This morning, with a small group, I headed to Salzburg by train. Alun (no I didn't mispell it), the tour guide from UK was an interesting fellow. He was not overly friendly, but had a solid knowledge of the history behind every special landmark. His delivery was somewhat drab.
We began our journey with a short city bus ride to bring us near Schloss Mirabell.The religious order governed the city back in 1772 until 1803 by Archbishop Hieronymus Graf von Colloredo. Apparently, he had a lovely mistress who bore fifteen of his bastards. At which point in time, he built her the famous Schloss Mirabel. As Alun suggested "she clearly deserved this estate!"
Parts of the well manucured garden, which are now open to the general public for the last 100 years, was used by Fraulein Maria and the Von Trapp children while they were singing Do Re Mi. The tunnel, in which the children went through still remains in the garden.
We then headed to Mozart-Wohnhaus, a building where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart resided. He lived at this site between 1773 and 1780. It is at this site that Mozart is known to have composed 'Salzburg Symphonies'. Five violin concertos, sonatas and church music were also composed at Mozart Wohnhaus.
Right next to this building, yet another famous physicist by the name of Christian Andreas Doppler. He was the first to describe,in 1842, the change in the sound wave with a passing object.
At this time, I connected with an American/Indian (Hindou) woman from Miami. Swapna and I spent the better part of the day discovering Old Town Salzburg. We tried to limit having a series of landscape pics of our trips, by taking turns taking each other's pics...a reality for solo travelers. At this point, Swapna and I left the group and began touring on our own for the next three hours. We took a funicular to the Festung Hohensalzburg Fortress, high a top a hill. We chose a nice outdoor restaurant with a view of the city and enjoyed close to a litre of water each, as the weather was hot and humid and a light fare. My salad was yummy and I can't wait to try replicating those flavors back home...grilled variety of mushrooms, on a bed of mesclun greens and a few slices of tomato, with a raspberry vinaigrette!!!
We toured the fortress,but were somewhat disappointed with the set-up of each states room...no furniture, but a series of poster boards to describe what used to be.
we made our way back, and headed to the gates of the Katakomben....sounds dreary...in other words cemeteries. However, this cemetery was special, as it was the place that influenced the directors of The Sound Of Music to film that segment where the Von Trapp Family were hiding behind tombstones while The Reverand Mother dealt with the SS.
To cool off, Swapna and I headed to Saint-Peter Kirche/Church where we observed the numerous frescos adorning the walls. Funny, on most of my trips to Europe, I make it a point to sit inside a church and embrace the peacefulness it brings me. I am going to HELL now as a Jewess, that's for sure.
At this point, Swapna and I split up to shop our separate ways. I was busy photographing the store signs, that date back to the 1800s. Toward the end of the visit, I learned that Altstadt aka Old Town (with its world famous baroque architecture) is one of the best-preserved city centres north of the Alps, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
I stopped at this Five Star confisserie to pick up what Alun said was The World Famous Salzburg's Sacher torte. The place was stuffy indeed. I tried to ask a few questions, but clearly the Austrian lady was in no mood to put up with my English banter....she was proud to speak German, that's for sure. I couldn't figure out what size I wanted...so I told her to serve another customer while I made up my mind.
This gentleman walks in and orders two miniatures and she smiles and places it in a tiny gift bag with stickers and ribbons and delivers it with a gracious smile.
When is was my turn, I politely told her I will have what he is having....she DUMPS it into a PLAIN bag, rolls the edge with her fingers and tosses it to ME!!!! It's too bad the Europeans have so much to learn from the Western Culture and it's service industry.
I hear they are in the midst of a recession....wouldn't it be nice to smile and serve GRACEFULLY???? Perhaps, it's too much for which to ask.
I met up with Alun and the group, and we made our way back to the train station to head to Munich. A full and fun day, indeed!
