Mozart's neck of the woods

---

APR. 29 - MAY 1

SALZBURG
Straight from Munich we took an evening train to Salzburg. There was hardly anyone in our car, so I was plucking my guitar strings at a polite volume. A shy quintessential german (with his blond hair gelled in a far part) commented on the music so we started a conversation...He was reading a business book in English and asked us what the word proprietary meant. Elizabeth and I both had a brain fart and decided that we needed to come back to the states and relearn our own language.

The train stop for our hostel was Salzburg-Kasern, so it was out of the city. When we got off it was eerily quiet, after midnight and in the middle of nowhere.. but the main drawback was the trek uphill with our luggage. We couldn't see the beautiful mountains until the next morning, when we had an amazing breakfast view from a glass windowed patio. Chelsea , our friend that was studying in Italy, joined us at the hostel very early in the morning.

We came back down the hill to catch the train into town, but officially ended up about 5 seconds too late..ooh the angst of the wind as it flew by..knowing we would have to wait an entire hour for the next. We made a productive use of our time... frolicking through the nearby fields with our Sound of Music scenery in the background!

When we arrived in the main Salzburg station we stored our luggage, and bought our next train tickets. Chelsea and Elizabeth quickly got on an internet cafe to book a Vienna hostel for that night. In the meantime I ran several blocks to the supposed tourist office to expedite planning for the day, which turned out to be the incorrect locale. Directions are always questionable from people more concerned with practicing their english than answering your question correctly. It's always fun to be the chaotic tourist defying the pedestrian pace though, since in Europe people amble without a deadline.

We took the skinny Nonnbergstiege, translation " Nun mountain stairs" (its near a convent) to reach the path upwards for the fortress/castle Festung Hohensalzburg. It was a rather hot day so we had a nice pant going. We took in the view, but refused to pay admission and see the innards.
We made our way back down to the old town. We peeked at the Domplatz (The cathedral and its square) There was a Madonna statue in its center. You can see that the two angels holding a gold crown above a doorway, on the cathedral behind, appear to be placing it on her head, if you are standing several yards directly in front of it.

We meandered down the Getreidegasse pedestrian street, with old iron signs designating the many shops. We stopped to peek at number 9, Mozart's birthplace. His family lived on the third floor of this quaint yellow building. We indulged ourselves on some mozartkugels, balls of dark chocolate nougat with green pistachio marzipan centers. (They were in every shop, it was our duty to do so. )

We took an afternoon detour to the Augustiner Bräustübl Mülln. Founded in 1621 by Augustine monks, there are several dining/beer halls with various wall hangings of crucifixes or images of Christ, as well as a huge beer garden. The vendors along "Standlgang Row" serve pretzels, sausages, cutlets, cheese and so on. One can grab a beer stein from the wall, rinse it in the official "stein-rinsing" fountain, and be served the 1516 Reinheitsgebot recipe of self-brewed beer from a wooden keg. "Marzenbier" is served all year, "Weihnachtsbock" from Nov. through Christmas , and "Fastenbier" during Lent. How fitting.

Our last stop was the mirabell gardens. With low flower beds planted in colorful spirals, statues, fountains, and the huge schloss palace in the background, it was an elegant stoll. We walked through the hedge arcade the characters ran through in "The sound of music"!

NEXT STOP: WIEN!
We trained our way to Vienna that evening and were surprised at how nice our last minute hostel was.

Our day in Vienna was a rainy and windy one, so our large folded map looked pretty defeated by the end. It was a HUGE city! The old town was especially impressive. We took the undergound rail from the train station to Stephansplatz. The huge gothic cathedral of St. Stephan served as a backdrop for the dozens dressed in period costumes who were selling tickets to classical concerts for that evening.

We walked along the Kartnerstraße,(side note, I learned the ß takes the place of ss) main pedestrian street, but spent most of our time at the Hofburg Imperial Palace.. home of the Hapsburgs. You could spend all week in this area! On a time constraint we just went through the "Collection of arms and armor" and "Collection of ancient musical instruments." This was in the new castle wing, decked with marble and chandeliers. The armor museum was fascinating. Room after room was filled with 15th-20th century artifacts, including many lifesize statues! There were even lifesize horse statues ready for battle. I loved when the decorative type started to be emphasized - the skirts of armor and the beaks coming off the face plates were quite amusing! The musical instruments collection was neat, some used by Beethoven and Chopin to entertain the imperial family. The majority consisted of clavichords and pianos, many of them built by the finest piano craftsmen coming out of Vienna. I saw one that went to the Paris world's fair! Our museum stamina was burning out by the end of this one, so instead of being good little students and learning our history, we cut out early and synchronized our audio guides to a classical music number while we marched regally through the main marble hallway.

Our last stop in Vienna was the imperial crypt, Kaisergruft , below the Capuchin's church. Emperors, Empresses, Archdukes, etc... these Aristocrats knew how to demand some fancy coffins. The hugest coffin I have ever seen belonged to Empress Maria Theresa here. All the rooms had effectively dim lighting...

With barely enough time to grab a bratwurst, we hopped on the train to our next destination...

---