Salzburg, Austria

Mozart's birthplace

Salzburg, birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and filming location of The Sound of Music. This was our next stop. Our first two days were much cooler than we had seen and wetter. We had light rain our first day. It was drier our second but still overcast. Our last two days were mostly sunny and warmer, which was nice, but the weather was changing again by the time we left. Needed our jackets for this part of our trip.


We spent most of our time in the Old City Center. I found this area very interesting. The historical sites and churches were here. There were narrow streets with open courtyards, tall buildings with openings in them (like allies) leading from one street to another, shops everywhere. You could just imagine what it might have been like in the 17th and 18th centuries. The whole area is looked down on by the Hohensalzburg Fortress up on the hill.














One of the big churches in Old City is Salzburg Cathedral. The current building was consecrated in 1628 after the first church, built in 774, was demolished by fire.




There was a Volksfest over the weekend so the square in front of the church looked like this (left) the first day we were there and like this (right) the second. Glad we were there before all the festival tents went up, even if it was rainy.




Collegiate Church is also right by that square. It is being renovated so isn't actually an active church at this time but was gorgeous inside, as all the churches were.

We toured Festung Hohensalzburg, which is the fortress on the hill overlooking Salzburg. You get there on a tram that goes up the steep hill. The fortress began in 120 AD and was extended many times over the centuries to protect the area from outsiders. The fortress was never overtaken by enemies. It had lots of stairs to get to the top of the towers and had some great views of Salzburg below.

walking the original battlements

stairs up to the top

tram up to the fortress

We also walked up another set of endless stairs to get to Kapuziner Kloster at the top of another hill. Views were great and the weather was clearing a bit when we did this climb.

finally at the top

Mirabell Schloss gardens were used for some of the outside scenes for The Sound of Music.

We went to the Salzburg
Marionette Theater but they didn't have any matinees. We decided against repeating the 2.6 mile round trip walk to go to an evening performance. There was a Marionette Museum in the Hohensalzburg Fortress, though. They had some great displays of marionettes.

We enjoyed several pastry pretzels while we were here, also. Delicious!

This is a weather station that tells the barometric pressure, the time, and the temperature. It is a few hundred years old.










This is a dirndl clothing store. Rather unique. The picture to the right is one of the squares in City Center. Not sure what it is to represent but it is definitely different. We saw some great things and had a great time.