Entries about 14 july

We walked from the train station to Old Town Salzburg, over a beautiful bridge...

..and through a tunnel with amazing graffiti-esque art. Mostly of Mozart, of course.

Then we went up and down and around the Old City a few times. We skipped the high-end shops that mean nothing, but stopped at a few shops that offered local goodies. A few were kitsch...

I'm not sure what the deal is with rubber duckies, but they were all over town, commemorating famous Austrians. What would Freud say??

...but most were really interesting, particularly a wood carvings shop (miniatures and lots of cuckoo clocks, all set to different times so they didn't all cuckoo at once) and a "Christmas in Salzburg" shop that sold ornaments (mostly blown eggs that were hand-painted with everything from world maps to pencilled portraits, absolutely gorgeous).

This doesn't even begin to convey the number of eggs in this shop.

We had lunch at a wonderful restaurant that Laura recommended, s'Herzl. It means "little heart," and indeed, there were "little hearts" and "little harts" everywhere in the decor. The restaurant is part of the Goldener Hirsch Hotel, a 600+-year-old 5-star hotel right on the main drag, but actually a little hard to find. We had the place to ourselves!

What struck me again and again today is how old everything is. Many buildings have their heritage painted on them; large letters telling you the year it was built, and the year of its latest renovation. You can see that in some of my photos, along with amazing artwork that's on their facades.

After lunch, we explored a few churches, including the breathtaking Salzburg Cathedral, originally built in 774!! That number is not missing a one; it really only needs three numerals! This is the cathedral where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was baptized and served as organist. I can only dream of what it must have been like to sit under the cuppola and hear the music--coming from four sets of pipes!--bouncing around the church in all directions.

Video taken from the center of the transept of Mozart's church. It begins and ends on the apse (now usually called a chancel) and circles around to showcase the four surround-sound sets of pipes. At the back of the church you see the actual organ that young Mozart played as a musician for the Salzburg royal court. Note the guy with his mouth hanging open.

Mozart's baptismal font.

From there, we took the funicular to ascend to the fortress/castle, Hohensalzburg.

The view from the top is incredible.

Hohensalzburg Fortress is a medieval treat, complete with torture devices and a royal potty! I was very struck by the doors and doorways; some were thick wood with heavy iron belts and bolts, some were richly painted swinging doors, some were framed by wood about 1,000 years old, and some were romanesque archways of stone.

Seriously creepy puppet/marionette display. There were a couple of rooms full of this stuff.

The cannons are still ready to go.

The history of this castle begins when the year needed only three digits.

Beautiful door!

They are still discovering the mysteries of this castle. Recent excavations uncovered this entire room and a huge cache of very old coins.

The torture room.

The royal privy. Nice view!

Beautiful door!

This huge, ornate, incredibly detailed thing is an oven. An OVEN. There were several of these throughout the castle; I imagine each one took several months to make.

Next, we sat under a tree in the castle's courtyard, filling out some postcards. It was nice to rest there and imagine what it looked like when bustling with the busy, hardworking life of the Middle Ages.

View from the picnic table where we sat to write out postcards. That's Mark's hat on the table.

We stopped into the gift shop for a few small items, including "Mozart balls," delightful treats of pistachio marzipan, hazelnut nougat, and dark chocolate. I'm not a huge fan of dark chocolate, but yyyyyyum!! They're available all over Europe, but they're everywhere here, Mozart's hometown.

Bye bye, Hohensalzburg Fortress!

o/' The hills are alive, with the sound of music... o/'

Then it was a descent on the funicular, a stop at a post box...

The graffiti says, "Please only love letters."

...and a bakery...

...and a walk back to the train station for the 2-hour train ride back to Munich. On the way, I snapped a few photos of these plaques, embedded in the sidewalk in front of residences from which Jews were forcibly taken by Nazis. Each plaque names the person taken, and provides other info as available.

The number of these plaques on the sidewalk is sobering, as is the sight of hundreds of tourists traipsing right over them, oblivious to what they're stepping on.

Mozart booze in violin-shaped bottles, sold at the train station.

Salzburg: an indescribably beautiful city. I want to go back. Now.