Downtown Salzburg

Having arrived into Salzburg in the late afternoon, I still had ample time to begin exploring the city after an early dinner.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the downtown core was very compact and easily walkable.  Prior to arriving into the city, I had seen maps that indicated Public Square after Public Square and I was imagining huge, massive squares, like the ones I’d seen in Madrid.  However, each of these squares were actually quite small  and you could easily walk through the entire downtown core within 15-20 minutes (without stopping).

The first place I passed by was Mozartplatz where the famous Mozart Statue stood.
 

I then proceeded to walk through a maze of tiny side streets until I found the base of the Cable Car Station, where I knew I could ride up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress.  The view from the top was amazing, with the exception of the grey skies that hovered over the city.

Aside from the Fortress, there were cafes, restaurants, museums and possibly even residences at the top.  Because I arrived right before closing, there weren’t too many people around and after spending a few minutes inside the puppet museum, I was told that they were closing for the day.  The puppet museum had quite a few different displays, including one for the Von Trapp family from the Sound of Music.

After walking around a bit longer, I decided to descend back down to the bottom of the hill as everything was closed and there really wasn’t much else to see.  You can either take the same cable car back down the hill, or you could walk down in about 15 minutes.  I decided to try walking down as I saw quite a few people doing the same.  The path was quite steep at some places, and you also had to share it with cars!

Unfortunately, once you get half way down the hill, the path splits into 2 and there aren’t any signs with a clear indication of which way you are supposed to go.  I think both likely lead you down the hill, but I followed the left path, which (very quickly) led me to a set of stairs and eventually back down to the entrance of where the cable car station is.  From there, it turned out to just be a few paces to Kapitelplatz, which is where Stiftsbäckerei St Peter, the oldest bakery in Salzburg is located.  Unfortunately, the bakery was already closed and I’d have to visit it again another day.

I continued onto Domplatz, which was just a few steps away.  By this time, everything was closed and the sky was starting to get dark, so I decided to leave the rest of the exploring for the morning.

The next morning, I started my first full day in Salzburg by visiting Schloss Mirabell.  I was disappointed to find out that the Marble Hall wasn’t open to the public, as that was the main reason I had wanted to visit this place.  I did find the Mozart University, but there really wasn’t much to see there as it looked exactly like any other post-secondary institution would.  Schloss Mirabell was relatively crowded compared to the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which I had visited the night before. 

From Schloss Mirabell, it was a short 2 stop bus ride down to the Linzergasse area.  I came across a few groups of tourists all gathered around this yellow building taking pictures, and it turns out that I had stumbled upon Mozart’s Geburtshaus, which I had the intention of visiting later that afternoon.  Since I was already there, I decided to take a look around inside.

They didn’t allow photos inside, but the museum had 2 levels filled with information about Mozart and his family.  One of the most memorable parts of the museum is seeing the room where Mozart was born.  Big bold letters were sprawled across one of the walls indicating that it was the room in which Mozart was born in.  It was quite a surreal feeling to realize that this amazing person was born in that very room in 1756.

I had signed up for an hour long Salzburg Cruise, mainly because it was included in the price of my Salzburg Card.  The boarding point was right next to the Makart Bridge where lover’s locks lined the fence.  This was the first non-Asian place I had seen these locks.

I ended up on a cruise with a Korean elementary school class, so it made for quite a noisy experience.  Aside from that, the cruise was really not the most exciting thing as you were just sitting there while the boat traveled down the Salzburg River. All the seats were inside and there wasn’t much commentary at all.  I would not have done it if it wasn’t complimentary.

After a brief stop for a quick meal, I ended up at the Christmas Museum near Mozartplatz.  I have always known that Christmas seems to take on a whole different meaning for Europeans and one of the things on my bucket list is to visit Europe during the Christmas season.  It really is truly amazing to see the deep meaning behind it versus the commercialized version that seems to be in place nowadays.  The admission was also included in the cost of the Salzburg Card.

It was finally time to visit the Residenzplatz, perhaps the most famous of Salzburg’s attractions.  An admission ticket would grant you access to the Salzburg cathedral as well as many other buildings within the complex.  Unfortunately, photos were not permitted again, so I don’t have anything to show for the time there aside from some exterior photos.  It was a very large complex and thankfully wasn’t too crowded when I was there.  I did get stuck behind a big tour group though and as there is only one path to follow in parts of the building, it was sometimes difficult to get past the crowds. 

Next to Residenzplatz is Kapitelplatz where the oldest bakery in Europe is located.  The bakery’s entrance is a bit hidden, as once you find the sign, there isn’t a clear indication of how to enter.  There is a set of stairs leading down with a big door and it did turn out to be the bakery.  They only had a handful of buns left for the day and the bun I purchased was sweet, and reminded me of the sweet breads I used to eat in Asia.  I would definitely go back to Stiftsbäckerei St Peter to try the other ones they had if I were to visit Salzburg again.

It was already getting late in the afternoon, so I decided to take the bus to Schloss Hellbrunn to see if I could join a tour of the Trick Fountains.  When I arrived, there was about 30 minutes before the next tour, so I decided to explore the palace first.  A free audio guide is included with the entrance, so I made good use of that to learn more about the palace and the history of the area. 

You can only visit the Trick Fountains as part of a tour, and the first part of the tour consisted of a story about dinner guests being invited to the gardens, and the host playing a trick on them by turning on the fountains when everyone was seated at the dinner table.  I can’t imagine many people would be happy with dining in wet clothes after that!  Thankfully the guide warned us before he turned the water on and also asked for specific volunteers who wouldn’t mind getting wet.

We moved on to other parts of the garden and water would sprout from everywhere, including antlers!  Unfortunately, shortly after the tour began, rain started to fall heavily and we were drenched from head to toe, even without the trick fountains turning on.

The Trick Fountains concluded a full day of sightseeing in Salzburg.  The city is absolutely beautiful and not as crowded as some of the other larger European cities which made for a pleasant surprise.