Salzburg and Salzkammergut--recommendations solicited

At long last, Lovely Dining Companion and Gypsy Boy get to go on a real grown-up vacation! Since they met in Tibet four years ago, they haven't had the time and the money to go anywhere far with the exception of one fabulous four-day trip to Quebec.

But now they are going to Austria! And they will spend about five days in Salzburg and about five days hiking in the Salzkammergut (probably spending time in both Hallstatt and Sankt Wolfgang, though the latter is not yet determined for sure). Any recommendations relating to food in any way in those locations is most eagerly solicited!

Vielen dank.

Two recommendations.

1) Don't take the tour of the Archbishops' castle up on the hill. I mean, you can, if you really have nothing better to do, but we're not talking Chenonceau here, architecturosplendiferousnessly, and our tour was conducted interminably by a teenager who spoke four languages in sullen monotone:

"Ceci le chambre du torture des Archbishops. This is the torture room of the Archbishops. Dieser ist der Torture-Raum von der Archbishopen. Cetta la camera di tortura della Archbishoppi."

At which point he would open a door, revealing... a broom-closet. This was the torture room like I'm an Archbishop. Afterwards there's a small museum devoted to the Second World War. As my friend Scott summed it up, "I think there's one or two Austrian infantry regiments whose insignia we haven't seen yet."

2) Do find the beer hall where we went and drank beer. How will you find it, based on a useless description like that? It's the beer hall, honest to God I ran into someone I knew from Wichita there, that's how un-non-findable this place is. It's about 700 years old, and it's packed every night, and there's an guy holding five mugs in one hand and filling them continuously from a barrel as he stands in about three inches of spilled beer, and then you go down the hall and you get some bread from another guy, and then you go down the hall further and you get some ham and cheese from that guy, and then you sit at your table and slop wonderful vinegary brown mustard onto the bread, and you eat it all and drink beer and life is sehr gut.

Note: the one I'm referring is indeed the Augustiner monastery, linked below.

Vienna is a wonderful food town, and I have spent a bit of time wandering the Wiener Wald, sampling wine and hiking up and down hills, but I have not been to Salzburg. If you do make it to Vienna, hit the market, and buy a few sausage sammies, with some beer. Then head into the hills to eat the plebeian, and usually mediocre food in one of the wine halls, gulped down with immature and mostly astringent wine (the white is always better than the red, which is not saying much). Okay, you can skip that part, though for some reason I do it the first or second day when I go.

The Hapsburg's various museums in Vienna are worth 2 or 3 days if you can spare them. Lots of spectacular stuff plundered from all over the world over the 200 years Vienna was the center of the world. It is an interesting architectural town too, the home of Hundertwasser Haus, which is wonderful and he was a facinating guy, and the Central Post Office is an interesting exercise in early 20th century modernism.

Eat game - boar, venison, etc. - and sausages, and drink Blaufrankisch, Zweigelt, Riesling and GV wines. And haul a few cases home with you.

I have also enjoyed excellent Spanish, Mexican and particularly Czech food in Vienna. They take their food seriously. In fact, I think the best Wiener Schnitzel I ever had was in Vienna. Coincidence? I doubt it.

Some friends of the Bride have a condo near Salzburg - I think we need to work on cadging an invitation. Thanks for reminding me. Great idea for a trip.

The best Beer Garden is Augistiner Keller. I lived there for 6 months

Best beer garden in Salzburg? I'm not interested in Vienna tips; been there, won't have time to go back this trip. But if you're talking about Salzburg, I'm there! Thanks.

The reviewer thinks it could be the best beer hall in the world. I loved it. Used to see Gunter Sachs there in the late 60's and early 70's.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~patto1ro/salzburg.htm

GypsyBoy:

While I can't vouch for the food, the beer and atmosphere at Augustiner were great about 15 years ago. Although it is found easily by many tourists/travellers, (being mentioned in Let's Go, etc. probably increases the backpacker business) it is kind of out of the way.

In my travelling opinion, you may find that five days is more than enough to cover Salzburg. (You may want to spend another day or so hiking; If nothing else, Munich is only 1 1/2 hours away...)

By the way, the link that funkyfrank has provided is a great site if you are beer lover travelling to Europe. (It is run by a British guy who lives in Amsterdam and provides reviews for a lot of great places for beer throughout Europe; Very extensive for Holland and Germany.)

Have a great trip!

Un-non-findable, I actually laughed out loud at that one.

One of my favourite things to do when I'm hungry in Europe is find a quality bakery and/or butcher shop. It's so simple and everything's so lovely and fresh (their food quality is so much better than ours, don't you agree?); you can see what looks good and get a little of everything and assemble your own breakfast/lunch/snack. Instead of going to a fancy schmancy restaurant or café where they'll often serve you with the fake touristy deal, you can eat like the real natives do. You do, after all, want a genuine Austrian experience, no? Good luck and have a wonderful, safe trip!

~Lo

Very good advice. Multiple choices of meats and cheese. Also, be sure to try the late night wurst stands.