An Evening and Morning in Old Salzburg

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The Weisse Taube Hotel, in English The White Dove, is a very charming, old hotel. The building itself was built in 1365! It has been a hotel for over 200 years and has been operated by 4 generations of the same family; Bernhardt, our hardworking front desk man being the fourth. It was even bombed during WWII. We have had a variety of hotels, but this one was so charming. It has been renovated and is quite comfortable. It even has a lift. It may not have had all the amenities of our modern hotels, but we loved the history and charm of the place and staying in the middle of the Altstadt.

After Dan & I walked back to the hotel, Jan & Marilyn were in the street waiting for us. It was time to soothe our jangled nerves. We walked down the street until we found a very nice open air cafe and sat down to relax as the sun was beginning to set. It was finally Tini Time!

The drinks did their trick and now relaxed we walked through some more of the Altstadt. We started checking on places for dinner and agreed on the Gasthaus zur Glocke. We sure made a great choice here. This small restaurant is operated by the hard working husband and wife team of Peter & Sylvia Bernhofer. Peter waits the tables and Sylvia does the cooking in the tiny kitchen. Dan and I thought we would try another schnapps. This time we had a Jagermeister. Ahhhh(??). Our table was close to the kitchen and we could see Sylvia working away in there. All of our dishes were outstanding.

Since Sylvia's cooking was so good, we thought we had to try dessert. We ordered one plum strudel and an apricot pancake or crepe. They were heavenly. Sylvia says that she makes strudel with different fruits depending on what is in season. After all the great food we had during this trip, we all agreed that this was the best.

After dinner, we continued walking and came upon, what else, another festival. It was the opening night of the Rupertikirtag, St. Rupert's Festival. St. Rupert is the patron saint of Salzburg. Of course there was the mandatory beer tent with the band playing in high gear. We joined the crowd in the beer tent and everyone was really into it, standing on the tables and singing along with the music. Many were dressed in the dirndls and lederhosen, just like Oktoberfest. It was a hoot.

The next morning we took a leisurely stroll through the Altstadt. The Old City is dominated from above by the Festung Hohensalzburg, The High Salzburg Fortress. This castle was originally constructed in 1077. The fortress was built to protect the city of Salzburg.

As with all of our destinations, we wish we could have spent more time here.

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Photos

House Chronicle
Jim, you might enjoy translating.

Rupertikirtag
With the fortress above

Mozart
He was born in Salzburg and later moved to Vienna

Marionette Stage
Dan said he always loved a good puppet show!

Comments

[mr puggle]

festive
how festive reading that post with the german music playing in the background. with all the german excitement, the hubby and i went to Chef Klaus' Peotone Bier Stube in Peotone last week and clinked our mugs of german beer together in tost of your good travels. so far so good sans the GPS incident.

[Snowhawg]

festive
Love the Bier Stube! Was it nice enough to sit outside? Your toast worked well. Our trip was wunderbar!

[Dan Flaherty]

Beer Tent
We had a blast in the tent ! The whole crowd singing together with the band was so inspiring that Bob + I stood on our chairs to singalong, much to the chagrin of our spouses.

[Dan Flaherty]

Stage show
Notice the audience at the Marionette show all have their backs to the stage. Apparently I am not alone in my puppet phobia. Everywhere you looked in Vienna was a show or painting or statue . At one point I think I saw Bob pulling Jan's strings !