Salzburg

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Storybook Austria. This city is like a fairytale, Ava, you would love the beautiful castles, just like Tinkerbell's.

Medieval squares, hidden courtyards, baroque fountains, the ghosts of emperors and kings. Birthplace of the maestro, Mozart.

Fortunate to be here at this time of year, the festive spirit is tangible. The streets are lined with markets selling Christmas decorations for the live Christmas trees that will be erected traditionally on Christmas eve. There are stalls selling bread and pretzels and chocolate, blown glass decorations, nativity scenes, Christmas wreaths, and more. There is a busker playing beautiful violin, and four young boys singing and clapping traditional songs.

Thomas showed me Salzburg's sights; his old university, cathedrals, churches for different denominations, an ancient cemetery and catacombs, a pub that has been open since the ninth century.

Firstly we walked down Gegreitegasse, a beautiful mall with exclusive fashion shops, chocolate, jewellery and typical souvenir shops. I bought a beautiful pair of black leather boots, however, they are perfect for walking I have been marching my way across Austria and they will probably be ruined by snow and sleet before they make their way back to Australia.

In the Gegreitegasse is Mozart's birthplace. A narrow building, painted a lovely shade of primrose, with an enormous Austrian flag hanging from the top. The Austrians are of course (and justly so) extremely proud of Mozart, and many shops pay their respect by selling Mozartkugel. Chocolate; mmmmmmmm.

We then walked past the Pferdwasche, a specifically designed trench filled with water to wash horses. The emperor at the time didn't like the smell of horses so this was built at the entrance of the city, and is garlanded with horse frescos surrounding the courtyard.

Passing the university library on our left and the Opera House on our right, featuring La Boheme amongst others, we then walked past a pub, St Peter's, open since the ninth century and still a pub and open today.

Christmas markets line the university square selling decorations for the tree, brezel, chocolate, nativity scene pieces, snow domes, Christmas wreaths, and anything else that is festive. A giant statue of Mary gazes down from the centre of the square, and two angels on a building called The Dome, carry a golden crown. If you stand in the archway exactly in front of the statue of Mary, you can see the two angels on the building behind strategically carry the crown above her head.

Four more enormous statues of patrons stand guard to the entry of The Dome. Their beauty, grace, age and history belie the everyday goings on beneath them. For instance, I know of a young university student many years ago playing football in the square, who tripped between two of the monolithic guards and seriously twisted his ankle....

Three churches - each one glorious in its own gothic style, were built to support the diverse religions. The University Chapel, St Peter's with a tiny cemetery and a monastery built into the side of the mountain***, and St Francesco's.

***Inside the monastery, you can see catacombs, and a plaque written in Latin. Thomas was able to translate this to me, the man is incredible.

We walked up through the city, passed the Stiegl Keller, a pub established in 1492, and onwards up Moenchberg the mountain in the middle of the city, and through parklands to the top of Salzburg. 360 degrees of stunning views and a million photos later, we descended, crossed a bridge lit with fairy lights and interestingly which had hundreds of padlocks of various sizes and shapes, all engraved with the names of couples. Salzburg, so romantic...

We walked back to the car, detouring to Mirabelle Platz, manicured gardens with Roman statues guarding the entries. The snow made it difficult to appreciate the beauty of the gardens, but hardy pansies still littered the garden beds.

Finally, we popped into a few antique stores, viewed their wares and then moved on to a hobby store, our intended and final destination for the day. We purchased a train set to go around the Christmas tree. Odd but true, and the effect was perfekt!!!

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