Last Saturday, we took a USO tour through Salzburg, Austria. USO tours, although they can be expensive, are pretty convenient; mostly because transportation is provided and because you have a tour guide to assist you through whatever place you're visiting. It kinda eases your mind of the stress of having to do all that stuff on your own. It was kinda rough, though, because our bus departed at 0500 that morning. We were the last to arrive. We were also the only couple with a baby. To our delight, Sina was a saint all the way to Salzburg and back.
This is a panoramic view of the Salzburg city center. We were told that Salzburg is the second most visited city in Austria behind Vienna. It's also the fourth largest city in Austria.
The Salzach river runs through the city and the alps provide a magnificent backdrop, although we could barely see them with all the fog, clouds and rain that day. We definitely knew we were in the alps because it was so cold. The upside to that is that, unlike the summer, the city wasn't too crowded so we could tour places with ease. The downside was that we were cold and wet for most of the tour.
For the first hour or so, our tour guide gave us an overview of the key attractions (all of which were within walking distance). He then released us to tour the city on our own for the remaining five hours. When people think of Salzburg, I would say that 9 times out of ten they think of two main things:
First, that Mozart was born there. We actually saw the house that he was born in--a big, bright yellow building, smack-dab in the middle of a main shopping zone.
Mozart's everywhere...streetnames and buildings are named after him. There's a huge statue of him in a square called the Mozartplatz. Salzburg is even home to the mozartkugel, which are chocolate-marzipan balls wrapped in foil. The foil wrapper has Mozart's picture on it. There are a few versions of the candy. We took a picture in front of this store with a huge mozartkugel out front.
I must add that I'd tried these chocolates a few years back and thought they were gross. I had no intentions of trying them this time around!
Second, pretty much everyone knows that Salzburg was the setting for parts of The Sound of Music--a movie/musical that I grew up on and still remains a favorite today. I think this is what thrilled me the most about Salzburg. I recognized a lot from the movie. Like the gardens of Mirabell Palace--where Maria and the von Trapp kids danced and sang the "Do-Re-Mi" song.
It might be hard to see, but in the middle is that famous fountain (which is missing the statue in its center) you also see throughout the song. In the spring/summer, there are flowers all over this garden. We're going to have to go back!
We also saw the church from the movie--not the abbey or the church Maria and the Captain were married in--but the church you see at the opening of the movie. Recognize the steeples? This is actually the Dom zu Salzburg--or Salzburg Cathedral.
We even heard those bells toll. Beautiful. The inside of the church? Wow.
Most of our time, however, was occupied by the time we took to visit the Festung Hohensalzburg, or Hohensalzburg Castle. It took us about 25 minutes to get up there and about an hour to see all of it inside (there is a museum). Man, that darn hill/mountain was pretty steep. I actually feared for Sina's life on her stroller, but more on the way back down than going up. It was quite the workout. Anyway, here I am before going up to the castle, which they also refer to as a fortress.
The fortress had some really cool tunnels and the view from above was amazing.
The castle even had a marionette exhibit within. We stopped by and took some pictures of some really neat marionettes. We also took some funny pics too. Check this one out!
The rest of our time there was spent eating (no surprise) and shopping. I mean, you can't really help yourself when at just about every turn is a street like this:
We were exhausted by the time we linked up with our group again. The trip is a little over a three-hours one way, so we were dreading the ride back. However, the tour guide gave us a treat on the way back--the opportunity to watch The Sound of Music! I loved it. Malu and Sina? Well, they slept. The movie ended right as we entered the gate to post. A perfect end to a perfect day.
Well, I didn't post all the pics that I took because this post is hella-long as it is. The rest are going to be posted on Facebook!
