Europe - Salzburg

Today's Garmin Step Mileage: 13 km

We got up early and checked out of our hotel in Berlin. Melia Berlin was a great place to stay. Very comfortable accommodations and close to everything. The front desk called a Taxi for us to take us to the Airport. Being that our flight was so early we decided it is just easier to take a taxi instead of trying to guess where to get the bus and how long it would take.

It took 20 mins (usually 30 mins) to get to the airport and only $22

Euros. Once we got to the airport we checked in at the Lufthansa Airline desk. We were there in plenty of time, so it gave us a bit of time in the airport to have a coffee and kick up.

Our plane ride was 1 hr and 10 mins to Munich; compared to 6 hours via train travel. Once we got into the airport we need to get to terminal 1 to go to the car rental desk. We have never been through this airport before and found it fairly easy to navigate through. It is a very large airport with a ton of amenities, including a grocery store. Pretty amazing place.

When we went to pick up our rental car, they were all out of the economy styled vehicle we had booked so she gave us a "free" upgrade. It made us a bit nervous as we will be travelling through a number of small roadways and cities and having a larger vehicle can be tricky. As it turns out we ended up with a Ford styled vehicle, much like the Escape back at home. It is fully loaded and very comfortable. I think that it will be fine for our journey.

We programmed the GPS in the vehicle and we headed towards Salzburg. As we got to the Austrian Border we stopped to purchase a driving permit for the country. It was $8 Euros for 10 days - the least amount of days you could purchase.

Our HomeAway accommodations is just on the edge of the old town, in a building that is built into the hillside. It is a fantastic little space (about 500 sqft) that will suit our needs while we are here. It is a studio apartment that has a full kitchen, bathroom and wash machine in the hallway. Parking is a bit tricky, but we have developed a plan around it that will work for us.

HomeAway Accommodations: $311.62 Euros ($681.51 CAD)

Once we got settled into our place we headed out to find a few groceries. We are only about 2-3 blocks from a fairly major grocery store. Tomorrow is a religious holiday so we need to make sure that we have some items around. Many stores and shops are closed on holidays and Sunday, so you have to do a little planning to make sure you have more than crackers to eat.

After getting some supplies we headed out to do some exploring in the city. It is an amazing town. The old town is situated next to the river and in a small valley amongst the rolling hills. Vehicle are only permitted on the major roadways, making it a tourist dream to walk around. We meandered around the small promenades, taking it all in.

We had a nice relaxing night and lookforwad to exploring tomorrow.
We will have to put our runners on, as it is a walking kind of town.