Salzburg was such a welcome change from the hustle and bustle and (sorry!) relative grime/smell of Vienna. After all, the “hills are alive with the sound of music” and fresh mountain air, right? Upon arrival on our sleek Westbahn train, we put our stuff in a locker at the train station and walked into the old part of town.
Our first stop of the day was at Mirabelle Palace and Gardens. We then crossed a bridge over the river that had tons of locks attached to it, representing people’s marriages/anniversaries, etc., while trying to ignore the beggars that knew where to strategically place themselves to prey on tourists who are just visiting because “OMG…the SOUND OF MUSIC!!!”
On a side note – fun “Sound of Music” factoid courtesy of Rick Steves…in the movie when the Von Trapps are fleeing over the mountains, they are depicted as heading straight towards Berchstegaden, home of Hitler’s “eagle’s nest”…probably a bad call on their part…
We then walked past Mozart’s birthplace (this fact was played to the hilt in all gift shops), down to the town hall, and stopped in the Salzburg Museum to look at the Panorama, which was highly reccommended by our buddy and travel companion, Rick Steves. At first entry, my heart sank…3 euros each, for this?! But upon closer inspection, the display was quite impressive – the world’s larget panorama (popular back in the day before iphones), painstakingly hand-painted in 1829. This painting was huge, and the attention to every little detail about Salzburg was impressive. This display toured Europe upon its completion…no big deal, right? Well in 1829, getting to see another city was a pretty big deal because leisure travel wasn’t really a thing unless you were rich. Very cool and worth the price of admission.
We then made our way to the Cathedral, which migh be our favorite so far on the trip. The stucco work (done by a Bavaria artist) was amazing. The cathedral doesn’t have stained glass windows so it felt light and airy and the crypt underneath featuring portions of the old church (the church was rebuilt in the 1800’s on top of the original church dating 700AD) was a cool extra. The pictures of the destroyed dome after WWII were sad to see…an all too common fate for many churches in the region.
We then hiked up to the Salzburg Fotress. Not too bad, especially because we were lured by the fact that hiking up would save us the 10 eruro tram ride up the mountain…But alas…to actually get up to the castle, there’s an admission fee.
After consulting trip advisor, we decided we’d pass and take pictures of the view (despite the clouds) and keep hiking to Monchsberg…boy…are we glad we did. We were rewarded with even better views of the fotress and the snow-capped alps poking through the clouds.
We then made our way back down, checked out the horse baths (think fountain for horses) and the water wheel/canal system that was used to flush the town on a weekly basis, making it one of the few towns that escaped the Plague. Next door, there was a bakery selling delicious sweet buns for 1 euro – nice little afternoon snack!
Next up, St. Peter’s church and beautiful cemetary that looked more like a garden, with each gravesight so beautifully manicured. Mozart’s sister and Hayden’s brother are buried here. The inside of the church was impressive as well.
Then…dinner…we were cold and hadn’t had lunch, so we found an pretty authentic and un-touristy Austrian restuarant in an otherwise very touristy town. We had a beef roast in an dark brown onion sauce with potato fritters and beans wrapped in bacon. Wash that down with some local beer…yummm!
We were finally warm again (too bad we don’t own and therefore didn’t bring coats capable of handling such cold) and happily strolled back to the train station to collect our belongings and return to Munich. We even found some other people to share a Bayern Nacht ticket with us, so our return was even a better deal than expected.
All in all, we had a great time in Austria, but it’s good to be
back “home” in Bayern!
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