Salzburg

Friday, June 13, was, for me, the worst day of our vacation, to date. Let me point out that this was a minority opinion. Gail, Ken and Cathy thoroughly enjoyed Salzburg, and Lynn (who was sick) and Scott (who stayed with her) had a great time on the ship, cruising to Passau. And I enjoyed Salzburg, but the bus ride there and back was torture to me. Part of it was due to my 2 hour sleep the night before, and part of it was “The Sound of Music”, as I shall explain later.

The two-hour bus ride to Salzburg had a rest stop from which we had magestic vistas.

Us at the rest stop

Other than its vistas, the rest stop was pretty much a rip off: overpriced food and drink, not to mention gift shop items. We finally arrived at Salzburg. Mirabel Palace and Garden.

It was hot, very, very hot. Our tour guide was great, always directing us towards the shade. Here’s another shot of the Mirabel Palace Gardens. There was something about the Sound of Music shooting some of its scenes here. I don’t know; I didn’t pay attention. Gail’s note: part of “Do, Re, Mi” was filmed on the cement stairs.

I knew that The Sound of Music was filmed in Salzburg, just like The Goonies was filmed in Astoria, but I hadn’t realized that people planned their entire visits to Salzburg around the former movie. Apparently, The Sound of Music was originally a musical here. Now it’s a musical with puppets. Apparently, the American version, based on the musical, was a flop in Europe. The European remake, based on the book, became a hit here.

The other big draw to Salzburg is that it was the birth place of Mozart ,despite the fact that Mozart fled the place to Vienna as soon as he could.

Looking across the Salzach River at the Hohensalzburg Fortress on the hill.

Cute restaurant sign for The Bull Washer at the Salzach.

The house where Mozart was born, now a museum.

Salzburg Cathedral

Salzburg cityscape

Performing Arts Festival

St Peter’s Abbey

University of Salzburg

Catacombs of St Peter

Entrance to “the oldest restaurant in the world,” (a title claimed by 3 restaurants we’ve encountered so far on this trip), this one in operation since 803. It’s currently St. Peter’s Abby Culinary Center, where the cruise had arranged lunch for us.

Ken and Cathy enjoying the atmosphere of the Culinary Center. The atmosphere was much better than the food, especially compared to the food on the ship.

We draw closer to Hohensalzburg Fortress. We still need to take a funicular to reach it.

View of the city and the Danube from the fortress.

After the funicular, we are very close to the fortresss.

You can enter the fortresss directly by climbing up the stairs…

or take a gentler path ( me on the gentler path)

Either way, you’re treated to spectacular views.

Another spectacular view

Another incredible view from the fortress

St George’s church in the fortress

After taking the funicular down we saw the Sphaera, a work of art consisting of a male figure standing on a huge golden ball in the Chapter Square, created by the German sculptor Stephan Balkenhol as part of the “Salzburg Art Project” in 2007. I was more interested in the chess game being played underneath it.

By this time, I was very tired. I hadn’t been able to sleep on the way up, due to the techo beat music they were playing on the bus’s loudspeakers.

I thought maybe I’d be able to sleep on the way back. But no, the guide had to play The Sound of Music on the bus’s AV system. I asked her to play it softer, but the woman in front of me wanted to play it louder. I conceded to not turning the audio louder, but there is such a lot of loud noise in the film, whistles, thunder, etc. If it had just been the soundtrack, I might have been able to sleep, but no… Every time I almost fell asleep, some large noise jolted me awake.

The woman ahead of me, of course, fell asleep right away. So while I did have a good time in Salzburg, it really wasn’t worth the cost of the bus ride. Meanwhile, Scott and Lynn enjoyed their cruise on the Danube. Ah well. I guess as bad days go, it wasn’t so bad.

Gail’s note: I, however, love The Sound of Music and had a thoroughly delightful day, except for Dan’s whining, especially when I started singing with the soundtrack on the way back. 😉