Salzburg: Mozart Was Here!

Click HERE for a Salzburg slideshow.

The Munich-Salzburg train is underway and we’re still wandering the aisles encumbered with all of our luggage (and a stent, in my case) trying to find four seats together. We can’t believe our good luck when we finally find a private compartment. We’re sitting there for a while when it occurs to us that our tickets are for regular passenger service and the compartment we’re sitting in is first class. That is when the conductor shows up and asks for our tickets. With trepidation, we hand them over. And he punches them and walks off. So then, we once more can’t believe our good luck. We spend the time on the train visiting and playing the famous name game. (Someone names a famous person, then the next person must name a famous person whose first name begins with the same letter as the last name of the famous person just named—and so on. There are no rules beyond that, although I am told that minor Nixon cabinet officials are not “famous”.) Having both my kids with me in the same place at the same time is a rare occurrence, so that by itself makes this a special occasion. On top of that, I’m riding in a first class train compartment and the German and Austrian countryside is rushing by outside the train window. We eat lunch on the train—sandwiches we had bought at the Munich station, and arrive in Salzburg in the early afternoon.

Our hotel is located near the train station, so the walk is short and it is easy to find. The Hotel Europa Salzburg is a wonderful four-star hotel with 14 stories, but a mere 100 rooms. All of the rooms have windows looking out of the same side of the hotel (the hallway is on the other side) to accommodate the view. The view in this case, is all of Salzburg with the Salzach River winding through the middle, the Hohensalzburg, a medieval fortress, on a promontory above the city, and the snow-capped Alps spreading out behind.

View of Salzburg from Hotel Europa Window

We spend the next several hours drinking in the view and unpacking. But finally, we’re ready to explore. The River Salzach divides Salzburg into the Alstadt, or old town, on the west and the Neustadt, or new town, on the east. “Old” and “new” are relative concepts here; this is Europe, not America, after all. The new town was originally developed in the 1600’s while the old city of Salzburg was built in the 8th century on the ruins of an older Roman town called Juvavum, which grew out of a collection of earlier settlements going back to the 5th century BC. The train station and our hotel are in the Neustadt, but most of the points of interest are in the Alstadt. Our route from the hotel to the bridge to the Alstadt takes us through the Mirabel Gardens. If you’ve seen “The Sound of Music”, you’ve seen the Mirabel Gardens. It’s the place where Maria and the kids sing the “Do-Re-Me” song. The gardens surround the Mirabel palace, originally built in 1606 by an archbishop for his mistress and their 15 children. The baroque formal gardens have been described as one of Europe’s most beautiful parks, and are filled with flowers, topiary, sculpture and fountains. I like the bronze Pegasus standing in a pool near the palace a lot. This horse is smiling! Mona Lisa, eat your heart out!

Walking Through Mirabel Gardens

Smiley Pegasus

Having traversed the gardens, we cross the Salzach and plunge into the old town. Salzburg’s original historic importance was as a terminal in the salt trade, but in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, it became an important center of political power. During this period an incredible array of churches and public buildings were constructed. These historic buildings blend with the narrow brick-paved streets, the sculpture and fountain festooned plazas, the river and the mountains surrounding the city to create an awe-inspiring visual experience. The entire Alstadt is pedestrian only. Shops and restaurants line the narrow streets and cafes spill out onto the plazas, so it is a very pleasant place to amble around, or just sit and sip coffee and take in the view. Our first trip to the Alstadt is pretty much just a pleasant amble. We stop at the Tourist Information Center on Mozartplatz to get maps, advice on what to see and information on walking tours for the next day. Mike finds a street artist doing some nice, visually interesting watercolors. And we spend some time sipping coffee and soaking atmosphere.

Sipping & Soaking

Then we walk back to the hotel and go to the nearby Stieglbrau Restaurant for some good classic Austrian food and a Stiegl beer before calling it a day.

The 17th begins as a bright and sunny morning. It is both Palm Sunday and my birthday! Breakfast is on the 14th floor of the hotel—a fantastic view of Salzburg and a wonderful breakfast buffet with all the usual things I’ve come to expect; eggs, sausages, assorted fresh fruit, pastries, breads, and cheeses, fruit juices, as well as coffee and tea.

Our first excursion for the day is trip to Fortress Hohensalzburg. While there is a walking path up the steep Festungsberg hill (essentially a cliff) on which the fortress is perched, most people, especially those with stents choose to ride the cog train. The view from the top is spectacular, and when we have spent sufficient time enjoying the view, we begin to explore the enormous and labyrinthine fortress. It was built originally in 1077 as a fortress and eventually became the residence for the ruling archbishops. Noteworthy among the many things to see in the fortress is a recently excavated Romanesque chapel dating back to the 11th century. There are fragments of colored plaster on the excavated walls. That plus the thousands of fragments found while excavating indicate that the interior of the chapel was originally richly covered with frescoes, which we can only speculate about today.

Fortress Hohensalzburg

Inside Romanesque Chapel Excavation

It is almost noon when we finally take the cog train back down to the Alstadt. We had planned on the 12:15 walking tour of the Alstadt, but I am worn out from the morning exploration of the fortress, so we instead stop at a little café in one of the plazas and order salads, which turns into a long leisurely lunch. While I rest, Mike finds the street artist that he had visited the day before and buys a watercolor of Salzburg. He also buys some gourmet salt at a store specializing in that line of goods.

Eventually we stroll, enjoy the street musicians and sample Mozartkugel several times. (Mozartkugel: A confection originally invented in Salzburg in 1890. It consists of a pistachio marzipan surrounded by a layer of nougat, coated with dark chocolate and wrapped in blue foil featuring a picture of Mozart. Undeniably delicious!) Finally, at two o’clock we walk to the Tourist Center in Mozartplatz for the walking tour. The four of us are the only people on the tour, and our guide is a strange, asocial man. As far as I know, he doesn’t ever introduce himself or tell us his name. He also shows no interest in us personally and pretty much sticks to the facts. Also, there is the matter of the fee. When I present him with a large denomination Euro bill, he says he can’t make change, so Kathy and I have to spend time combing our wallets and pockets for smaller bills so we can pay him. He takes us to all the important sites in the Alstadt: the Residenz, the Dom, the Franziskanerkirche, Stiftkirche St. Peter, and winds up at No. 9 Getreidegasse, Mozart’s birthplace. I, unfortunately, run out of steam and become uncomfortable (the stent thing) shortly after the tour gets underway, thus once again, I am not focusing on what is being said and miss much of the detail. Lastly, for the final embarrassing moment of the tour, Kathy and I realize that neither of us have any small bills to tip the guide since we'd already given him all our small bills for his fee. So he stands around awkwardly for a few moments and finally walks off.

After our awkward guide leaves, we spend some time touring the apartments where Mozart was born and spent his childhood, which is now a museum, and then, continuing with the Mozart theme, we cross the river to the Neustadt and tour the house where Mozart spent his late childhood and early adulthood, also a museum. The museum is interesting—we tour with headsets for so we can listen to descriptions and lots of Mozart’s music.

Mozart's Birthplace

That night we go to an Italian restaurant near the hotel with a nice antipasto bar and everybody gives me a birthday card. It is a memorable birthday!

Monday, the 18th starts with another wonderful breakfast on the 14th floor of the hotel. Then we head, once more, to the Alstadt. First we stop at the Tourist Information Center, where I leave a tip for our awkward guide from the previous day. He isn't there, but I leave the money with one of the staff. She is very surprised. Then, Kathy's interested in seeing St. Peter’s cemetery, and especially the early Christian catacombs carved into the cliff below the fortress.

We find that the cemetery is open, but unfortunately, the catacombs are closed to the public for the day. The cemetery is both picturesque and interesting. It is small, squeezed between the base of the cliff and the church, and the graves follow one right after the other with no space between. The cemetery is well maintained and the graves are elaborately decorated with flowers and candles. All of Salzburg’s elite are buried here, including Mozart’s sister. But not Mozart himself. While Salzburg claims Mozart, Mozart rejected Salzburg for the brighter lights of Vienna, where he met an untimely end, and was buried in a mass pauper’s grave.

St. Peter's Cemetery

Our last stop in the Alstadt is at a grocery store where we buy massive amounts of Mozartkugel to bring home. Then we check out of the hotel, walk the short distance to the train station, and board the train to Linz.