We will be in Salzburg 17-18 May. After reading endless websites, we still have several questions about how to best use our free time; hoping some knowledgeable travelers can help. Many thanks in advance!
We will be on a group tour (not with Rick Steves. Instead we will be riding trains in Switzerland after visiting Munich and Salzburg). Our tour group will do a Salzburg city tour upon our arrival May 17th that we expect will orient us and at least walk by some main attractions. It’s followed by some free time then a group dinner.
May 18th is a full FREE DAY to spend as we wish. We are a bit concerned that it is Ascencion Day and things might be closed, but haven’t seen that on ‘tourist’ sites - anyone disagree/have you seen the town shut down? Will cafes and restaurants be closed?
We are planning on taking a Sound of Music tour (huge fan - just hope I can keep myself from singing out loud) followed by a strudel cooking class (did a pasta cooking class in Florence on a RS tour and loved it). We are looking at booking these with Bob’s Tours and Edelweiss Cooking School respectively. Bob’s website says there is a discount if you book both his 9am standard SOM tour & the 2pm cooking class but nothing comes up during registration. I’ve emailed both companies but haven’t heard back. Has anyone done either of these? Has anyone gotten a discount? Any issues with either company?
Cooking class is over at 4pm. Without overfilling our day, we are debating which of the following we might also try to do:
(1) we want to make sure we save time to sit in a cafe and enjoy the ambience (either May 17 or 18 or both). Any recommendations of “best”/have to go to cafes we should seek out?
(2) On May 18th there is a 5pm classical music concert at Mirabell and and an 8:30pm Mozart concert at Hohensalzburg. We do like classical music/think we would enjoy either but would only do 1, if any. Is Hohensalzburg a “dinner & concert” event or can you just go for music? Recommendations for which one (or reason for skipping both)? Something else musical we might consider even if it’s not all Mozart?
(3) Other music: can you only hear the nuns sing at evening vespers in Nonnberg Abbey ? One website talks about going in the morning (6:45am) and watching the sun rise as the nuns sing; sounds magical (https://matadornetwork.com/read/affordable-things-to-do-in-salzburg/). Is this old information? One review I read somewhere said they went all the way there in the AM and were turned away for COVID reasons.
Do you have to pre-register (via an email? https://www.nonnberg.at/gottesdienste/ ) to attend a vesper service or can you just show up?
Finally, a restaurant for Dinner: has anyone eaten at Die Weiss (https://www.dieweisse.at/en/pub/)? It’s a block from our hotel so the location would be great at the end of a long day and online reviews looked good. Any other suggestions? Want not too expensive, traditional fare, casual attire and preferably in that same general area.
Again, thank you very much for your help!!