Downtime in Salzburg!

One of the advantages of rushing through our challenges in Salzburg is that we had a lot more free time to do other things. The first priority was to eat.
The hotel clerk recommended the oldest restaurant in Europe called Stiftskeller St. Peter. Even though I was hoping for a quick, hearty meal so I could get to bed, Sheila convinced me that we should go. It was worth it.

According to Fodors: “Legends swirl about the famous St. Peter’s Beer Cellar. Locals claim that Mephistopheles met Faust here, others say Charlemagne dined here, and some believe Columbus enjoyed a glass of its famous Salzburg Stiegl beer just before he set sail for America in 1492.”

We ordered weinerschnitzel and a bottle of wine, enjoying our meal in a 1,200-year-old building. The original part of the restaurant was carved out of the side of the rock cliff on which the Salzburg Fortress sits.

The walls originally had ox blood-stained walls, but that is no longer thet case. The wait staff happily explained the history of the restuarant in between courses.

At the end of the evening, we strolled along the river back to our restaurant taking in the nighttime skyline.

It was a wonderful ending to a hectic day.