Salzburg: Days 1 & 2

APRIL 2016

Friday
A few days after we returned from Amsterdam, we headed to Salzburg with B's parents. Our first day in Salzburg was short and sweet. We didn't want to navigate the Alps in the rain, so we tried to wait it out a few hours. We got on the road shortly after lunch, and even though it was still cloudy, it was a safe drive. We saw sunshine, some cloud/fog, and during part of the drive, we even drove through some heavy snow! Before we crossed over the border from Italy into Austria, we stopped at a gas station and paid the 15.50Euro for our vignette. When driving in Austria, you have to have a vignette, which is basically a road tax sticker. The vignette is valid for 7 days (unless you ask for a longer period of time for more money), and if you're caught without one, you will face a hefty fine.

Fun fact about Italy! When you get into the mountains in the north, everything seems to have a German-ness about it. That's because a good chunk of Italy was actually part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire prior to WWI. So many Italians in the northeast corner of Italy speak German!

Anyway, we weaved through the Alps and tunnels and emerged into Salzburg. We elected to stay on the outskirts of the city at Pension Blobergerhof, so we could truly enjoy the mountain life. We checked into the hotel to freshen up before heading off to our dinner plans. As I opened the shower door to turn the water on, the door completely came off! Oopsie! Apparently I'm way too strong! With my tail between my legs, I went down to the front desk to let the hotel know that I broke it. There wasn't a handyman on site, so Sylvia (who is fantastic) upgraded us to a junior suite! Suddenly, I felt much better. We re-checked into our room, got ready for dinner, and headed out.

From the moment we set foot in Salzburg, it was obvious that it was the home of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was born and raised here, and performed countless symphonies and operas for royalty in Salzburg. Since B and I are music lovers, we decided to take his parents to a Mozart dinner theater concert, and it was fantastic.

It was held in the St. Peter Stiftskeller Restaurant, which is 1200 years old. Holy guacamole! Historians believe that Charlemagne dined here!

The setting was absolutely beautiful. For our concert, we were in the Baroque Ballroom, and the show was amazing. There was a string quintet with harpsichord accompaniment, and they performed pieces from three different operas. Some of their pieces were simply instrumental, and others had vocal parts, which featured two fantastic opera singers! Lucky for us, they performed part of an Italian opera, so B and I spent the whole time listening very intently to every word :) The opera singers did a great job of acting out what they were singing about, so it was enjoyable, even though we didn't speak the language. The male opera singer even performed an excerpt from Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and was hilarious. He sang and danced around covered in feathers, and of course, playing a little flute.

Saturday

The next day, we woke up to clouds with spots of sunshine. It wasn't ideal weather, but we were just thankful it wasn't raining. Saturday was our day to see all of the sights in Salzburg, and we were refreshed and ready! We enjoyed a quick breakfast, and then purchased the all-inclusive Salzburg Card from the front desk at the hotel. 

The Salzburg Card is awesome! For only 24Euro, we got a 24 hour pass so we could see these places for FREE:

• Salzburg Fortress
• Untersberg Cable Car
• DomQuartier
• Hellbrunn Palace
• Mozart's Birthplace
• Residenz Palace
• Stiegl Brewery
• (almost)ALL Public Transportation

It's definitely worth it. Without the Salzburg Card, Untersberg is 24Euro, aka: the same price as the card. It pays for itself - quickly! Since we had the 24 hour card, we wanted to see everything in Salzburg on Saturday. We hopped on the bus outside of Blobergerhof, and headed to the Salzburg Cathedral, DomQuartier Salzburg.

The outside of the church had an awesome play on perspective. There is a statue of Mary in front of the entrance to the cathedral. On the cathedral itself, there are two angels holding a crown. This part of the cathedral by itself doesn't look very spectacular, but if you stand a few yards infront of Mary, the two angels are crowning her. Awesome! Thanks for the heads up, Rick Steves!

I LOVE this church. During WWII, the dome above the alter was hit by a bomb, so even though the cathedral has been around for hundreds of years, it's actually brand new. They have photos of the damage shown at the entrance, so definitely stop to take a look!

I love the light in this church. I haven't seen a church like this with white walls and colored murals. It made it feel so romantic and so Austrian. Since the columns and other architectural elements were antiqued with darker paint, it was easy to appreciate all of the details throughout the cathedral. It was SO beautiful. I think this is what our kitchen in our "forever" home will look like...

We had some time to kill before our lunch reservation, so we decided to see the Residenz Salzburg next door. It was free with the Salzburg Card, so why not?! One of my favorite things to do while traveling around Europe is to see how people lived hundreds of years ago, whether they were royalty or not. The Residenz was home to the bishops of Austria. Centuries ago, the bishops not only had a role in the church, but also in the political system, and this is where they lived.

The Residenz was pretty typical - dramatic decor on every wall and ceiling, with priceless artwork. B and I kept giggling, because during our audio guide, the voice kept mentioning, "Mozart performed for royalty in this room" or "Mozart composed this symphony in this room." So even though it was all about the royalty and bishops that roamed the halls of the Residenz, we heard a LOT more about good ol' Mozart. 

After the Residenz, we made our way across the river to Restaurant Gablerbrau. I chose this restaurant when planning due to the authentic Austrian cuisine, and this beautiful stained glass window!

We enjoyed beer and pretzels (YUM), and warmed up with some goulash. We were also really happy that the restaurant had free wifi, because we were moving through the sights in Salzburg fairly quickly, and we were able to reevaluate our afternoon plans and see more sights!

After lunch, we decided to do Rick Steves' walk to cover anything we hadn't seen yet. Our first stop was Mozart's Birthplace. Again, it was free with the Salzburg Card, so it was worth it. Mozart's parents weren't very rich until they discovered his talents, so it was interesting to see how the other half lived right after seeing the palace.

Next, we headed for the Salzburg Fortress. Perched high on the hill overlooking the city, we were excited for some stellar views!

We took a quick funicular ride (again, all covered by the Salzburg Card), which was a much better option than climbing the hill! We stepped onto the main courtyard, and we were not disappointed!

From here, we had a wonderful view of the DomQuartier (the big green dome to the right), and the rest of the city. Even though it was cloudy, it was spectacular!

While visiting the fortress (also called Hohensalzburg), there are plenty of things to do. There are detailed tours of all of the rooms, restaurants, and various museums within the grounds. One of my favorite things that we saw was in a small room situated above the oldest part of the fortress. Workers found what they believe are parts of an old chapel, and they chose to feature the history of the fortress in this room. There was an awesome video that showed an animated time lapse of the construction of the fortress, which was a work in progress for over a thousand years. 

We took the funicular back down to the city, and made our way to St. Peter's Cemetery. Does it look familiar? If you've seen the Sound of Music, it should be! This cemetery was the inspiration for the one featured in the film, which was actually built on a soundstage in LA. We spent a lot of time here, looking at the dates, names, and photos of the people who rested here, and admiring the gardens their families planted on the graves.

This cemetery is very small and very famous in Salzburg. In fact, the people that are buried here "lease" the space. Every ten years, St. Peter's sends a bill to the family of the deceased. If the family doesn't "renew the lease," the casket is dug up and relocated, to make room for paying customers. 

As we continued to roam the streets and followed Rick Steves' Salzburg walk, we stumbled on this building:

Again, I couldn't help but feel that it looked familiar. There was an information panel that clarified this was the site of the music festival featured in the Sound of Music. They actually do host music festivals here, but rarely offer tours. It is possible to climb the stairs (like the people in the photo), but theres an iron gate when you turn the corner at the top, and you can't see anything!

We continued walking towards our bus stop, to go back to the hotel and freshen up before dinner. Since we were taking the scenic Rick Steves' route, we got to walk along the Getreidegasse, a historical shopping street. 

Check out the street signs!

Shopping with a side of old town charm? Sign me up! There were lots of boutique hotels, name brand stores, small businesses, and restaurants. This is a very popular area, and it is easy to get lost here for a few hours!

We took the bus back to our hotel, rested, and got ready for dinner. Saturday night was dubbed "Schnitzel night," and that was all we wanted! We hopped back on the bus and made our way to a local joint called Zum Zirklewirt. I am SO glad we made a reservation! The place was busy, and we ended up with a great table.

The schnitzel was amazing, the beer was cold, and the company was fantastic! It was a great ending to our second day in Salzburg!