Zigzaging through Salzburg
Trip Start
Jun 29, 2009
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Trip End
Jul 24, 2009
Where I stayed
Salzburg, Austrian Alps, Austria
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
With raisin bread and milo brought from home by mum to tide us through the morning, it was time to head towards Salzburg!
The drive was beautiful. Houses on green plains with mountains and clouds as their backdrop! My dream house location!
After about an hours drive, we were here!!!! We took the suggestion by on of the guidebooks i borrowed from the library (they were a great help. The best was Rick Steves'!) and did a Park and Ride. So we boarded the bus, ben with his sunglasses and me and my hat.
We got off at Mirabellplatz. Our first stop was the Schloss Mirabell and its lovely gardens. You only can enter the palace if you are going for a concert so we only managed to explore the gardens which were beautiful. The flowers were in full bloom with fountains and statues making it time to pose for the camera! We saw the hedge tunnel which was apparently where Maria and the Trapp children sang "Do-Re-Mi" and ran through in "The Sound of Music"- it was cooling there. We also saw a wedding couple and explored the dwarf garden (not fantastic but can be fun if you go around posing like them)
After leaving the palace, we got a bit lost. We were looking for Mozart's Residence which was supposed to be nearby but it was proving hard to find. We tried asking a local who didn't really understand what we were saying and pointed us in the direction of Mozart's Birthplace across the Salzach River. In the end, we went to Mozart's Birthplace first.
You know you are at the right place when 1. You see a yellow house and 2.There are loads of tourists taking pictures of it. Honestly, it was quite a disappointment. But still, it was cool to see Mozart's violin. Oh and there was this guy playing the old piano. Really really good. There was also this room which I would call a music room where all the noise is blocked out and they play Mozart's pieces.
The street were Mozart's house was on was a nice shopping street. The shophouses had their signs in wrought iron hanging outside. Our batteries were a bit flat and so we bought these awesome pizzas that recharged our batteries and moods.
After that, we went to the Franziskaner kirche with an elaborate altar and then headed to the Salzburg Dom. We entered the cathedral from the back with its courtyard. Sadly, that area was under construction so we couldn't get to see the Immaculate Column. However, we did manage to hear a melodious choir practicing in the cathedral. Then we went to St. Peter's church and cemetery. The cemetery was unlike what we have back at home. Apparently it was here that the dramatic flight scenes in "The Sound of Music" were filmed.
Next we went to take a picture with the Mozart statue at Mozartplatz and heard the Glockenspiel chime (nothing interesting) and then it started raining so we went to the Panorama museum and the Salzburg museum to take shelter. They were linked underground. There was this place in the Panorama museum where the whole of Salzburg is plastered onto the circular wall which was interesting. Then it was time to find the Mozart Residence again even though the rain hasn't stopped. So we asked for directions and crossed the Salzach River again. Again, we couldn't find it. However, we did manage to find a shop selling the famous Sacher cake. At first, we did not want to buy cause that was what I wanted to buy in Vienna. But then we decided to try it and ben backtracked to buy while me and mum decided where to go for tea. We were tired and hungry again.
We went to this place called Steinterrasse which was located at the top floor of a hotel. The lift was oldish but interesting. Recommended by the Rick Steves' guidebook, the views were beautiful. When we first reached it was drizzling abit so we sat down and drank our drinks and ate the sacher cake which became ben's favourite. I felt it was a bit too dry. Ben also had a ham and cheeze sandwich, I had sausages and mum had goulash soup - which i thought was supposed to be eaten in budapest, oh well, it was the first of many goulash soups we had. We also had ham that we bought at a market that day.
We did make it for the Mozart Residence at long last. I felt that it was better than Mozart's birthplace. We were each given an audio guide which explained to us the exhibits and played Mozart's pieces. The place was also less crowded. We met the pianist that we saw at Mozart's birthplace! But he did not play there. :( I think he was tuning the piano.
It was time to go to the place we had been taking photos of the whole day - the Hohensalzburg Fortress - before it closes. So we crossed the river again. We almost didn't make it in time! Luckily, we were energized by the food and so we could run faster. We went through the exhibits at top speed as they were closing soon and we wanted to see as much as we could. We went to the Golden Hall which was going to have a concert later that night. Although we weren't in time to go to the highest tower but the views we got were good enough. We even managed to see the Marionetten exhibit with the puppets.
I wanted to go to the Nonnberg Nunnery but I think it was already closed. After that I wanted to go to the Hellbrunn Palace & Trick Fountains and ben drove us there but I mistook the timings, it was one day away from the summer timings!!! :( sorry ben! Night was closing in on us.Then to cover more places, I suggested the other sound of music sites. We did go cause it turned out to be nearby but they were kinda like private property which we couldn't enter. There was this one we went and mum actually got out of the car and went into one after a car went into it! She nearly got locked inside but she did find out that we were at the right place. Thanks ben for being so obliging. :) The last place we went to was the Sound of Music pavilion which turned out to be back where the Hellbrunn Palace was! We couldn't enter the pavilion but it was exactly how i remembered it to be. And there was a nice little playground there where me and ben sat the swing.
