Showing posts with label Arena City Hotel Salzburg. Show all posts

Monday, April 25, 2011

16 Days Europe Vacation Package Day 6 Salzburg – Innsbruck – Vaduz – Lucerne

16 Days Europe Tour – White Christmas Day 6 Salzburg – Innsbruck – Vaduz – Lucerne

With an early morning start, we left Arena City Hotel in Salzburg at 0745 hrs in the morning. It was still snowing and the area was so beautiful.

Grounds of Arena City Hotel Salzburg

Our tour manager, Ricky Tiang, called it a transfer day where we would be transferring to Innsbruck, then to Vaduz and finally end the day in Lucerne. As it was snowing, our journey took a longer time than usual.

Innsbruck has a stunning Alpine backdrop and, as we understood from Ricky, our tour manager from Chan Brothers Travel, got its name due to it being the bridge that crosses the Inn River; thus Innsbruck.

We arrived in Innsbruck and some of the things to do in Innsbruck, Austria, as we discovered was to spend some time walking the streets to get to know Innsbruck better as well as shop in Swarovski Crystal Museum.

Innsbruck Cathedral - Dom zu St. Jakob

Ricky, our Chan Brothers tour manager, brought us around and showed us the medieval buildings around St Jacob’s Church which is itself in baroque style. We then headed on to the famed Golden roof where King Maximilian, the first king of Austria, used to sit with the Queen at the balcony and watch the Festival Street.

Goldenes Dachl, better known as the Golden Roof

Swarovski Crystal Museum - Winter Wonderland Exhibition

We ended our time in Innsbruck at the Swarovski Crystal Museum and bought some souvenirs.

Winter wonderland, a wintery-poetic landscape made of crystal with countless images and symbols of the journey takes you into a world of myths, oscillating between dream and reality.

Next stop was at Rosenberger Restaurant, a food establishment which has been voted as the best autogrill in Austria where we had lunch on our own expense.

Holiday Travel Tips:-
Meals in Europe do not come cheap at all. Be prepared to spend approximately Euro 20 (USD28.80) or more per person for a simple meal.

After lunch, we continued our journey to Vaduz, the capital of Leichsteinten. We learn that Vaduz - Leichsteinten is a tax free principality. A very small area, we passed by the town hall and spent some time shopping for watches and souvenirs.

Vaduz Rathaus or Cityhall

Castle Vaduz

We finally arrived at our accommodation for the night, Hotel Astoria Lucerne, Switzerland, after 1900 hrs.

Hotel Astoria, Lucerne Switzerland

As dinner is not included, Ricky showed us a few places where we could get a decent meal and we finally decided on NY Foods where we had a family sized salami pizza for Chf 31 (USD35). Although it was a simple dinner, we enjoyed it.

Yummy salami pizza...

Where we had dinner

Shops and hotels within walking distance of Hotel Astoria Lucerne

Hotel Monopol Lucerne

As we walked the streets close to the hotel, we came across a few eating places and even a COOP supermarket where we bought some fresh fruits and chocolates.

After dinner and shopping, we returned to Hotel Astoria Lucerne, Switzerland, to take an early rest. So far, we have found it to be a very interesting Europe vacation package and we are indeed fortunate to have an especially interesting tour manager in Ricky Tiang.

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Thursday, April 7, 2011

16 Days Europe Vacation Package Day 5 - Venice to Salzburg

16 Days Europe Tour – Day 5 Venice to Salzburg

After breakfast, we left B4 Venezia Mestre hotel in Venice for an approximately 6 hours drive to Salzburg, Austria.

Breakfast in B4 Venezia Mestre Hotel

In B4 Venezia Mestre Hotel

We enjoyed the breathtaking views of the winter scenery enroute from Venice to Salzburg.

Winter Scenery

For lunch, we stopped by one of the Landzeit Autobahn Restaurants. According to our tour manager, Ricky, Landzeit Autobahn Restaurant is named as one of the best autogrills in Austria.

Landzeit Autobahn Restaurant

We ordered the steak as recommended by Ricky and we were not disappointed!

Yummy steak

It was our good fortune to have snow greeting us at our very first stop in Austria.

Knee high snow

Salzburg Austria is well known as the city for the filming of “Sound of Music” and the birthplace of Mozart.

After watching the movie “Sound of Music” whilst traveling to Salzburg, we visited some of the places where the movie was filmed:- the Mirabelle Gardens, Residence Square, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s birthplace at No. 9 Getreidegasse Street. We also saw the Salzburg Duomo and the Salzburg Castle. And since Christmas is just around the corner, there was also a Christmas Market where we were given some free time to roam around and enjoy the snowfall.

The ever popular musical, "The Sound of Music"

Mirabelle Gardens

9 Getreidegasse St

Salzburg Duomo

Salzburg Christmas Market

We ended the day with a Chinese dinner at Yuen Restaurant where the food was much better than the Chinese dinner on the second night of our Europe vacation package.

Yuen Restaurant

Tofu dish

Egg omelette

Chicken

Vegetable

Soup

Decor in Yuen Restaurant

Accommodation for the night was at the 4 star Arena City Hotel Salzburg where we managed to get free internet access in the lobby area.

Arena City Hotel Salzburg

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Arena City Hotel Salzburg

Arena City Hotel, Salzburg, is a 4 star hotel located at Am Messezentrum 2, Lehen, 5020 Salzburg. With an excellent location, it is only a fifteen minutes ride to the city centre and thus ideal for businessmen as well as tourists.

The guestroom

Guestroom

Bathroom

What is great about the Arena City Hotel is the availability of wireless internet access throughout the building and free Internet in the lobby area.

There is a function room that can accommodate up to 350 people as well as a newly refurbished business floor with its own business lounge.

One can also relax at the sauna and steam bath, free of charge.