Salzburg highlights

Salzburg, 17-19 June

We did a recce the first day we went into Salzburg, going to the information place, and getting a map and a few leaflets, before just wandering around the old city. 

We then came home and made a plan, deciding that the best bet was the Salzburg city card, and went for a 48 hour option, as there is just too much to see in one day. This allows free entry into all the city’s attractions, except for the horse drawn carriages. It saves you quite a bit on entrance fees if you do more than one tour in a day.

Bright and early we went in yesterday to start with a river cruise at 11am, negotiating the very shallow river in a specially light and flat bottomed boat. 

At places the river is less than a metre deep, and one travels slowly through these bits. You get a great view of the old town, including all the bridges (including the one with all the padlocks)

and monuments, and the fortress on a hill. 

The boat captain then did a series of 360 degree twirls to some Mozart music before dropping us off again at the pier. We went to visit Mozart.... here he is I think, with his sister Nannerl... she is looking suspicious and he has aged pretty well I think.

We then took the various houses the Mozart family lived in, one where he was born, and another where the family later lived. There were nine children born to Leopold and Maria, but only two survived. 

Both were very talented musicians, as was their father, so it must have been frustrating for the older daughter to have such talent and be eclipsed by the enormous talent of her brother, who was composing by the age of 11. The older sister taught the piano, and Mozart’s father wrote a book on learning the violin.

They played a quaint game of indoor shooting, with air rifles and feathered bolts shot at circular painted wooden targets. There is one target painted with two boys - one with his trousers down while the other has a close look at his bare bottom.

After having our fill of history lessons, we wander off in search of the funicular railway that takes you up to the fortress on the hill, and another set of great views of the city. 

I take a nap in the café, while Carol explores the fortress interiors, and then we walk down the hill 

together to give us aching legs that evening.

The next morning we start with a trip up the mountain by cable car to Untersberg summit, again over 1800 metres, and above some glaciers. 

This mountain supplies 80% of Salzburg’s water from underground rivers and stream running off the mountain. 

It is warmer today, and we shed our jackets for the last 100m uphill climb to the summit, before a well earned beer in the mountain restaurant.

Last trip of the day is to the Archbishop’s palace and gardens at Hellbrun, where there are a great variety of trick fountains, designed to give the unwary and curious visitor a soaking from every angle. These fountains have been working for 400 years, and the mountain water also supplies various organs and musical instruments playing birdsong and band music and moving marionettes. The fountains are really quite a special feature, and the bishop seems to have copied designs he saw near Milan in Italy.

I have a coffee and a power nap in the café while Carol explores the palace gardens and finds the pavilion featured in the sound of music where Liesel and Franz sang “I am 16 going on 17”. We also saw the Mirabelle garden steps, where the von Trapp family sang Do Re Me with Julie Andrews.