Scenic Tours Jewels of Europe #10

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Salzburg

We left Passau by bus with our American/German guide Eva, who was the best organised and informative guide that we had. She wore the traditional lower class Dirndl (dress) and apron in the colours of her district. The apron strings were tied on the right if single, left if married and centre back if a widow and wanting a husband quickly to stop her money going to the state. The Edelweiss was the only allowed decoration. It grew high in the mountains, kept its appearance after drying and was give to a woman by her lover.

We crossed the Inn river and entered Austria before passing Braunau where Hitler was born. Canola (rape), wheat, maize red peppers, sunflowers and blue cornflowers were grown.

We stopped an Oberndorf and visited a small chapel dedicated to "Silent night" that was written and performed in the local church that has since burnt down.

Salzburg (Salt Castle) was where the von Trapp family lived. They lost their money so they were poor and earned money by singing. They didn't like the Nazi regime so they sold their house to the Catholic Church and fled, but not to Switzerland.

Red Bull energy drinks were invented here.

The bus stopped at the Hellbrunn Palace where the Sound of Music Pavilion is preserved. I was interested to see the work of moles. We continued into Salzburg to the Mirabell Palace (now City Hall) and gardens where we started our city walk. We saw where Mozart had lived.

The narrowest house in Salzburg is only 1.5 m wide. Men were not permitted to marry until they had a house. One man had no money so he obtained a lane way and put roof and walls across it and called it a house - he was allowed to marry his love.

We went to the Stifskeller St.Peter for lunch. The earliest mention found of the monastery restaurant was dated AD 803 and it has been operating continuously since then.

From the restaurant we walked through a cemetery to the funicular railway up to the castle. We only had time to walk along the now enclosed battlements but it was perhaps the best castle that we visited so far. There were good views over Salzburg.

We had a "Crab" on our bed.

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