Salzburg, 1982

Salzburg

14th April, Hamburg
Yesterday we were up and out very early as our train left at 7.55 a.m. We spent most of the day travelling, and the further south we got the warmer it became, to the extent that my second jersey can now go back in the suitcase again! We had an Australian couple and an American with us as far as Copenhagen – pleasant people.


Changing trains at Copenhagen heading for Hamburg.

We changed trains at Copenhagen and had our compartment to ourselves until Lubeck when a German woman who lives in Switzerland joined us. We chatted and found her very pleasant, informed and interested, and she has invited us to phone her when we pass through Zurich to spend a night with her and her husband. We intend to take her up on her offer! We arrived in Hamburg just after 10 p.m. and were very lucky as the first pension we came to had a room for 60 DM, which is what we had expected to pay. Next we are on to Munich which we should reach at 4.30 p.m.

14th April, train to Munich
After a bit of shopping in Hamburg we caught this train, a VERY fast inter-city train. We've worked out that we're doing about 150km/hr. Everything is just whizzing by. The countryside really is looking lovely, now just outside Hannover. We're going so fast that you can SEE spring happening: every half hour or so you suddenly notice more trees out and greener grass, and I've just spotted one of the first rhododendrons out. We'll post this in Munich. The Australians yesterday gave us The Times to read and it has a bit about a grenade attack in Bulawayo. April 18th, evening in Salzburg Last night in Munich we stood ourselves to half a fried chicken, bought from a take-away place, a slice of gateau each and a small bottle of wine. I'm not sure what we were celebrating, but it went down well! We took a walk in Munich and what we could remember most distinctly about it from our last visit was how cold it was! We noted the various shops we had dived into on previous walks just to spend five minutes warming up.
 
A remarkable thing happened this morning when we left Munich - our train was 20 minutes late leaving the station! That is something the simply never seems to happen on the Continent. The delay was caused by an incoming train that had to connect with ours. Needless to say we got to Salzburg on time, somehow! The journey was yet another which we thoroughly enjoyed. The mountains, all capped with snow, suddenly appeared about an hour before we got to Salzburg.


Salzburg from the Salzach River.

My passport was very carefully examined by the Austrians and so it was just as well that we spent the £5 in London getting a visa. Salzburg is, as we expected, rather cooler than Munich, which was very mild. Surprisingly, however, spring is really underway here. Blossom trees and bulbs are looking lovely. At the station in Salzburg we were met by Mr Schmidhuber, offering us an incredibly cheap room which turned out to be really very comfortable. His house is in a very quiet part of Salzburg, just off the river running through the city (the Salzach) and he has a lovely garden with spring flowers in it. We also have a balcony off our room. All this, with breakfast, for only Z$15 , double.


Balcony of our room at the Schmidhuber's.

On the strength of this we decided to spend two nights in Salzburg. After settling in we packed our lunch and set off immediately to find the booking office for two concerts I had seen advertised. We had lunch in a beautiful park (saw a woman taking her CAT for a walk on a lead) and then off to the booking office - a big disappointment as both concerts were sold out, and no others on during our stay here. In our walk this afternoon we took in most of the city. It really is enchanting. The formal Mirabell Gardens at the Schloss Mirabell in the centre of the city were beautiful.


Getreidgasse in Salzburg.


View of the Old City, Salzburg.


Mirabell Gardens.

We also saw one of the houses Mozart lived in, and his birthplace, but didn't manage to get into either. Unfortunately the main Mozart museum, the Mozarteum, is open only in the summer. There are some beautiful churches in the old part of the city and we looked over three of them: the University Church, the Franciscan and the Dom.


Statue in the Horse Pond, not far from University Church.


Wilder-Mann-Brunnen statue outside University Church.


The Altar in Franziskaner Kirche.


Towers of the Dom.


Fountain and Glockenspiel Tower in Residenzplaz adjacent to the Dom.

Then we took a funicular tram (the FestungsBahn) up to the Festung Hohensalzburg (Fortress) which overlooks the city. This fort dates from 1077, but what is most impressive about it is the view of Salzburg.


View of Salzburg from Festung Hohensalzburg.

We were quite horrified (or impressed?) to see how far we had walked (and therefore still had to walk to get back!) and decided to go directly home from there, walking along the river bank.

16th April, Salzburg
We decided to go to Innsbruck today via the scenic route through the Tyrol mountains. As our train left at only 11.25 a.m. we made our way to Mozart's birthplace and went into the museum there.


Market outside Mozart's birthplace.

I, of course, was in my element. They have quite a few letters and a few scores of Mozart's on display, as well as almost all of the supposed portraits of Mozart, which all look totally different from each other! Also his viola, piano and two of his violins. We then went to St Peters where his sister, Nannerl, is buried, but didn't find her grave.

Then back to the station where we caught the Schnellzug to Innsbruck. It certainly was not very schnell as it took us four hours to go 200 km. But it was breathtakingly beautiful, mostly going along valleys with huge alps towering above on either side.


On the train from Salzburg to Innsbruck.


St Johann in Tyrol.


View of the Tyrol at Innsbruck.

The houses were very pretty with their wooden balusters and their flowers. Spring really is on the way: on the way there, the Zeller See at Zell am See was covered in ice, but on the way back practically all the ice had melted - Innsbruck was really warm! We could spend only half an hour there as we discovered that there was only one train back, so we had to catch it. It was the slow train again, but the scenery was so lovely that we didn't mind seeing it all again, and the sunset was lovely.

18th April, Zurich
On our last day in Salzburg we took another look at the Old City, which really is charming. We went to Mozartplaz and Papagenoplaz (Papageno being one of the characters in The Magic Flute) and then on to an old church, Sebastiansfriedhof, where Paracelsus the alchemist is buried, and where the tombstones of Mozart's wife, mother and father can be found.


Mozart in the Mozartplaz.


Papageno.


Gravestones of Mozart's mother, father, wife and in-laws.


Hohensalzburg Fort, Glockenspiel Tower and Dom Church.

Then back to the station to catch the train to Zurich.

 


On to Zurich

 

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