Visit to Salzburg

Rich in his new Salzburg hat at an old cemetery

By the fortress, overlooking the town and river


Salzburg Festival hall- carved out of the mountain


Slazburg with the fortress in the background


Mirabell Gardens


Last week the four of us (including Leah and Rebecca) went to Salzburg for a couple of days. We stopped briefly at Linz on the way up so Rich could visit a building he wanted to see, and the rest of us walked around a bit and had a nice lunch. Salzburg is really a picture book town nestled in the mountains, with the Salzburg river (very green and fast) running through the middle and tall, steep cliffs on two sides. The old town is quite picturesque, with a tall clock tower and lots of winding streets, all full of tourists at the moment. There is an immense fortress built on one of the cliffs, overlooking the old town. Apparently it has never been breached, which is understandable! We took a funicular to the top, supposedly the world’s steepest. There are interesting historical displays of the fortress there, and it also served as a palace so there are some “royal” rooms going back to the Medieval period, others Renaissance and later.

We did all the requisite tourist activities, visited Mozart’s birthplace, and toured several places that were photographed in “The Sound of Music.” This included the Mirabell Gardens (as mentioned last time) and the Festival House, home of the Salzburg Festival and the site of the final scene where they are performing in the movie. Then Leah and Rebecca went home and found clips from the movie on the computer and we all ended up singing the songs for days!

We saw some impressive churches, of course, and a really interesting old cemetery. We also toured the palace of the Archbishop who was both the religious and secular leader of the town, and obviously grew quite wealthy on taxes he collected. We also heard a short harpsichord concert at this palace. Mostly, however, we enjoyed just walking around (when it wasn’t raining) and had lots of good food. One of the best lunches was at a beer garden part way up the fortress hill, overlooking the city and home of local Steiger beer. Those who drank it (everyone but me) said it was really good.