With Munich as a home base, and access to a great train system, day trips to villages within Bavaria and the Austrian town of Salzburg are easy. Salzburg is famous for being the birthplace of Mozart and the setting of the musical The Sound of Music. Alysia was excited about the various movie-related sites, but I have never seen the movie (maybe I’ll catch it on Netflix), so I was mostly interested in learning about the city and enjoying its old world charm.
Arriving into the old town, the love of Mozart in this town is apparent. You cross the Mozart walking bridge and enter Mozartplatz (square), which has a statue dedicated to him.
Chocolate “Mozart balls” are in every store window. And, of course, we had one…or two…or three. We toured Mozart’s childhood home and found it to be a nice change of pace from touring all the palaces and extravagant homes. The museum was enjoyable as we discovered exhibits showcasing Mozart’s childhood violin, family portraits, letters to his wife, his clavichord, buttons from his jacket, and early childhood compositions. At some point I may need to rewatch the movie Amadeus to learn more about Mozart. I don’t remember much about the movie, but I am sure it is historically accurate.
Salzburg is divided by the Salzach River with the “old town” nestled between the river and the Mönchsberg (mini-mountain). A medieval fortress, the Hohensalzburg, is perched above the town providing spectacular views of the city.
The city has multiple churches with domes and towers, which combine to create a striking skyline.
We visited multiple churches during our walking tour of the city. The Salzburg Cathedral was particularly impressive. I especially liked how, if you stand near the rear of the square, the two angels on the cathedral facade and the statue of Mary in the center of the square line up perfectly so that she appears to be crowned the Queen of Heaven.
Inside, you can see a dark bronze baptismal font dating from 1320, and little Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was baptized here in 1756.
We found it interesting to see how much countries influenced each other even as far back as the 1600s. The artists living here realized the greatness coming out of Italy during the Renaissance, so they gave one of their squares a makeover in the Italian Baroque style. This fountain was trying to copy Bernini’s famous Triton Fountain in Rome.
Although the Salzburg Triton fountain is beautiful, we have been to Bernini’s museum in Rome, and he became one of our all-time favorite sculptors. So, this sculptor (Wolf Dietrich) had big shoes to fill with this fountain.
In another square, there is also a Trevi Fountain-like statue of Neptune. Although it looks fancy, the pond was built as a horse bath in the 18th century.
As you walk around Salzburg, you come across constant reminders of the city’s medieval roots. The main vendor street, called Getreidegasse, has been the center of trade since Roman times with buildings dating back to the 15th century. The unique old wrought-iron signs designate the type of merchant.
This one is not really medieval.
We strolled around the city, stopped at the obligatory beer garden, and hiked around the “mini-mountain” to get some of the most beautiful views of the city.
And no trip to Salzburg would be complete without pole vaulting and Super Mario. When we arrived in the morning, there were crews setting up for an event. We assumed it was a 5k or some other running event, but it turned out to be the Salzburg City Jump, an international pole vault event. With the beautiful Hohensalzburg fortress as the backdrop, how could we not hang out for a bit and watch the impressive athleticism on display.
While watching the event, we were quite surprised to see Luigi working the crowd, and he even paid us a visit. A common tradition in Austria is for bachelors to dress up and go around selling random items before they get married. Pretty similar to the silly stuff bachelorette parties do in the states. He initially tried to talk Alysia into buying me something he described as a “mankini,” but we eventually settled on buying the crew a round of drinks.
And with that, we were off to the train station and back to Munich. Goodnight, Salzburg!
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