Day 11- Salzburg

We woke up after a great sleep at the B&B. Herr Reichl prepared us a delicious breakfast. Once again, we noticed a few Christmas cards from Rick Steves. I'm sure it does the Reichls well to show they are closely associated with him. We actually found this B&B on TripAdvisor.com and decided to stay there because it was so highly rated and it definitely lived up to its high rating.

Here we are walking from the B&B to the bus stop. The houses you see ahead are on the street the bus stop is on.

Here it is! Our wonderful B&B! Isn't it beautiful!?

This sweet dog would walked with us each morning. 

And here we are in Salzburg. Salzburg, just over the Austrian border from Germany, is a beautifully preserved old town with beautiful baroque churches and Europe's largest intact medieval fortress. It is the most beautiful city I've ever seen. It just has this clean look about it and the surrounding Alps combined with the gorgeous architecture is just glorious. Salzburg was the birthplace of Mozart and was where the setting for The Sound of Music. "The hills are alive...!"

After we'd taken the bus into town, we had a major money snafu. We went straight to the Tourist Information office to try to buy tickets to a Mozart concert that evening at the Mirabell Palace, a place he actually performed during his life. The ornery woman who was helping us kept swiping our card (which we'd loaded with Euros) and for some reason it wasn't going through. Finally, we found an ATM and tried to pull cash off of the card only to find that it was locked.

Don used my cell phone to call Travelex, the company with whom we'd done our money exchange. He spent about 45 minutes on the phone, with each minute costing us a dollar, so it was a very expensive problem to fix. There was no way around it, though. We would have had no money had we not gotten it fixed. It turns out the woman at the TI had successfully pulled money from our card each time she'd swiped it for the concert tickets leaving us with no money on our card and no tickets either since she couldn't see that the money had gone through.

So, we had to have them cancel all the charges and then went back to the TI. The woman was surly and kept getting more and more angry saying she had not pulled the money off the card. It was a good thing Don was talking to her because I was ready to smack the woman. She was being so ridiculous and rude. We finally bought the tickets with cash and even as we were leaving she was still yelling at us about how there was no way she'd charged us...

In the picture above, you can see Don deep in conversation on the phone with Travelex. 

Despite our rough start, we fell in love with Salzburg. While I was waiting for Don, I heard some marching band style music being played in an adjoining square. I walked over there and listened to some jazzed up versions of American pop songs. I thought it was a fun, random thing until all the sudden, another marching band dressed in crazier clothing came up the street.

We then realized something was going on. It turns out there was some kind of marching band competition in Salzburg and bands had come from all over Europe. This band in the orange and green was from Italy. It was Mozart week, but this had nothing to do with Mozart. These were not high school or college bands. Most of the people were pretty old and some were quite young. It seemed like maybe they were community bands? I tried to look up the competition and came up with nothing so I still have no idea what it was about. The costumes were ridiculous and random and some were amazingly elaborate. I just couldn't figure out why people decided to have a marching band competition in Austria in January. It was really cold and snowy and I could hardly stand to be outside for more than an hour at a time. These people were out all day and late into the night. Anyway, we saw some pretty wild make-up and costumes but eventually all the mediocre playing of horns and off-beat drumming became kind of annoying. Even when we were tired of hearing them, I never got tired of seeing these people dressed up as babies and Vikings and mushrooms? Crazy.

Salzburg has a series of interconnecting squares that make a grand processional way through the Old Town. This square is called Mozartplatz, thus the statue of Mozart in the middle. Mozart spent much of his first 25 years in Salzburg (1756-1777), which was the greatest Baroque city north of the Alps. The Mozart statue sits on bits of Roman Salzburg.

The pink church of St. Michael you can see above dates from A.D. 800. 

This is a cardboard statue of Mozart holding a small chocolate box and round chocolate ball. These marzipan (almond paste) balls covered in chocolate are called Mozart balls and they sell them everywhere. All the shop windows are packed with them.

Here I am with the amazing Mozart.

This is a view into Residenzplatz. Important buildings ringed this square when it was the ancient Roman forum and they still do. Salzburg's Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich (who ruled from 1587-1612) had grandiose Italian ambitions for Salzburg. When a fire conveniently burned the cathedral that stood here previously, he set about building his new cathedral and palace, which were the centerpiece of his Baroque dream city. 

A great view of this band's drum major. The outfit combined with the mustache just makes me laugh out loud. 

This is the Old Residenz, which was Wolf Dietrich's palace.

Another crazy band with men wearing Viking style dresses. At least they look warm!

Devil horns on the head as well as horns on the dress? Hmm...

A view from the Residenzplatz of the Hohensalzburg fortress.

Looking back from the Residenzplatz towards the Mozartplatz.

We visited the Panorama Museum which has a beautifully painted panorama view (kind of like the Civil War cyclorama in Atlanta) of Salzburg in the summer. It was really neat. We also liked the guessing game they had there. You look at a painting of city and try to guess which one it is. We were wrong every time. They were pretty obscure and showed cities from the 1800s so we did terribly. Don was disappointed in himself since he possesses mad geography skills.

Then, we headed in to the Domplatz to visit Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich's beautiful Salzburg Cathedral.

Here she is. All of the fountains in town were covered for the winter. I'd never seen that before.

Some more crazy leaf people leaving the cathedral. What possessed these people to pick these costumes? So random!

The Salzburg cathedral was one of the first Baroque buildings north of the Alps and was consecrated in 1628, during the Thirty Years' War. Salzburg was strictly committed to the Roman Catholic cause but the city managed to steer clear of the war. With its rich salt production, it had enough money to stay out of the conflict and carefully maintain its independence from the warring sides.

This is the most beautiful cathedral I've ever seen. Most cathedrals take hundreds of years to become what we see them as now. This cathedral, on the other hand, was built in just 14 years and has harmonious architecture and artwork. 

The church has four organs and is famous for its Sunday music. Mozart was the organist here for two years.

The fantastic stucco work was produced by a Milanese artist. The flowers and cherubs and fruit were phenomenal. My neck got sore from looking up.

The crypt was surprisingly modern. 

Mozart was baptized in this font.

A view of the cathedral. So beautiful!

This picture is fuzzy, but I found it so shocking to see a martyr getting his head chopped off on the main door, I had to take a picture. I love that the martyr's decapitated head still has a little halo around it.

After our amazing time in the cathedral, we headed to the Kapitelplatz. I loved the huge chess set in the middle of the square. I also love that some man decided to shovel it. That's commitment.

Every year since 2002, a foundation has commissioned a different artist to create a new work of public art somewhere in the city. The golden orb with the man standing on top was the 2008 addition. Don is acting as Atlas, holding the globe on his shoulders. It just so happens that someone walked behind him so he ends up looking like he has three legs in this picture. He just needed some extra support to hold that heavy ball, that's all.

Beautifully sunny but very cold day... The sky was so blue!

A view from Kapitelplatz up to the fortress. Salzburg managed to avoid the ravages of war for 1,200 years, thanks to this formidable building. The frozen pond has a ramp that sinks straight into the water and was actually used as a horse bath.

We decided to forgo the expensive funicular ride (a cable rail up a steep incline) and hike the stairs to the fortress. The stairs meet up with this path which was slick and icy. so we held tightly to the rail as we made our way up towards the foreboding building.

A view of the cathedral on the way up.

The Hohensalzburg fortress is built on a rock (Festungsberg) 400 feet above the Salzach River. This fortress was never really used, which is the idea. It was a good investment since it was so foreboding, it wasn't attacked for over a thousand years. The city was never taken by force but wisely handed itself over to Napoleon when he rolled in to town. No one really lived here after the 1500s, so it was never modernized.

A few view of the fortress from the path below...

So icy!

Entering the gate.

We had to hike up a wooden plank with boards attached for traction because it was so slick and muddy. If this hadn't have been here, we would inevitably have fallen flat on our faces.

The long entrance beneath the castle.

This is the blacksmith shop which was on the outside of the castle far away from anything else. This was a precaution taken in case a fire occurred so nothing really important would be damaged.

Inside the main courtyard. I liked the pile of cannonballs...

You can see how the castle was built straight onto the rock, just like the Marksburg and Nurnberg castles.

And here we get an amazing view down on Salzburg - scanning to the right. Aren't the Alps stunning?

Looking back on the fortress.

We went to the Marionette museum inside the fortress. We both thought they were pretty creepy...

...but we couldn't pass up a chance to stand in as Maria and Captain Von Trapp. The Sound of Music was never marketed in Austria so it is strictly an American phenomenon. Some smart tour guides in town make boatloads of money off marketing to the Americans, though. There are a slew of S.O.M. tours. I was excited about them but Don put the kabosh on that business. "I am sixteen, going on seventeen..." Good times.

We hiked up to the top of the castle and got some amazing views of the city below. The gorgeous mountain you see on the right was the view out of our B&B window. Fabulous! 

My favorite picture from Salzburg: a view of the Salzach river and Old Town. I love the green copper roof on the Cathedral and the winding river and forested hills. Absolutely beautiful.

We were escorted on our tour by a security guard who spent the entire time we were up on the top of the tour carving two hearts out of the snow.

A couple pictures of us...

The security guard saw us taking pictures and insisted we let him take some pictures of us with the hearts he'd so carefully fashioned in the snow. 

He asked us our initials and carved them in the snow. E and D - rather unfortunate initials. :)

A couple view inside the courtyard. 

Our first (and only) Mozart balls. They were way too sweet for me and that says something. 

This is the palace museum. This is the room used for the nightly fortress concerts. 

This is one of the royal apartment rooms. The wood was so elaborately carved and richly colored. It is pretty much untouched since the 1500s since no one has lived here since that time.

Check out this door!

The cannons are still aimed out in preparation for the expected Ottoman invasion. 

After our hike down from the fortress, we stopped in at this old bakery which still uses a water powered mill to crush its grains. I got a delicious brioche roll and Don bought a huge loaf of heavy rye bread which he packed through the rest of our trip and even brought home. 

Don insisted he would eat the whole loaf when I told him it was too much. He didn't realize how dense the bread was. It had a very strong flavor that I came to associate with Bavaria and didn't like much so I only ate it when I was absolutely famished. 

After our stop at the bakery, we headed to St. Peter's Cemetery. I had to see one Sound of Music sight. Well, actually, it wasn't even really in the S.O.M. They just built a set that looked just like it.

Anyway, at the end of the movie when the Von Trapps are hiding in the cemetery behind wrought-iron gates...well, this is the place. 

And it was beautiful. There are caves in the cliff right above the cemetery and the plots themselves are like well-tended little gardens. You have to pay rent for your cemetery plot and when loving relatives stop paying, the bones are unceremoniously dug up and put in the crypt, the headstone gets used as decorations around the outer walls of the church, and the plot goes up for sale.

A lot of the grave markers are made of wrought-iron, since it is cheaper than stone.

Do you see the old headstones piled against the church wall?

This is Stiftskeller St. Peter restaurant, which is touted to be the oldest restaurant in Europe. Supposedly Charlemange ate here in A.D. 803. 

We peeked in the place but it was too pricey for us, so we got a couple terrible sandwiches awhile later.

Here is St. Peter's church complete with a fanciful Rococo interior. There were some faded 13th century Romanesque frescos on the pillars. All of the other frescoes are hidden under the whitewashed Rococo decor. It was a very busy but beautiful church.

Another Sound of Music site: This is the theatre where the Von Trapps sing just before they flee Austria.

And this happy lady sold us some sandwiches that were so terrible tasting, we could hardly finish them. The cheese looked like brie but tasted like garbage. Yuck!

We saw some more crazy bands with wild costumes

And here is a stand taken over by Mozart balls...

I have no idea what these people are dressed as. So elaborate!

These awesome Mary Poppins ladies were dancing to the band playing. 

More Mary Poppins ladies and a random man with a fuzzy hat... 

A narrow street filled with wrought iron signs and beautiful Baroque buildings.

We went to the Mozart Residence and in this point alone were we horribly mislead by our travel guide, Rick Steves. He said it was great and we say it was horrible and a complete waste of time. We learned more reading about Mozart on wikipedia then we did in his house and museum.

We walked to the bridge and got some amazing views of the fortress and Old Town

We saw some more strange costumes. Mushrooms? Why?

We walked on the street with the fancy shops.

We walked by the Mozart Birthplace

We laughed that all the jewelry stores are called "shmuck"

We headed back over the river...

...and saw more ridiculous costumes

Raggedy Andy? Is that you?

Then, we ended our day in Salzburg with a beautiful concert filled with the music of Mozart. 

A few views inside the palace

And here are the performers. 

After the wonderful concert, we caught a bus back to the B&B and had a wonderful sleep before another  major money kerfuffle. Details to come...