Meeting Your Trip in Salzburg — 2010

On this page, you will find information about meeting your trip.  Topics include...

• When and Where your trip meets.
• What is Included in Your Access Package (if you subscribed to it).
• Travel Information on reaching the trip from Munich.
• Finding Your Hotel in Salzburg
• Bits and Pieces Concerning Salzburg

We suggest that you print these pages out, and bring a copy with you to your trip.

When and Where:
In Salzburg, a pretty city on the Austro-German border, on Sunday at the end of the day.  Salzburg is a major railway junction, and also has a small airport.

Time?  5:30p, at the café in the courtyard of the Sebastianskirche, at 41 Linzer Gasse. This is within a couple of blocks of all of our usual hotels, and is generally where the bikes are to be found.  Your trip’s Coordinator will probably head for dinner with whoever is ready at 6p or so, since some people may wish to attend a concert or other event at 8p.  If you are not there by then, however, don’t worry:  you can meet up with the Coordinator (and the others in the group) over breakfast.



Included in Your Access Package, if you subscribed to it:
“Open” train tickets (good on any regional train — express trains can be ridden for a small extra charge) from Munich to Salzburg.  You can look up the schedule of available services on line:
http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fares_schedules/index.htm

You will receive either a train ticket, or a railpass with accompanying explanation regarding its use.

Seat reservations are not useful on this line:  trains have plenty of space.  And they cost extra, so don’t make one.



Travelling to Salzburg from Munich
If you are coming in from Munich airport, take the airport train to the downtown railway station (HBf), or to the Ostbahnhof station, depending on where your connection is best made.  It is generally faster to connect at Ostbahnhof, but if your ongoing train to Salzburg is the every-two-hour “Railjet” service, it won’t stop there, and you must connect at the city center HBf station.

From Munich, whether from Hauptbahnhof or Ostbahnhof, you take a train to Salzburg. 
If you wish to walk around Munich a bit before you go on, make your connection at Hauptbahnhof, in the city center.  You may leave your luggage in one of the Hauptbahnhof station’s left-luggage lockers.

In the 2010 schedule, Munich - Salzburg trains run two per hour.  Locals, which cost less to ride, generally depart HBf at 40" past every hour (or a few minutes later), while expresses (10 - 30" faster) run at 20” past every hour, or a few minutes thereafter. 
Departure from Ostbahnhof is 10 minutes later.  The express service in the odd hour does not stop at Ostbahnhof.

The expresses require the payment of an extra charge (circa 6€ in the station, or 10€ on board), unless you are travelling on a railpass, in which case there is no extra charge.  If you have made a prior seat reservation, the extra charge is included in the reservation cost.



Finding Your Hotel from the Salzburg Station
Whether you arrive in Salzburg by plane or train, you will most likely wind up at the downtown rail station (HBf, or Hauptbahnhof).  This is because the bus in from the airport (city bus number 77, stopping in front of the terminal every 10 minutes) goes there.
Of course, you can take a cab if you prefer.  But we like to live like the locals, and so offer detailed instructions on getting to our regular hotels by city transit.

While in the Salzburg train station, find the information booth on the wide central platform of the train station.  City maps and arts calendars are available here.  Downstairs, in the station’s main lobby, you may change money.  If the change bureau is not open, the ticket window will change money for you.

Here is how to get to different hotels we have used in Salzburg, one of which may be yours for this trip.

Hohenstauffen
This one is a short walk away.  Walk out of the station’s front door, and turn left.  Make the first right turn, onto F. Porche Straße, and then right again a block away, when this street “T’s” into Elisabethstraße.  The hotel is just ahead, on the left, at number 19.

By Trollybus, a.k.a. Trackless Trolly (an electric bus hooked up to overhead wires) –
Goldene Krone, Amadeus, Hofwirt, Gartenhotel Tannhof, Kasererbrau, Institut St.-Sebastian
In the main hall of the station, go to the small window that says “Tabak” (to your left if your back is to the front doors). Tell the woman you want a bus ticket (she can be hostile, but understands English spoken slowly).  Salzburg is compact, a largely walking city from a tourist’s perspective.  A single ticket costs 2€, slightly more if purchased from the machine on board the bus.
A day pass (“Tageskarte”) is available for roughly the cost of two single tickets (4€ in 2009), and is wise if your hotel is the Gartenhotel Tannhof, which is not in the city center. 

Once you’ve purchased the ticket, walk straight out of the front of the train station and to the buses, which pull into bus bays a bit to the left of the front door.  Signs at each stop tell you how long before the next departure of each route.

For the Gartenhotel Tannhof, take trollybus #6.  #5 will additionally work to get to the Kasererbrau.  For the Goldene Krone, the Amadeus, the Institut St. Sebastian or the Hofwirt, you may additionally ride the #1 or the #2.  Indeed, all things being equal, the #2 is the best in this case:  it serves a stop closer to the hotels than the others.

To board your trollybus in the right direction, find the one that has its nose, rather than its rear, pointing to the station building when it comes to a stop.  Each line operates every 10 minutes.

Once on the trollybus, stamp your ticket by sticking it into the little validation box.

The ride will last a bit more than 5 minutes to the Goldene Krone / Amadeus / Hofwirt / Institut St. Sebastian, 10 - 15 minutes to the others.

Goldene Krone / Amadeus / Hofwirt / Institut St. Sebastian.  These four are all in the same street, initially called Linzer Gasse, and which changes its name after a few blocks to Schallmooser Hauptstrasse.  

You have a short bus ride, just 4 stops. 

Trolleybus 1, 5 or 6:  the stop that you want is called Makartplatz.  The previous stop is Mirabelplatz; the bus then turns a corner to the right and stops at Makartplatz.

When you get off the trollybus, follow it forward (you can follow the overhead wires if you lose sight of the bus).  It will turn a corner to the left, and then, a block away, turn right to cross the river.  When it turns right to cross the river, do not follow.  Instead, turn to the left, putting your back to the river.  Walk away from the river, keeping to the rightmost street that fits this criteria.  It will quickly become pedestrian, and take the name of Linzer Gasse.  The Goldene Krone and the Amadeus are a block away, roughly opposite each other.  The Hofwirt is a couple of blocks further on, on the left.

Trolleybus #2, it turns to the left at Mirabelplatz.   Get off at the next stop (Wolf-Dietrich Strasse), and walk two blocks to the right (relative to the bus’ direction of travel) to come to Linzer Gasse.  The Hofwirt is now to the left, the others are to the right.

Here is a link that lets you visualize the hotels, the bus stops, and the walks.

View Our Salzburg Hotels in a larger map.


Gartenhotel Tannhof, Kasererbrau
The trollybus winds through the town and eventually crosses the river, turning left on the far side to run along the far bank.  Start paying attention when it does this.  The old, historical center is wedged between this point and the foot of the hill on which sits the fortress.  For the Kasererbrau, exit at Mozartsteg.  The hotel is 150 meters from the Salburg Fortress.  The Gartenhotel Tannhof stop is still several stops away, but you should follow your progress from here.

Gartenhotel Tannhof Only
A few blocks further on, the bus will cross back over the river, turning right on the far side. Your stop is the third it will make once it has crossed back over the river, called “Weichselbaumsiedlung” (we are not making this up).  It is the third stop after the second river crossing. To help you spot it: it is just in front of a gas station, and the previous stop is called “Volksgartenbad.” A sign for your hotel is visible from the bus stop, pointing down the side street that goes off to the right, just past the bus stop. The hotel is a few meters away.


If you are very late for some reason, be sure to call our Paris office, since this is where your trip coordinator will call when he does not see you. It is also a good idea to try to inform the hotel directly, though this may involve more language gymnastics.



Meeting Your Group
Your trip’s Coordinator arrives in Salzburg by the end of the afternoon on the trip’s start date.  If you can stop by the Sebastianskirche meeting point at 5:30p, you will be able to hook up for dinner.  But if you come in late, or jet-lagged, you may skip dinner altogether, or eat lightly.  Just keep your dinner check (to help us with accounts):  we will reimburse you what we spent on whatever the group project was (regardless of what you actually spend). 



Information on Austrian Cultural Attractions
Austria is a wonderful center for classical music, opera, and their cousins.  If you are interested, you will find a lot of it lining your path, and even “minor” concerts are of exceptional quality (an Austrian conservatory student is aspiring to the biggest league there is).

This is especially true of Salzburg (Mozart’s birthplace), and of Vienna.  The list of Vienna’s Opera Directors across history proves that the Steinbrenners are but shallow imitators regarding acquisition of talent, lest you had any illusions on that score (note musical pun).

You will be in Salzburg for two nights.  While your trip’s Coordinator will help you locate cultural activities locally, if you are a real fan, you may prefer to reserve in advance.  Naturally, many of the “best” events are highly prized (and priced).  So this warning may allow you to plan ahead, if you wish to do so.

If you are new to us, and worried that your own, privately set-up plans might conflict with our arrangements, don’t be. We can always work something out.  You can have an early dinner, or a big lunch instead of the included dinner... we can refund the dinner check of wherever you eat on your own... and you will have plenty of “together time” with your fellow travellers out in the countryside.

One related but not obvious cultural curiosity:  Salzburg’s famous Marionette Theater.  There are two great marionette theaters in Europe, and this is one.  Exquisitely detailed puppets on strings perform full-length operas....  
For some, this may seem like getting punched in the nose while being hit on the toes with a wooden mallet.  Philistines!  May we recommend our “Tour of New Jersey Diners” trip, featuring Jello™?