Austria…Day 1, Golling an der Salzach

I grew up so poor in Austria that we never took a family vacation.—Wolfgang Puck

With all due respect to Mr. Puck’s upbringing, I don’t doubt that he grew up poor. However if there ever was a place to live where one could not go on vacation, this place is the place to be in that situation. There are postcard views everywhere.

We had a long day of travel. Indy to Philly to Munich to Golling an der Salzach. We were up for 23 hours before exhaustively going to bed. We had been traveling with family, including two grandchildren under two years old. We met more family in Munich who had come from Istanbul by way of Berlin with another grandchild under two.

We picked up our rental nine passenger van at the airport in Munich after a fourteen hour trip through the night and drove to the central train station in Munich to meet the other family members. After a great meal outside on the Frauenkirche plaza, we toured the inside of Frauenkirche then left Munich for the two-hour drive to our rental house in Golling an der Salzach, Austria. The drive to Golling was very scenic.

We arrived at our rental house in Golling in mid afternoon. We met our host from Air BNB, a delightful lady. She was most pleasant and had the house ready for us.

These are photos of our house in Golling.

Here is a picture of our view off the front deck for morning coffee…

Golling an der Salzach is a lovely town surrounded by Alps, about a forty minute drive south of Salzburg. We stayed here two nights.

Golling an der Salzach is a small town of about 4300 and the first mention of a history of people living there is in the 1200’s AD.

Our first meal in Austria was the evening meal at Hauslwirt. This is a lovely hotel and restaurant in Golling. We had wild garlic soup with a semolina dumpling for starters. This was maybe the best tasting dish we had all week. It is a seasonal dish in Austria. We also had a pasta dish with green and white asparagus and a very good Riesling. We shared a piece of sacher torte, a wonderful chocolate cake with whipped cream.

We strolled through town and went back to our house, exhausted. Some of us had been up for 23 hours and looking for a good nights slumber. I have found the best way to battle the time change going to Europe is to stay up the first night until my regular bed time and that helps me get back on track.

In retrospect, a good plan with traveling with children would have been to stay in this house longer and used it as a base to travel to Salzburg and Innsbruck. It is also close to Hallstatt. The kids had to get use to too many beds and sleeping arrangements, but they were troopers and did OK.

Nevertheless, on to Salzburg…

The following are pictures taken from our van on the drive from Munich to Golling an der Salzach, Austria.