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Published: September 17th 2007
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In the morning we woke up and were treated with the hotel’s “authentic” German breakfast, which is actually fairly large and filling. It is normal to eat eggs, meat, cheeses, fruit, and bread. It was very nice for us students because then we did not have to buy our breakfast. There was Nutella in excess! J
Then we met up as a group and left for Salzburg. Since we were going to a nice dinner later that evening, and would not be back at the hotel to change clothes, most of the people wore their nice clothes all day around Salzburg. I did not want to get my nice clothes sweaty, so I brought with a backpack with clothes in it to change into at the dinner. But the downside to this is that in all the group photos, everyone else looks so nice and I look like a scrub. Anyways, we had a bus/van arranged to pick us up and drive us to Salzburg, which was about a 15-20 minute drive from our hotel.
Austria (at least Salzburg) is beautiful. The Alps can be seen all around, there is also a large fortress on top of a hill that overlooks
the city. When we got off of the bus, we first walked across the river, and along to river, until we got to Mirabell Palace and its surrounding gardens. The pink and white flowerbeds were gorgeous and in excess surrounded by statues.
From there we headed more into the downtown area, which is still decorated with many statues. Also, there is mention of Mozart everywhere. I did not know that Mozart was born in Salzburg, but I found out pretty quickly. One cool thing about some of the buildings in Salzburg is that some of them are built into big rocks.
Soon after, we split into smaller groups and began to wander the streets of Salzburg. Walking towards the main drag, we came across several souvenir stands. I bought a few souvenirs for myself and friends, and I was happy to buy authentic Swarovski crystal earrings from Austria. That was pretty exciting for me.
There were a lot of cool things are we headed towards downtown. In the middle of this space, there was a big gold-colored ball, with people playing chess underneath it. In the picture, it looks like there is a man standing on top
of the ball, but it is just another statue. We also walked buy a large statue of Mozart.
We were actually headed in the direction of Mozart’s house, or birthplace. It is in remarkable condition for a house that old, but since it is a large tourist attraction, I suppose it is kept in better condition. The house site is actually right in the middle of the main street of shops, and is not labeled well. We walked right past it and didn’t even know it, and since the streets are so narrow, it is kind of surprising that it was easy to miss.
We decided to get some lunch and tour through Mozart’s house on the way back. We settled for a Chinese buffet. It is so funny- we do not really know what an Austrian specialty would be, but we did not care. We ate Chinese in Austria!
Then we went back to Mozart’s house. He only actually lived in a few rooms on the 3rd level, but most of the house has Mozart memorabilia, and we walked through a few of the rooms. They had some of his original instruments and paintings. They also
Chess players
Under the big gold ball, people play chess had a few rooms set up how they might have looked back when Mozart was living there.
After we left Mozart’s house, we started heading back to our group meeting place. We decided to go into the cathedral, Dom zu Salzburg. It was a beautiful church and the largest/oldest in Salzburg.
Next we met back with our group and toured the fortress, “Hohensalzburg Fortress.” It had a rich history and a great view but for the most part I was pretty bored by being there. To guide us along we had hearing guides in English, which help but is boring also. We spent about 1.5 hours there and then started to head back for our Mozart dinner.
After a few of us changed our clothes, we all looked so nice. We were seated in a ballroom, 8 to a table. The way it worked was that we had social hour for an hour, and then the “band” came out and played a few of Mozart’s selections, complete with opera singers. And then we would be served soup. Then the band would come back out, play, and then we would be served our main course, which was chicken.
It went this way until we were served our dessert. Of course I had to be difficult, so when I saw that the dessert was a strawberry crusted parfait, I asked if there was anything else I could have. The waiter was nice and brought me an ice cream sundae. It was a fun dinner- we decided to treat ourselves to some Reisling wine. I have never experienced something that exquisite before. All of the musicians were dressed in traditional clothing from Mozart’s time. It was all very formal and it was nice to see the group in a nice dress…I mean I see them scrubby every day of the week. Then after the concert ended, our bus picked us up again and we went back to the hotel in Germany. By this time, it was midnight and we were all tired!
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