Seeing the sun set on
soup followed by duck with red cabbage and dumplings, €15.20. restaurantherzl.at. A key feature of this city is the hills that hem it in from either side of the river. The Festungsberg on which the castle is situated is the obvious one – follow the lane up past the funicular and branch right at the first opportunity and suddenly you’re in a completely different woodland world, with the cupolas and belfries of Salzburg half-glimpsed through the trees.
The Kapuzinerberg, just as easily accessed on the other side of the river, gets higher and wilder – although pathways are always well surfaced and there’s a small castle and café at the top, with rewards of coffee and cake. If there’s any snow about, both hills turn into wintry wonderlands. GO: For more details on trails go to salzburg.info and click on “green Salzburg”. WATCH the last sunset of 2017 and see in the New Year in a funky Atlantic Surf Pod near Bude in Cornwall. Y You can now book three n nights in a pod, which has u underfloor heating, which c can sleep two wo adults and t two children, en, from £287. Some 300,000 visitors come to this city every year for one reason alone: The Sound of Music. In town, the obvious location from the film is the garden of the Mirabell Palace, where Julie Andrews and the children danced around the Pegasus fountain singing Do Re Mi. In the foyer of the grand Hotel Sacher there’s an entertaining exhibition of photographs from the production, and the Sacher’s café is lined with signed photographs graphs of celebrities who’ve eaten the famous Sachertorte chocolate cake here. There are many more film locations in the surrounding countryside, and specialist coach tours set out from the city every day. GO: Panorama tours operate the original Sound of Music The pods come with a gas barbecue and a private washroom with shower and toilet. The glamping site is just off the main coastal road and well placed for a bracing winter walk. For details see pitchup.com. tour. tour Duration is four hours, hours and singing is inevitable. From €42, panoramatours.com. Salzburg airport, which is barely 15 minutes from downtown, is served by the likes of Ryanair, easyJet and Eurowings – the latter operating its low-cost flights from London Heathrow, which is not normally an airport for cheap fares. For moderately priced central accommodation, the Hotel am Mirabellplatz is a good deal (doubles from € €114, room only, austrotel.at/hotelmira mirabellplatz). Within the city, everything is s so easily walkable that local public tra transport is virtually unnecessary. If you ar are into skiing, there are accessible ski slo slopes at Hallein, a 20-minute train ride so south of the city. GO: GO Three nights in Salzburg, plus flights, cost costs from £201pp, jet2holidays.com. have heard there are more train strikes planned. Will this affect services over New Year? You should be safe but check to see if the situation changes. At present railway workers are to hold a series of 24-hour rail strikes that threaten to cause widespread disruption in the new year, in an escalation of their long-running dispute about guards. Workers at six train operating companies – Southern, South Western Railway, Greater Anglia, Merseyrail, Arriva Rail North and the Isle of Wight’s Island Line – will walk out on January 8. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union at the same companies, except Southern, will stage two further walkouts on January 10 and 12. Fill this handy 4ml travel atomiser with your favourite perfume so you don’t have to lug a big glass bottle around when you go away on holiday. Simply fill directly from your fragrance bottle in seconds. Includes instructions for filling. Pop it in your handbag and off you go.