After spending a few days in the Lake District, we turned north to the next major city on our itinerary, Salzburg! Salzburg is best known for being the birthplace of Austrian musical prodigy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and also for being the setting of one of America's favorite films, the Sound of Music, which, in its own right, was based on actual events in the area!
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| We stopped just outside of town to capture our own "The Hills are Alive" moment! |
After pulling into Salzburg, we checked into the local Holiday Inn and returned our rental car, then started to walk through the city. Immediately, we noticed an "urban" feel to Salzburg, a stark contrast to the charming villages in the Lake district.
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| Music is in the air everywhere around the Mozartplatz in Salzburg! |
Due to its urban nature yet smallish size, we turned in our rental car (to save over 100 Euros a day, no less!), and picked up our next public transport card for our stay in Salzburg. However, the hotel only sold transport cards up to 2 days in duration, and we were staying in Salzburg for three days. So, Our next stop was to the Old City where they sold 3-day public transport cards, which also included admission to many of the cities attractions, such as the Hohensalzburg Fortress.
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| Hohensalzburg Fortress, as seen from the Salzburg river |
Hohensalzburg Fortress literally means Upper Salzburg fortress, and for good reason: the formidable structure is at one of the best vantage points of the city. It's also probably the oldest structure in the city, as its original structure was built in the 11th century by one of the early Archbishops of Salzburg. In the middle ages, Archbishops held considerable power, and the various historical sites of Salzburg are testament to this. Over the centuries, the fortress underwent expansions and renovations to defend the city against the Turkish threat in the middle ages. Today it is one of the largest castles in Europe, as well as one of the most intact, as it has only been besieged once in the 16th century, and has never been taken.
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| Marionettes |
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| Fire! |
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| Early telegraph |
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| Commanding view of the city! |
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| Silky smooth water works |
After the castle tour, we grabbed some dinner and then headed to the Residence to experience our first Mozart opera performance:
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| A kids favorite - but I can honestly say I didn't have any good spaghetti in the whole trip... |
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| The Residence hall |
Unfortunately, our seats were pretty far back, and the opera was pretty hard to follow despite being a famous Mozart work (his last one actually!). - next time we should pick a show we're more familiar with!
On the next morning, we went to a nearby grocery store and picked up some of that great European bread, cheese, ham, and berries for a hearty breakfast on our hotel room's patio!
Afterwards, we headed to the Untersberg cable car. This long cable car ride takes to you the summit of the Untersberg mountain. On this particular day the weather forecast included both storms and clear skies, and we ended up getting both. The storms happened on the nearly 15 minute long cable car ride 1500 meters up - we even saw lightning flashes and the very crowded ride stopped for a few minutes!
At the top, we waited for the weather to start to clear. Once it did, the clouds moved quickly giving us all sorts of interesting views!
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| Fifi came out after it stopped raining - but as you can see it was a bit cold at the top of the mountain! |
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| Nothing like training at the top of a mountain! |
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| Heading back down... |
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| The clouds came back on our descent, giving us this Avatar-like view! |
We finished Day 2 at the small but interesting Sound of Music World museum, which gave us insights into the lives of the actual Von Trapp Family Singers!
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| This fountain was in an early scene in The Sound of Music |
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| This map identifies several of the locations filmed in the Sound of Music! |
It turns out that many of the scenes in the film, especially the actual house, were composed of shots from different locations across town due to the fact that during the time of filming, they could not access the actual home as it was owned by a third party. You can visit the actual home today, though we didn't get around to it. What we did do, however, was take note of these locations and visited them in our coming days in Salzburg!
We started Day 3 in Salzburg at the nearby Schloss Hellbrunn, or "Clear Water Villa". This Villa was built by Prince Archbishop Marcus Sitticus who ruled the independent Salzburg in the early 17th century. The Archbishop was a bit of a character, as he collected all sorts of odd artworks in this summer palace and was an aficionado of oddities in general. The defining feature of his palace complex is the technologically advanced set of water-powered trick fountains that he had installed to entertain and/or soak his guests for a laugh, which are all still functioning today!
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| All the chairs at this table have a fountain spout in the seat, except for the chair at the head of the table used by the Archbishop himself! |
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| There are several of these mechanized animated dioramas that are made to move just by turning on the water flow! |
A nice bonus for visiting Schloss Hellbrunn is the chance to photograph the actual pavilion where the iconic "Sixteen going on Seventeen" scene from "The Sound of Music" was filmed! This pavilion was actually moved to Schloss Hellbrunn after the film was made.
In the afternoon, we headed to the Mirabell Gardens to find several of the other Sound of Music shooting locations. Notably, the song
Do-Re-Mi was largely filmed on the premises!
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| Yep, it's the same garden and steps! |
Up next, we head to another alpine resort area: Innsbruck!
