Beattys Overseas

Salzburg is known for number of things. I'll go through them in order of how I, as short-term visitor, perceived them chronologically:

1. It's a STORYBOOK village, this place.  Seriously.  And, we've been here for 9 days, so it's not just our immediate romantic reaction to all the prettiness.  Salzburg is clean. With the exception of the occasional graffiti, it seems crime-free and very safe.  The townspeople are extremely friendly and more than willing to chat with two nice American tourists like us.  Just cruising the historic old city, we would find a little passageway that would lead onto another adorable street with shops and street vendors.  Oh yes, the street vendors.  Oh, yum.  The big drink here is the gluhwein, a hot mulled-wine-type drink.  Gluhwein is served on the streets from little makeshift counters, or from the street vendors who can sell you a snack or a week's worth of groceries.  Add this to the Christmas market mangers, and the place is a strollers' paradise.  Occasionally, we'd catch ourselves walking in our New York City super-fast pace, and we'd be passing people left and right who were doing the Salzburg stroll.  The buildings are so beautiful and even if you're not up for shopping (like us), window-shopping can be just as fun when walking along the narrow, store-lined arcades that connect to Getreidegasse, Austria's most beautiful shopping street. Intricate, beautifully decorative wrought iron signs, originally designed as a means identifying, for illiterate citizens, the wares sold within or the name of the owner, overhang the street.

A straw Santa and Whit2. Salzbug LOVES Christmas. The Advent season, preparing for Noel, is really adorable and old-fashioned here. In the Alstadt historic area of town, little wooden mangers are set up all over the sidewalks and streets with vendors selling Christmas ornaments, homemade baked goods, winter clothing and a few handmade vases. It’s all very pretty stuff, and none of it seemed over-the-top Christmasy. No reindeer cartoon stuff, no fat Santa stuffed animals. Come to think of it, Santa isn’t too visible here at all. With the exception of the life-size straw Santa that Whitney sat with, his presence isn’t as pronounced as it is in the States. For me, a lover of all things Christmas, it's been a great way to feel the warmth of the holidays while on the road. Plus, in this storybook city, it feels more special than the corner aisle at Walmart selling jinglebell necklaces.

3. The birthplace of Mozart. From the moment we got here, we see him everywhere. We obviously didn’t buy any of it, but believe us when we tell you that Mozart coffeemugs, Mozart T-shirts, Mozart candies, Mozart wrapping paper and Mozart bookbags sell like hotcakes around here. He's the hometown hero, being born here and living until he started touring Europe as a child prodigy. He returned multiple times throughout his career to play for the Prince-Archbishop and other concerts.
Mozart concert in the Fortress

We visited his birthplace museum, which was well-done, as the curators really used artistry to convey the importance of the place with strategic lighting, sound effects, etc. It was unlike other birthplace museums which try to keep the property in the exact form of the person’s time. Interesting. We also attended a gorgeous Mozart concert at The Fortress, atop Monschberg. It was a lovely evening in such a unique setting with 3 violins, a cello, a bass, a harp and a flute playing such gorgeous melodies.

Salzburg Cathedral4.  City of Churches. Salzburg is home to more than 20 Churches. The history of the city is well etched within the walls of these different religious buildings. From St Peter's Monastery, Cemetery & Catacombs dating from the early 13th century to the Dom (Cathedral) which was rebuilt and extended after many disasters throughout history since year 774 when it was first consecrated, to many many more. Their towers and domes have a strong presence over the cityscape, which is hugged by the Fortress and Castle on Moenschberg.

4a. The Churches are among many buildings in Salzburg which exemplify some of the most perfect Baroque architecture we've seen in Europe. It's called the city of High Baroque in certain circles, and now I know why. The Residenz, arguably the most important historic building of Salzburg, is a Baroque palace that was the official residence of the Prince Archbishops of Salzburg until it was secularised and became part of Austria. We toured the Residenz (est. 1600) with an excellent audio guide, and took tons of photos of the amazing rooms where the royal bishops slept and held court, including private concerts with Mozart.  

Our Salt Mine Tour commemorative photo5. Salzburg = Salt Hill. Salzburg and the surrounding area became very wealthy in the 16th century with the discovery of salt in the mountains.  Salt deposits were formed by the sea 250 million years ago, and over the course of many years, the formation of the Alps enclosed the salt in solid rock.  Under the reign of Salzburg lord Wolf Dietrich, over 36,000 tons of salt per year were mined our of Durrnberg mountain, making the Salzburg empire extremely wealthy.  We took a day trip to Bad Durrnberg, to tour the salt mine, which officially stopped operating in 1989.  The tour took us 210 meters below ground, by pit railway and by slide (see Our Photos – so fun!).  Traditional mining methods were not fast enough for the greed of Wolf Dietrich, so the miners during his time began using water to bring more salt out of the rock more quickly.  This salt water, known as a brine, sits under the mine is a huge brine lake, which we crossed over on a large raft during the tour.  The brine is 27% salt – compare that to ocean water, which is 3% salt, and you can imagine how it might taste –ick.  John did taste it (everyone was offered the opportunity) and can confirm that it was indeed "salty".  It was a fascinating tour (we didn’t expect it to be so educational AND entertaining, honestly), and – as long as you’re not claustrophobic – it was extremely fun. 

- Whitney