Salzburg

The hills are alive with the sound of musiccccccccccc.

That’s right, I’m in Salzburg. Land of Mozart and Julie Andrews.  I can’t believe it’s 11 PM already – the day flew by.

Calvin and Annie were gracious enough to let me hitch a ride with them to Salzburg so I didn’t have to take the train. More on the train later. The ride from Vienna to Salzburg took about 3 hours and I think it was a nice ride, but, because I’m me, I slept for most of it. I’m not sure if Maddie or I slept more, but the backseat of that car was mighty quiet.

We got to Salzburg around 2 PM and quickly began my whirlwind tour. But not without stopping for lunch first. Since I just conveniently left Vienna, land of the wienerschnitzel, I decided that now was an appropriate time to finally get one myself. Turns out Salzburg wienerschnitzel is not as good as Wien (Vienna) wienzerschnitzel. It wasn’t bad, just nothing to write home about (which apparently I’m doing anyway).

But I also found Mezzo Mix! I love Mezzo Mix! It’s like a cross between Coke and orange soda, but doesn’t especially taste like either.  And I had to get a pretzel to round out my brown brown meal. I need some vegetables.

After lunch we started by exploring the Old City. Not only did we find Mozart’s birthplace, but we also found his house. His birthplace is almost impossible to miss as it says “Mozart’s Birthplace” in giant letters on the front of the building.

As we made our way into the Old City, we came upon the Salzburg Cathedral. All I can say is that is one big church. We were unable to go inside because there was some sort of performance going on in the courtyard area that you needed a ticket to. And possible a pair of lederhosen. I have never seen so many grown adults wearing tiny leather pants or traditional Alpine dress. Not quite as jarring as the Anime convention in Baltimore, but still a little unexpected.

On the other side of the cathedral is a courtyard where they sell souvenirs and overpriced bottles of water. There is also one of those giant chessboards with pieces that come up to my knee. As I was standing on the chessboard to get my picture taken, I was challenged to a game of chess by another visitor. Who is 10. And is named Julia. And is from Stuttgart.

This picture is me in being schooled by a 10 year old in the middle of Salzburg surrounded by spectators. Julia is the one in the green shirt and hat. I had an American family doing a play-by-play of my chess game and a old Spanish man trying to help me in a foreign language I don’t understand and vaguely pointing in the general direction of the board.

Julia pretty much had me beat from the get go, but it was really fun to play. I blame my lack of skill on my mother who stopped playing with me when I was 12 because I kept beating her. That’s right mom, I’m calling you out on your lack of chess skills.

After my grand defeat we headed up to the Hohensalzburg which is the fortress that protected Salzburg for a whole lotta years. In fact, it was so good it was never actually attacked. And the one time someone tried to take it over, it was simply surrendered. So either the Austrians are a bunch of wussies or Napoleon knew what he was doing.

The fortress itself wasn’t actually that exciting. It did afford some amazing views of the city though. I could see churches and palaces and summer residences and other summer residences and castles and the Alps.

I also went on one of the more disappointing audio tours in my experience. It was short, it was crowded, and it didn’t actually teach me all that much. Did you know the Fortress has a big organ? Well it does.

The fortress also has a few tiny museums, one of which is the Marionette Museum. The museum itself was 2 small dimly lit rooms which a bunch of puppets. Do you know what kind of atmosphere that created? Creepy. It felt like puppets were going to jump off of the walls and beat you with their little wooden hands.  But we stayed long enough to make Calvin take this ridiculous picture with me.

By then the day was winding down so we decided to make one last stop at the Mozart Wohnhaus (Mozart’s residence). It another one of those small museums that had a few pianos there, some fact here, and lots and lots of letters written to, from, or about Mozart. As we got in towards the end of the day, the employees were pretty much following us through each exhibit so they could turn off the lights and pack up as soon as we were finished.

And then…dum dum dum…we found it! Sachertorte! We actually found the Hotel Sacher which is where it originated. And it actually originated in Vienna not Salzburg, but it’s stil the original. We stopped to eat at the café so we could get our Sachertorte, but being responsible people that we are, we had dinner first.

And do you see what is on this plate? Vegetables! I was starting to forget what green things were after all of this meat and potatoes. My salad was particularly delicious, helped in part that is was not some sort of ground up meat stuffed in a casing and boiled.

For dessert we finally tried the elusive Sachertorte. Sachertorte is a chocolate cake with a bit of apricot filling, iced with a super rich, dark chocolate frosting. It can only be purchased from 4 locations in Austria (or online) and actually costs and arm and a leg (I gave them the right leg and left arm so I could still write).  To be perfectly honest, none of us were really head over heels about the Sachertorte. The cake was dry and the flavor wasn’t particularly decadent or anything. But now at least we can say we’ve had Sachertorte.

On the way back to the hotel we walked through the Mirabell Gardens. They were quite beautiful at night, so I can only imagine what they look like during the day. Durng the summer they have live music playing weekly and tonight we were fortunate enough to get to hear some.

I know this picture isn’t particularly good, but I had to take it. Because at the very moment this picture was taken, these kind folks were playing Copacabana. IN LEDERHOSEN.  What possessed an Austrian band to break out the Barry Manilow I will never know, but Barry Manilow being played by people in high socks, leather shorts, and velvet vests is not an image I will be forgetting anytime soon.

But now it’s late and I should be heading to bed. Tomorrow morning if I can figure out the train schedule I’ll be heading to Prague. If I can’t, well, then I’ll be heading to Prague tomorrow afternoon. Internet access is going to be questionable, so I’ll try to keep you as updated as possible.

Anyone know what Czech food is like? Is there a carrot in my future?