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Published: July 23rd 2007
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There are several bridges that cross the Salzach River, but there is a large walking bridge only a block or two away from the Markart Platz. There are so many tourists on this day, that it reminds of Disneyland. Watch out for "bomber cyclists." The view of the city is great.
The Salzach River (salt river) is named after the salt mines here in Salzburg. Even though the water isn't salty, it was used to transport salt downriver, and to the world. I don't think we'll make it to the salt mines to tour them.
As we looked west from the bridge, you can see the tower of the Augustinian Brewery, where we had dinner last week. The outdoor area can hold up to 1,000 people, and again that many inside. The beer is brewed there, and is the same brew that originally was made by the monks there, in 1600.
Looking east has been described as "Seeing a Symphony." You can see the old city with it's many spires, and at the top of the mountain, the Festung Hohensalzburg," the fortress. It was built in 1077, it is the best preserved medieval fortress in Europe. We
might go up to see it if we have time.
As we walked forward across the bridge, we could see a large water tunnel, which apparently supplies the city with clean water. The water is available everywhere, in public fountains, and we saw it gushing in places when we went on the bus tour. The drinking water everywhere is crystal clear.
This is truly a musical city, besides being the birthplace of Mozart. There are many concerts of all types every day of the week. And it is the host of the famous Salzburg Festival. It begins at the end of next week, so we won't be able to attend. Apparently the tickets are sold out in December of the previous year, and are outrageously expensive. You might remember the Trapp family in the movie singing at the Salzburg Festival. There is a small fee for seeing the performance halls, especially busy right now because they are preparing for the festival this week. I would have like to see it.
We walked off through an entrance marked Stern Brau, and walked into a small area with restaurants and shops. We were getting hot and tired by now,
so we stopped for a bier, of course! Lisa had her eye on wursts with sauerkraut, but we decided perhaps we'd head back this way later for dinner. We haven't had any sausages yet! And only one meal with kraut!
The Alte Stadt is made up of ancient buildings, churches and shops, and many plazas, or courtyards. There's history everywhere, and each time we turned around we saw something else that was beautiful. There are too many to describe here.
The Getreidestrasse is the main shopping street. It is a pedestrian only street, and was packed this particular day, You can see the water tunnel at one end. You can't miss the wrought iron signs marking each shop. Many of the shops are orignal, dating back over 800 years. The signs are designed to illustrate what is for sale in each shop, because the citizens were mostly illiterate at the time. It was beautiful...and we stopped and looked into many of the shops. Some are not ancient, but rather new. One sign was different than any of the others....you would have recognized it immediately....McDonalds!
Of course, the highlight of this street is Mozart's birthplace, Mozart Geburthaus. We
stepped inside, but there is a fee to see the fourth floor, where the Mozart family lived in three rooms and a kitchen. There were seven Mozart children but only two survived, Wolfgang and his sister Nanerl, who was also a musician. We're hoping to go back and see the living quarters, which is now a museum. It has Mozart's original instruments, and his little viola and violin, which he played as a child, a clavichord and pianoforte, portraits and letters. We really shouldn't miss this....we'll be back later.
Mozart was dragged all over Europe at the time as a child prodigy, encouraged by his father, Leopold. But he called Salzburg his home. His official job was concertmaster, but had a falling out with the Prince Archbishop at the time, and left Salzburg behind, moving to Vienna for the last ten years of his life. We'll be going to Vienna at the end of the week.
There's so much to see!
More later,
Janet and Lisa
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