Hi Again,
We concluded our day country hopping in Austria from our coastal paradise in Croatia, via Lake Bled, Slovenia and some spectacular Bavarian country before arriving in Salzburg mid-evening and staying on the outskirts. We timed out arrival poorly following a storm into the city, so there was a lot of water and some branches down. The kids have enjoyed the extra space that bungalows allow, so we sought a camping ground with no success and stayed in an E-Tap, a low price hotel chain which is modern and simple, but we find a little depressing when we have to split the family up into 2 rooms.
In the morning we headed into the city centre with occasional drizzle drifting in, and after the Italian and Croatian warmth, the temperature was quite a shock. The city is built into the side of a mountain, with large rock formations soaring above the buildings built at their base. An underground car park has been built below one such cliff face with the opening manifesting at the end of a street right in the middle of the old town centre.
Salzburg is famous as the birthplace of Mozart, and where he called home when he was not touring around Europe. This is obvious in the many commercial ways, from chocolates to pubs named after him, statues in Plazas, to the more obvious tourist objects available everywhere. We browsed through the old part of town until we came to a number of very fit and tired looking people who had just completed the Salzburg Marathon. Slack of Suzi not to strap on her runners and have a crack, but she reckons that 42km is still above her class, and she has not been training as frequently with the touring pace we have been setting.
As luck would have it , all the museums were free on Sundays so we had free reign to go where we wanted. The boys are a little sick of the sight of museums, so we had a brief look at the Panorama Museum that focused on the changing landforms of the area over time. It a very interesting painting around the circular room of the town as viewed from a central position. When standing on the platform you could look through special ‘telescopes’ as if you were standing in the centre of 18th century Saltzburg looking from a tower. Another room has a painting taking up much of one wall of Saltzburg in the 1800’s with a movable computer screen which at a touch transfers the image to a modern day perspective.
Our next stop after admiring the towns’ sights was a visit to Mozarts’ birthplace. The building, now a museum complete with original squeaky floorboards and narrow staircases is an insight into life as a young musical genius, and life in general in this area of the world in that era. None of us realised that his older sister was also highly talented, but owing to gender roles in this era, had to leave the life of touring and performing music, to looking after her father after the death of their mother. She finished her career teaching music in Saltzburg.
Satisfied with our Saltzburg experience, we set sail for the Austrian Alps on our way to Munich.
Until the next time.
The Wockies
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