Tag: austria

Salzburg, 4.July.2025

Salzburg. We had another full day to explore Salzburg, how lucky is that?! Marl and Ken went ahead to Bolzano today, Sara and Stuart were going to walk for many miles all over, and Rick and I targeted museums and other sites we hadn’t seen. 

We got the Salzburg card. Totally worth the cost, it paid for itself within a few museum visits. The tricky thing is that supposedly, you can download on your phone, Marla said it worked for her. But the first museum we went to, Mozart’s birthplace, said you need the actual card. So note to my future self. If I’m to come back, get the card at the Info center on Mozartplatz. So easy. 

With the card, we went to Mozart’s museum, I loved it again and Rick thought it was great. Then to the Domquartier Residenz of the Prince-Archbishops showing over 1300 years of history. Crazy huge and I hadn’t seen before. It went through halls from the Residenz of the Archbishop, to the Cathedral, to St Peter’s church, and carried on. I, of course, was completely turned around since we were inside and walked connector to connector just as the archbishop and the higher ups would have back in the day. But it was remarkable and huge. I started speeding past a lot, but different parts caught my interest. As in the Middle Ages Mideaval approach to Mary as noted above. We did see the Cathedral from the organist’s viewpoint.

Then – the funicular (running since 1892) up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. Last year, I only had time to go up and quickly around the perimeter and then back down. This time we went into all the museums or exploratory areas. it’s incredibly huge. Here’s a video from the very tip top and everything you see is part of the fortress. 

 I never did see the gardens that you could see from the top windows. I have no idea where these places were. It is a remarkable place to explore, with museums, restaurant, cafe, church and just walking around seeing outdoor exhibits. Sara and Stuart walked up to it and then across the beautiful park we could also see to the contemporary museum and then back down. I’d do that next time (if I go back). We stuck with the funicular for this trip. 

We then finished the Rick Steve tour, this is another thing I’d do next time. Even if hokey – I’d like to go to the bar/restaurant that Charlemagne visited, the longest serving restaurant – in the world? Just next to St. Peter’s. They have a Mozart concert/dinner. 

By now, we were wearing out, but I really wanted to go see the Hellbrun Palace (Schloss) and knew it was easy. Marla had pointed out where to get the bus and with my handy Salzburg card I could go out and back and see the place. Rick had bought tickets for the same concert we’d seen yesterday, thinking it was different instruments and concert, and I was aiming to be back in time for that. I missed and he went on. Turned out to he heard the same concert, but he loved it again and talked with the performer afterward, so he was really pleased. 

I took the bus 25, so easy. Straight shot out. I wouldn’t have known when to get off since there was no signage on the bus for the stops (though the bus driver said there was). But a passenger heard me, and said he’d show me. Turned out he was a tour guide, so nice, and he walked me into the palace and pointed out the tea house high on the hill that was built in a month to impress a visiting dignitary who’d wanted to come back after hunting to have tea.

The Hellbrunn pleasure hunting palace was built in 1612 by Archbishop Markus Sittikus. The palace really was just pure entertainment for the Archbishop and his guests to get out of Salzburg on hot days to hunt and relax. There were no bedrooms, just one floor of beautifully painted rooms. 

What I hadn’t understood, even though Marla and Ken had talked about it, were the Trick Fountains. I kept thinking it was a German word meaning something else. But no – it really did mean trick fountains! An entertainment that the Archbishop gave his guests. 

I didn’t take any photos of the inside, I think it wasn’t allowed? But I did take this one from the window above. This is the entry photo to start the tour for the guests. It looks beautiful and was, but it also started the surprises. 

If you look at the back, there’s a table with stone seats around it, with the head seat saved for the Archbishop. They would sit down and then the water would turn on – all of the seats had spouts except for the Archbishops. Hope their fancy clothes were water proof. Here it is in action:

View from the back with star fountains that sent out water in many directions!

These trick fountains have been operating for over 400 years and they were incredible. All controlled with gravity and water wheels. Random water spurting out from all over the place and totally unexpected. I didn’t get hit too much, but it would have been fine since it was warm. There were so many different presentations, small active scenes, large statues, grottos.

I thought the most incredible demonstration was an entire theatre run with water pouring over a series of water wheels that moved ALL the characters from repairing the roof way up on the top level to all the other activities. 

It probably took me 45 minutes to go through all the fountains and I would have taken more time but I was trying to see if I could get back in time for the concert. 

Luckily, I’d taken note of where the bus stop was, a bit of a walk back up the road to the main road, and the bus came along in just a few minutes. I’d really wanted to have a dessert on the terrace cafe of the hotel, where Tricia, Holly, Flynn and I had gone last year. I got a table and people were super slow to serve so I could sit, enjoy the river and connect with Rick and Sara and Stuart who joined us for a simple dinner and/or a dessert. 

We then decided to walk to Mirabell Gardens since Rick hadn’t seen that and how fun to see it and then to happen onto a performance of Austrian dancers and musicians. As Stuart said, it was charming and at the same time, reminding that these kinds of people are the same as the ones who killed his family, great uncle in WWII. 

WWII is very much ignored here. There were signs on the river of people who had resisted and saved Jews and others during the war, a sign of Crystalnacht  and burning of the books, a few things. But in general, a big silence. It was striking that the military museum in the fort stopped entirely after WWI except to talk about the military band that stopped after WWI and was brought back in the 1990’s. 

And the end to another wonderful day!

Salzburg, 3.July.2025

Salzburg. Today we met up with Marla and Ken, Sara and Stuart and did a lakes tour outside of Salzburg that Marla had arranged. At first I was repeating places I’d been to last year on our Sound of Music tour (which was totally fine by me, of course), but then we took a right and it was all new. So beautiful and interesting!

We stopped for a 15 minute walk about, none of us wanted coffee, but loved getting to see the little town of St Gilgen, named after St. Giles, started in 1376 as a lake port town. For us, the most notable piece was seeing where Mozart’s mother came from, her house on the lake and where his sister came for years.  It’s just as charming as the Bavarian towns we visited, but in a different way. Some of the same painting, but more substantial buildings – I’m guessing it gets a lot colder here. Bishop Gideus was the name who founded the town in the 11th century. 

For whatever reason, this small town has the most expensive private school in Austria, 9-18 years, in English. Not the norm, education is free in Austria and our guide said there was little reason to do this kind of education. The cool thing is that the school specializes in music instruction. Probably a really good senior performance!

We then drove to Hallstatt, an incredibly picturesque village on the lake that was founded and centered on the salt mines that gave Salzburg and the surrounding regions their wealth and trading power. The region is a UNESCO World Heritage site with the oldest salt mine in the world. Hallstatt means salty place. Evidently, this was a quiet town, population of 700 and everyone knew each other, doors were kept open for breezes and visits. Then someone in China visited and fell in love with the village square. They took videos, drawings, etc. and went back home to recreate the village in China and the Chinese visitors descended. It probably brought a lot of income, but it also completely changed the inherent culture. There were signs everywhere reminding people (German, English, Chinese languages) that this was a town and home, an active living community and to treat it respectfully – do NOT walk into homes (that was happening a lot) to view the inhabitants, quiet, no littering, etc. 

Now, it’s just darling, no cars at all except for those who live there. Parking above and walking down and up the stairs to get into the town. 

Cool modern statue of the saint for the salt miners, ach, St. Bridget? I can’t remember.

When we were parked, before descending, our guide pointed out the highest hill up to the right. Evidently on this hillside, there’s a platform that extends out past the land, called the 5 finger viewing platform. It has a clear bottom with 5 different spaces extending out. Horrifying is all I could think. 

There are 2 churches, both beautiful with views, with the Lutheran church (1700’s) on the lake and the Catholic  with a 12th century tower and the church itself built into the steep hillside from the 1300’s to the late 1400’s, perched above where all can see it. It had a cool tradition to manage the limited burial space. There was a tiny cemetery, so carefully kept, like the St. Peter’s cemetery in Salzburg. People were buried and a year, year and half later, the bones were dug up. They were cleaned and the skulls were painted with the name, date of death and then the bones and the skulls were carefully placed in the carnal house. New space for the next body. The last one was buried/dug up in 1995. I’m not sure what happens now. This ossuary is in a building dating from the 12th century. 

The Catholic church had two altarpieces. The one on the right was from more than 500 years ago, the one on the left was from the 1800’s. I thought it telling that the one on the right was all about Mary, caring, and kind. The one on the left, utterly tortured. When Rick and I went through the Residenz tour, the church museum had some beautiful statues and images of Mary from the Middle Ages. And I heard a line, I’ve never heard before despite having gone into a LOT of churches over my caminos. During the Middle Ages, Mary was regarded as having come to offset/mitigate/not sure of the word the original sin of Eve. Thus softening how people could feel about themselves. I love that idea. 

View of the Lutheran church and the lakefront

The town square that so charmed the Chinese artist was wonderful, but hard to capture. The green store on the left is a ceramic store active since 1492. We did a brief stop in, but between time constraints and care with packing, none of us bought anything. I probably would have anyway if they’d had a small vase that I liked because the work was incredible. I immediately assumed it was porcelain, but she said no, all ceramic. Truly beautiful works.  Next street over was also wonderful

The house on the right, the blue one, had this sign out front. Great detail for history buffs.

This house had groomed the pear tree for how long? It reminded me of trees from the Cloister Museum in NYC, but those were tiny trees. 

Across the lake was the train stop people could take, then a ferry to come to the town. They do not make it easy to get here. But what caught our eyes was a castle that was to the right and the end of the road after the train. The Red Bull guy wanted to buy it, but they put so many restrictions on what he could do that he gave up. It’s still for sale…

Our final stop was the medieval Mondsee Abbey, started in 748 by Benedictine monks. The cloister church is where wedding takes place in the movie, mix of gothic and baroque, and I wrote about this last year. Still fun to see again and this time I found my travel angel – playing a guitar! Perfect. Hope it doesn’t get crushed in my suitcase. 

We then all came back, cleaned up a bit and then met to walk over to a concert in the Residenz. It was wonderful!

A small venue, a period instrument, a piano forte, and a truly skilled performer. We all loved it. We were able to ask the woman a few questions and she talked about the fact that you couldn’t practice because it was too precious an instrument, so you just had to really know the piece on a piano and then go for it when performing. The keys were reversed black and white and small both in depth and breadth. Truly impressive. 

We then had an hour before the restaurant opened and wandered the old city a bit, got caught in an incredible downpour under one of the arches near the Cathedral and then had dinner at the same place I’d liked so much last year – with the great apricot desserts. We didn’t get to repeat that experience, but it was a fun meal again. In the Goldgasse Hotel. 

A great day. Really fun with the whole group, but by general consensus, we decided to do the alone thing the next day since we’d soon be with each other for a week with the Backroads tour. I was looking forward to having another day alone with Rick. 

Elmau to Salzburg, 2.July.2025

Our 36th Anniversary!

Elmau to Salzburg. Easy relaxed morning before catching a ride from the hotel to the train station. All the notices we got re this train trip was DON’T PRINT until you’re basically getting on the train because you can’t change things. Well, I printed the tickets at the hotel, but it was a ticket for a later train. Rick found the small print saying we need to have printed tickets to cross the border on our email. Sigh. Then translating and determining from signs which side to stand on for the train, we didn’t know if we were going to be able to ride, have to get a ticket on the train? Turned out fine, the downloaded pdf worked. But note to self – read ahead!

We took a train to Innsbruck, then changed to a train to Salzburg. So easy, everything on time, clean, clear notices. What a great way to travel. 

Then, the sweetest thing. I had been emailing with the concierge at Sacher Hotel about a concert for 6 of us and dinner reservations and had also asked about a dinner reservation for just Rick and me for tonight since we’d be arriving on our 36th anniversary. We walked into our room and found they’d gone wild. Such a fun surprise, we loved it and promptly sat down and ate our Sacher Torte cubes – a small square of the famous Sacher Torte – the perfect size. 

They also made this lock below to hang on the bridge where all the love locks are hung – right next to the hotel. Amazing.

We then did half of the Rick Steves tour before we ran out of time. It was so fun to redo it with Rick and have him see everything we saw last year when we were here.

We hung our lock on the bridge and then went back to the hotel for showers – it’s SO hot  in Europe right now – and then to the best dinner we’ll have our entire time traveling, I’m sure. Incredible food. Neither of us are foodies, but this meal caught our interest. The restaurant was Pan y Vin. Well worth a visit.

And then the sunset and back to the room. A wonderful day!