Austria 9: Salzburg

2 - 5 July

The Sound of Music

It was a little illogical to be heading back to Salzburg at this point but due to time constraints we hadn't been able to fit it in earlier in the trip. The quickest route was to head north on the motorway into Germany (where there was congestion at the border) and then east back into Austria and to Salzburg, about 100 miles.

It's all very well having a ban on lorries travelling on motorways on Sunday (Saturdays too in Austria) but it does mean that there are millions of the blighters parked up at service stations. However Raststation Inntal, near the German border, had a huge number of car parking spaces so was a good find. And Coffee Fellows had Americano and decaff coffee on the menu so we were both happy.

It had been a wet journey; we had thought we might stop by the Chiemsee but you could barely see across the lake. Thankfully it had brightened up by the time we got to our site on the north side of Salzburg. We were invited to choose our own pitch, is that good or bad? It's actually easier to be allocated a space, even if you don't like it!

Having worked out how we wanted to spend our two days in Salzburg, buying the Salzburgkarte for free bus fares and entrance into many attractions seemed a good idea.  There was a bus stop 200 metres from the site entrance and we were in Salzburg by 9.20 am.  First stop was the house where Mozart had spent some of his life (not his birth place). It was not a large place and was largely a reconstruction as much of the building suffered bomb damage during WW2.

Mozart's Forte Piano

Later on after bumbling through the old town we timed a visit to the cathedral with a lunchtime organ recital. It's a beautiful place, decorated with carvings and paintings, rather than heavy gold and stained glass windows.

There are no less than seven organs in the cathedral and the organist played a total of six pieces on five of them. Between pieces while he scurried to the next organ, a member of the cathedral gave us some information about the cathedral, in German and English. So a comprehensive event.  After lunch at Siegl-Keller, whose terrace overlooks the old town, we used the funicular railway to get to the Salzburgforstung (fortress). There were good views from the ramparts and interesting displays inside about all aspects of the fortress.

On our second day we walked through the pretty Mirabelle Gardens, where the song "Do, Re Mi" from The Sound of Music was filmed. And indeed we did see a tour party being encouraged to sing the song by their leader! 

Later in the day we attended a harpsichord recital in the Old Residence, a very intimate affair with just 35 seats in a tiny room. The harpsichordist treated us to a variety of pieces, including Mozart of course, and her fingers were flying!

There were a couple of photo opportunities outside, firstly the horse and carts waiting to take you on a trip around the town and secondly an organ grinder; John put a coin in his cap so that I could take a photo as he took his hat off in thanks.  

To round off our visit to Salzburg, and indeed Austria, we had Kaffee/Iced Tea (no decaff!) and Kuchen - and very yummy it was too!