Salzburg

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We started the day with a huge breakfast and then bought a One Day Card for a number of attractions for the day. After studying the map, and the tours available, we figured that with a pamphlet listing all the places to visit we could do them all on foot.

What can I say about Salzburg without writing a book? It is an incredibly beautiful city especially the old town down by the River Salzach and up to the castle on the hill. There are 1000s of bikes! They are everywhere. Car's are modern with rarely, if ever, an old one. People are friendly, there are heaps of young people (it's a university town) and there are a few too many beggars - all the same race and I really wondered about their need. Lastly, I think it's cheaper than NZ. Somehow over the years our home country has become a very expensive place to live.



So, to foot tour. The Mirrabelle Gardens were our first visit which were like a formal Italian garden. Looking down and through the garden focuses the castle on the hill at the end. Also near the garden was a large market of produce only. This had some fascinating foods and there seemed to themed alleys of food types - meats, fruit and vege, cheese and breads, preserves, etc. You can see why there wasn't any evidence of supermarkets about. What is it about NZ that we have a passion for supermarket shopping and not our local produce when we make so much of it? A market place is so much more vibrant and entertaining.

We then wandered through the town with lovely cobbled streets with hanging signs out over the footpaths. There are of course, numerous cafes which is fairly typical of Europe. But what struck us about this city is the number of broad open squares surrounding fountains or sculptures. It really is lovely.

We took a lift inside the limestone cliff up to a lookout where the Modern Art Museum is. After viewing these art galleries on our last trip, we decided that the modern art generally on show is just awful, so we skipped that part of the visit. 😊

From there we visited the area of churches, cathedrals and chapels. What is the common theme here? Yep, churches and their part to do with the history here. It was dominated by Bishops and Arch Bishops and you wouldn't have wanted to be protestant or Jewish - they were burned, killed or simply driven out. One wonders about the brand of Christianity and where the love of the common man was that Jesus preached?? However, without these particular firebrands the city as it is now would not exist.

We visited a very old chapel and the catacombs up against the cliffs. Strangely, the graves around the cathedral looked really old yet all had dates of the 1900's. Now, were they all stacked up or dug up and burned if over a certain age? They also were smallish with mounds banked up into gardens. Were they short or nimble yoga people while alive, able to be folded up? Hmm, must find out. We went up inside the cliff where presumably priests and their ilk were buried in the past. It was very cold with a chapel dug out. I guess there were bodies there in the past but not now. I wonder what they did with them? Must find that out too.

After wandering through more squares and lovely streets we took the funicular up the hill to the castle. It is an amazing bit of architecture starting 900 years ago and added to bit by bit over the centuries the more the people felt threatened. It's certainly worth a long visit. We did an audio tour and looked through the various parts of the castle as well as lounging about outside. In one location they have a military museum covering mostly the 1800 and 1900 centuries. Strangely, there was a lot about the 1914-18 war and before but with the 2nd WW completely missing. Why was this? Maybe a bit too closely aligned with the Germans during that time? Don't know.

The views from the castle are amazing. You can see the old fortification wall stretching way around the town and up to nearby hills. The city sits in the valley. In the distance are the mountains that we'll head to in a couple of days with large flat areas of farming surrounding the city. Very attractive.

Summer is definitely here. It was a warm 23 degrees today. Just lovely after the cold of winter settling into Nelson. The leaves are on the trees and the flowers are out. Two summers is surely good.

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Photos

Bikes everywhere
Everyone bikes and there are bike parks everywhere

One of the many churches
Salzburg has many churches and many squares making the Old Town area a delight to walk around

An alley way within the castle walls
The castle up on the hill dominates the city and is worth the visit if only for the view