Swissterical: The Great European Road Trip: Days 6 and 7

Na shledanou Praha, Guten Tag Salzburg!

Panorama of city from the fortress

We left Prague and headed to Austria, another long long drive. It's been misty the last several days and Day 6 was no exception--we even kept our snow siting streak alive, albeit only with a few flurries.

AAB on the main shopping drag

Salzburg is known for two things: Mozart and the Sound of Music. Without them, the city would still be a nice stopover at the feet of the Austrian Alps and there are some interesting sites close by-Hellbrunn Palace was the summer residence of the Austrian bishop-rulers and is known for trick water fountains. Eagle's Nest, Hitler's vacation get-away, is nearby as are some interesting-looking salt mines. Unfortunately, at this time of year, they're all still closed. Too cold and too much snow. And given the mist, even the countryside doesn't offer much allure in early April. So we were left with the city itself.

Salzburg is situated on the Salzach river and the original settlement dates back to the Roman era. The name itself means "Salt Castle" and comes from the mines mentioned earlier which gave the region its fame. Construction on the castle that dominates the high ground was begun around 1400 and continued for 600 years throughout the reigns of various bishop-princes who were both the secular and religious authorities in the early 1800s. In fact, Salzburg wasn't incorporated into Austria until about 1816. Today, the city has a population of around 200,000 including about 15,000 students studying at the many specialized universities.

After arriving, we got settled in our hotel and went out for a walk. Our hotel was near the main shopping street, which CW would describe as being a strange hybrid of Rodeo Drive and Bourbon Street. Cheap souvenir shops hawking everything Mozart (and by everything, we're even talking about rubber ducks with the characteristic Mozart red coat and wig) vie for one's attention with Loius Vuitton, Hillfiger, etc. And in between are restaurants and even an Irish pub advertising 40 different whiskies [SoulSwisster wouldn't let CW add that to the itinerary :( ]

Our horse drawn carriage

Couldn't be happier!

Day 2 dawned and we were up early. Our first stop was next to the old cathedral, which seats about 20,000. There, we found the horse carriages lined up and waiting for us. We had to wait a few minutes because there was a strict rotation and the guy who was 'next-up' didn't speak English. But his partner arrived and they switched places in the queue and off we went. Our driver turned out to be a football fanatic(real, American football) and is a Patriots fan. He was quite disappointed in Brady's performance during the playoffs this year and told us Brady's best days are behind him. When he heard CW was an Eagles fan, he said our best days were way behind us! He did a very nice job taking us around the city. It's amazing that even in the 'new' part of town, the buildings are 300-400 years old--older than the US. Salzburg, like most of Germany and the Czech Republic, has a very strong Catholic heritage. Religious symbols and paintings abound. And of the 42 churches in town, only 3 are Protestant. This tour was the highlight of the day for SwissSis, who was in ecstasy at being so close to horses. She even got to ride up front with the driver for a while. AAB also did, but didn't enjoy it nearly as much--too smelly for him.

AAB explaining the finer points of baseball
to our football-loving driver

SwissSis was very happy to see
Mozart's birth house

We visited Mozart's birth house/museum next. The museum takes up quite a bit of space. Though, in reality, his family rented only three rooms on the 2nd floor. His father was an accomplished musician who recognized Mozart's and his sister's early genius. Mozart and his sister were actually the only 2 of 7 children to survive childhood. Mozart himself had two sons, but these two never produced children of their own. The museum stated that contrary to some of the wild portrayals of him, Mozart was a responsible father and husband, devoted to his wife. He did, however, rack up significant gambling debts and towards the end of his life as the economy of Salzburg soured, his financial situation was poor. The museum also says that it's unlikely that Mozart's rival at court, Antonio Sallieri, had anything to do with his death despite the popular portrayal in the movie Amadeus.

Mozart, Mozart, and more Mozart!

From the museum to shopping. SwissSis and SweetSwissTeen wanted to go look for traditional Bavarian garb and so we were all dragged into a dress shop. After what seemed like hours, the budding Marias were properly outfitted. We'll have more official pictures soon. They tried to convince CW and AAB to buy lederhosen, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it. No yodeling for us!

Wait til she starts wearing it around town!

We took a cog train up the hill to the fortress ("EPIC fortress" by AAB's standards) and did a quick tour. It's quite impressive and is the largest fortress in Europe. Salzburg appears to have mostly escaped damage during WWII and the fortress is intact. One of the interesting things is that it had an organ and the bishop-prince used it in the morning to awaken the townspeople to their labors and then again at the end of the day to let people know it was time to sleep.

We finished the day with a nice dinner and then walked back in the dusk.

Overall, Salzburg was nice, but not as nice as Prague. We wished we could have seen some of the attractions open later in the spring and perhaps someday we'll return.

FYI--there is no crystal in Salzburg. SoulSwisster definitely disappointed!