SALZBURG, AUSTRIA--My friend Corrinne and I traveled to Salzburg a couple weekends ago. Most of our group traveled to Prague, but I'm really glad the two of us decided to break off and do our own thing. It is only 2.5 hours from Vienna and a one-way ticket cost us about 24Euro. The first day it rained, so we stayed mostly inside museums (including Mozart's house), churches and restauratnts. The Mozart museums/houses here were a bit odd, but interesting. It's just funny to walk through a room and see his piano, violin, portrait, another violin, jeweled ring and then a lock of his hair(?!). And then another lock of hair? Really?...more hair? The Salzburg Cathedral was the main thing of note that day. It's a baroque period cathedral among the narrow, cobble-stone, winding streets and large squares of the old town.
We stayed in a hostel. It was the first time for both of us. It was a really good deal and in a really good location. Sleeping was a little rough. The beds were hard and it was loud (plus we stupidly and unknowingly left the window open, so we listened to the street all night). The night before we bought our breakfast for the next day at Salzburg's daily market. And then that morning, we ended up buying more sweet breads and fruit because it was so good.
The next day was sunny and warm (high 30's, low 40's, no clouds). It was a good day to spend outside. We ended up going to the top of the large hill that pierces upward from the heart of the Altstadt (old city). We walked through the woods, looking down at the historic town, its green river, green meadows and surrounding snowy mountains. It was nice to leave big city life behind and explore. We walked from one side of the hill to the other. This is where the Festung Hohensalzburg (High Salzburg Fortress) is. It served as protection for the town since 1077 and is one of the largest in Europe. You can walk around in it and take a guided tour, which takes you to the top of one of the towers. From here, you can see an unblocked panoramic view of the city and the mountains. It engages you. You want to keep staring. It's an awe-inducing sight, and I'd be bold enough to say it is the most beautiful I've experienced in Europe.
To top off the trip, we did a tourist-must: The Sound of Music Tour. It's four hours long, but surprisingly really cool. It ended up being just us and two others on the huge tourbus with the driver and eccentric tour-guide (she dressed in typical male Austrian dress; green feathered hat and all). It takes you to all the places filmed in the movie and explains what/where/when/how things happened in the real-life occurences of the Von Trapps. It even goes up into the mountains and stops to show the great views (that yes, were filmed in the movie). For an hour we were able to walk around Mondsee, which is a small, old town up in the mountains. Totally tourist-oriented, and probably miserable during tourist season, but we had a great time.I have to thank my dad for sending me some information on Salzburg before I went. We improved our accomadations by switching to the hostel he sent info about. It was a short walk to both the train station and the city-center. Our original plan was to stay at a hostel that was much less convenient. And he sent us info on Steingasse, which is a medieval street with really interesting bars and restaurants (mostly missed by tourists).
