Entrance to the dungeon
at the Festung Hohensalzburg
Dinner our first night in Venice
Day 6: Tuesday, April 10, 2007
The Festung Hohensalzburg then Venice at Night
Our hotel had a great spread of fruits, meats and cheeses awaiting us for breakfast when we came down in the morning. After gorging ourselves, Caitlin and Eric met up with us and we all headed off to the Festung Hohensalzburg. This massive structure overlooks the town and has served as a fortress, the living quarters of the current political leader and barracks. It sits on top of a very steep hill so we had to take the Festungsbahn to get to the entrance. When we got to the top we enjoyed some great views of Salzburg and the valley that it's nestled in. We took an audio tour which included a 30 minute walk around the fortress. Especially interesting was the torture chamber, which contained various torture instruments and a passage to the dungeon down below. Throughout the complex there were several other museums, including the "World of String Puppets" that we visited before we left.
We had a long train ride ahead of us to Venice and split off from Eric and Caitlin at about 12:30. We grabbed some sandwiches and boarded our train at 15:00 (switching to 24-hour time now since that's how Europe does it). We arrived in Venice, "the most beautiful city in the world," at around 20:00. Directly across from the train station is the Grand Canal so we were immediately greeted with a site that was distinctly Venetian. The Hotel Bellini was only 1000m from the station so we got there quickly and checked in. Most restaurants close around 22:30 (10:30 p.m.) and it was already later than that so our options for food were limited. By this time in the trip we were hungry for some great Italian food and the restaurant we finally found didn't deliver anything close to that. Instead we ate pasta and lasagne that tasted like it could have come from Olive Garden. After dinner we hit up the nearest gelato stand and strolled around Venice among the crowds of tourists.
Before heading off to bed we found a table at our hotel bar (which was already closed), lit a couple candles and enjoyed our second bottle of Italian wine.