Salzburg, Austria
May 24, 2009 – A pretty city filled with churches, squares with fountains, a huge castle that looms over everything. Lots of trendy cafes and restaurants filled with well to do tourists – Salzburg is definately a up scale tourist town. In the background, behind the city are snow covered mountains. Perfect right?
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Salzburg; brief history and interesting facts;
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Actually, while the town is pretty and very walkable, there is little WOW factor here. Lissette an I both agree that a day is sufficient – I would actually (knowing what I know now) make it a day trip from Berchtesgaden/ Kognisee (more on another posting). I think Salzburg should be seen when in the area, I just wouldn’t make it a major highlight.
We took a walking tour offered by the tourist office. An hour long, it covered the main sites in the old town, the most memorable being the Salzburg Cathedral and the cemetary at St. Peter’s Cathedral. We went up the mountain and toured around Hohensalzburg fortress which had great views over the town and the mountains in the back. We tour a quick tour of the Panorama museum – the panorama painting of Salzburg taken in 1829 was impressive. Good way to fill in half an hour between doing other things. There are 2 major Mozart museums in town, the one where he was born (in the old town) and the other where he lived his teenage years (across the river in the new town). My Rick Steve’s guidebook said the 2nd, the “Mozart Residence” was the better of the two. We toured it and were very disappointed – the family’s furniture had been sold by auction and the residence is essentially empty…if you like to look at scrolls titled “Mozarts D minor, sequitur 5 from the concert played at Salzburg Catheral” (I made that up but that’s basically the kind of stuff written. Boring). Lissette is a Mozart fan and she was dissapointed – better off watching the movie “Amadeus”, much more informative than this boring museum tour (Like I said to Lissette, at least we get to see a bit of tit in the movie).
Summary: Lots of history, pretty, worth a visit but not a lengthy stay.
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We stayed at the Weisse Taube hotel in the old city (98 Euros/night for double breakfast included). Basic but clean and comfortable. Location was perfect, and the hotel staff was great. Excellent place to be in the old town. I give it a 4 out of 5.
“Da Pippo” restaurant on main street recommended (has a large Italian flag) on outside. Food was great, atmosphere superb, prices relatively cheap. We had a great Italian waiter, a middle aged man who looked right out of The Sopranos. When we told him that Venice was our next stop he looked envious “Germans and Austrians, it’s da right or it’s da left. No fantasy. In Italy is fantasy”. We thought it was a nice introduction to our next
destination.
Tags: Austria, Europe 2009, PHOTOS
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