Salzburg Pictures

Salzburg pictures up.

Apologies as to the quality. Something went wrong during my workflow and they look rubbish.

The hills are alive!

Yes, the hills were indeed alive in the picturesque city of Salzburg. 8 Aussies, none of whom where born in Australia, made the long trek, made only long by the utter rubbish that was Ryanair, to the home of the Sound of Music. Interestingly, most Austrians either don't know or want to know of that musical. They do rather, want people to know that that there a "NO KANGAROO's IN AUSTRIA".

The initial assault that was planned on Salzburg by tour leader Le was to begin with a self debriefing before the flight (roughly translated as watching the Sound of Music). (un)Fortunately, this was not to pass and we began our journey without the sound of music ringing in our ears.

We managed to find a taxi for all 8 of us surprisingly easily and sped off into the center of Salzburg. Tour leader Le managed to extract from the driver, a recommendation for dinner that night, a little pub near the hotel. So, we took the advice and marched on in. Needless to say, it was fantastic. We pigged out on Salzburg style schnitzel (schnitzel with ham, mushrooms and cheese), Stigel beer (fantastic stuff!) and Mussel pots. So far so good I say.

The next day, we hit the town and managed to visit a number of sites, a few castles, we saw a few Salzburgians dressed in their weekend finery and managed to eat like the locals did (standing up munching on sausages).

That night we trudged into a restaurant that was clearly off kilter. Everytime we ordered anything, the waitresses would laugh. It was almost like she had not seen such little people eat so much. Anyway, we pigged out once again on Souffle's, meat platters and apple strudle and this time Truman Pill beer (we preferred Steigel).

The next day, the hills were really alive. We headed off on our sound of music tour with Anna-Maria, and visited most of the sites of the sound of music. Not really all that interesting for the blokes (except Michael who seemed to be really getting into it) apart from the absolutely gorgeous scenery. We eventually went to a luge track and had a bit of blast down the mountain. Next stop, Apple strudel! Anna Maria did say it was the best apple strudel in the world, and I would have to agree. Fantastic. She did fail to mention the setting we were eating the apple strudle in. I mean, take a look at this. Its a view, if I may say so myself.
Well, that was pretty much it, they say pictures are a thousand words, so just look at the pictures.

Dinner at Savoy Grill

Well, finally got around to having dinner at the Savoy Grill. One of Marcus Wareing's flaunted restaurants. This time it was a £30 3 course deal through toptable.

No pictures unfortunately as the lighting was rather "ambiotic" [dark] and I don't think that the waiters would have taken too kindly to it. Added to the fact that I did not bring a camera with me.

Dinner was booked at 7pm but because of my nice little 2 week training course, we arrived at 6 and proceeding to wander around the Strand. 30 minutes later, we were hungry so we decided to grab a pasty from some pasty shop.

For entree we had the choice of Pork Terine with Foie Gras and apple, Haddock Omlet and soup. We (our party of four) went with 2 terines and Omlets. Both very nice indeed. The Omlet was presented in this little copper pot and smelt suitably cheesy. yum. I had the pork terine which can be best described as a cold slab of meat with jelly bits holding the various things together. It may sound a touch on the weird side but in my books, makes it very nice. There was a side salad which was also good (so says Hien).

Main was a choice of fish, chicken pie and pork cheeks. It doesn't side all that fancy but this is due to my inability to remember what was one the menu. The chicken pie was nice, not sure about the fish but the pork cheeks (which I had) were small, soft and tasty.

Desert was a choice between chocolate royale (described as chocolate mousse with chocolate pudding), creme brule with caramelised banana and cheese. We all went for the creme brule and it was fantastic.

Overally, I would say the toptable menu was pretty good. It probably did not showcase what the Savoy Grill would be capable of, but it was a good introduction.

Anyway, it was good value for the £30 and I would definitely go again but this time for the regular menu or the tasting menu.

Overall. A 3/5 for the toptable menu