It's Better to Travel than Arrive?

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive"

Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque, 1881.


"Robert Louis Stevenson speaks utter tosh and has

obviously never flown long haul economy class"

Kristy, first ever blog post, 2011.


Thursday, June 28, 2012

Goldener Hirsch Hotel, Salzburg, Austria

Character Filled Lobby

We had a great short break in Salzburg last weekend, a place that neither of us had visited before.  I know, it sounds very posh "Oh yes, we had a weekend in Salzburg", but it's closer than Adelaide - Melbourne and significantly cheaper to get to.  That's the beauty of living in Europe, everything is so close, it's fabulous!


Proper old keys on heavy fobs (none of this modern keycard business)

Anyway, we stayed on Friday night at The Goldener Hirsch in Salzburg, which is a glorious 600 year old hotel right in the middle of the old town.  The satnav got a bit lost in the last few hundred metres, so we had to do a few loops around the busy town (glad hubby was driving!), but eventually figured out that we could go down an apparently one way street, and parked our car right outside the rear entrance of the hotel.  A concierge nipped outside to take our luggage and park our car in their private carpark - a brilliant idea considering the scarcity of carparks and that the old town is actually a car free zone.


One of the hotel restaurants, in the old stables

The hotel is fantastic, quite higgledy piggledy, with lots of winding hallways, old staircases, original features and a tiny little lift.  We had a lovely room with opening windows (yay!) and a big comfy bed with the traditional European "duvet per person".  Quite unusually for Europe, there was also functioning air-conditioning - lovely.  The hotel very kindly supplied a bottle of red wine, Mozart chocolates and a scrumptious gingerbread heart (which I ate on the drive home!).  We dropped our bags and quickly headed out to experience Salzburg old town.


Our room was very similar to this one

The pedestrian streets were groaning with tourists, though many of the stores were closed or were closing for the night (at 7pm).  I always think it's strange that the shops in Europe don't seem to accommodate the hoards of tourists, but everyone seems to manage.  The shops are also closed on Sundays, so keep that in mind if you're only planning a short visit.

After a good look around, we decided on dinner at the Blaue Gans, next door to the Goldener Hirsch - review coming up soon!


Hotel Goldener Hirsch
Getreidegasse 37
Salzburg  Austria  5020
Phone:- 43 662 80840


2 comments:

  1. I haven't been there yet--it's on my list! Were the chocolates "Mozart Balls"? Because those always makes me giggle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They WERE Mozart Balls - and they are yummy! Definitely recommended.

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