So we changed our money once we arrived at the train station in Budapest.
From there, we took another bus and from the bus stop where we went down, we walked (it was long walk) to Buda Castle, which is massive. I didn’t go past the grounds because by this time, I was already tired from walking. The word to describe Buda Castle is imposing. It overlooks the Danube River and nearly everything else in Budapest. The palace was completed in parts and became a residence of kings.
After Buda Palace, we had lunch at Jamie Oliver’s Italian and then took a walk on the way to the Shoes on the Danube Bank, a memorial to honor the Jews killed by fascist militiamen during World War II. The executions took place between 1944 and 1945. The memorial, a collaboration between film director Can Togay and sculptor Gyula Pauer, is beautiful and poignant.
On Days 5 and 6, we went to Prague in the Czech Republic, where we stayed overnight at Hotel White Lion. We took the train (fare was around P3,100 round trip) and the ride was four hours. The hotel was simple but clean, secure and served the typical European breakfast of breads and pastries, spreads, cheese, cold cuts, cereals and yogurt. They were a bit extra in that they served scrambled eggs and hot sausages. We paid P13,000 for four rooms that accommodated 17 people. Not bad at all.
Now on to Prague. All the places we went to were beautiful but Prague is a jewel. No wonder it is a dream destination of many travelers. Prague is the Czech Republic’s capital. Like most cities in central Europe, the Old Town is where all the action is. One of the attractions is the Prague Astronomical Clock, or Prague Orloj. When the clock strikes the hour, the procession of the Twelve Apostles is set in motion. There is so much action in this area that one of my colleagues had her wallet stolen here while we were looking at a food stall. Even before I came to Europe I had been warned to take care of my belongings.
Another important place to see is Charles Bridge, which crosses the Vltava River. The bridge, decorated by a continuous alley of 30 Baroque statues and statuaries, which were built around 1700 but now replaced by replicas. The bridge itself was built around 1357, and completed by the 15th century. It’s been damaged several times and has borne witness to historic events.
Of course, we had to visit the early Baroque Church of the Virgin Mary the Victorious in Maia Strana (the Little Quarter), the home of the 47-cm high wax figure sculpture of the Holy Infant of Prague.
Our Day 7 destination was Bratislava in Slovakia. We had a guided tour for P2,300 (inclusions were bus fare from Vienna and back, and lunch at Pulitzer). We went to the Old Town, visited a church (Saint Martin’s Cathedral), had lunch and walked around while exploring the shops. We had coffee and later in the day, the Slovakian national dish Halušky, potato dumplings cooked in cheese and butter.
On our last day in Vienna, we got to make quick stops at the Schönbrunn and Belvedere Palaces.
Schönbrunn Palace was the former summer residence of the Habsburgs, while Belvedere, which consists of two palaces, was home to the Habsburg dynasty and was built during a time of prosperity.
Our trip was done with a budget per person. The company took care of our airfare and hotel accommodations. They also gave us an allowance to pay for train passes, meals, bus and train fares, and other expenses like Philippine travel tax. Everything else, such as whatever we shopped for and coffee shop visits, came out of pocket. Some of us saved money for months and, of course, there was the trusty credit card. I was lucky enough to get my one-month writing fee from BusinessMirror before the trip. My daughter and brother also gave me some cash. We were happy that we got to do Europe on a budget but we didn’t have to backpack our way. It was a comfortable trip. Hectic but very comfortable.
Special mention goes to my colleague and friend Yssa Berdin, who was our walking Waze and Google Maps. I wish I had her patience and knack for directions. I wouldn’t be able to do this trip alone, truthfully.
We left Vienna on an early evening and came back to a panic-stricken Manila. Our flight was one of first to land at Naia 1 after Philippine government issued the Taiwan travel ban. But it was worth the scare. The trip was something I thought my body could no longer make. I thought I was too old for a long-haul flight and walking long distances. I’m a spoiled hag who hardly commutes or walks outdoors. I’m not used to traveling without my daughter, who helps me carry my stuff and holds me when I need go use the stairs, but I was happy to get out of my comfort zone. I am proud to have done it with colleagues and friends who are young enough to be my kids.
Image credits: Dinna Chan Vasquez