Salzburg!
We booked the ticket with Ryanair about a month ago on a whim and a sale. Salzburg was, as far as we knew, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the shooting location of "The Sound of Music".
We arrived on a Friday evening, and the second we stepped off of the airplane noticed two very major things: first, the fresh air and the sun and second, mountains!! (We had also known this in advance, i guess that it just hadn't registered.)
Salzburg is, to beat a cliché to death, breathtaking. Everything is extremely....verdant, and there are mountains in the distance, a real live castle on the hill and...everything inbetween. The weather stayed perfect the entire time we were there: around 22 and sunny. i even got a bit of a tan to cover the palour that is Belgium-induced.
We hiked the hill in the middle of town several times. First to see the fortress, Hohensalzburg, former home of the Archbishop-princes of Salzburg and apparently the only fortress in Europe never to be taken by force (though they also appear to have been very creative in their neutrality, if i heard the audio-guide right). Also to hike the hills, see the views and visit Nonnberg, Maria's abbey from The Sound of Music. The hill was an excellent sunning rock for some very human lizards.
On Sunday morning, Anna and i rented bikes and rode, we estimate, 18Km through some very picturesque countryside, all the way to the foot of a mountain. On the way back, stopping at small café before returning the bikes, we encountered some of the nicest people ever--the café was empty, so the proprietor and the waitress were very helpful as we all tried to break the language barrier somehow and we ended up getting glasses of sparkling wine on the house.
As it was the weekend of Apple Strudel, we indulged in as many forms as possible: pretzl, cookie and the real live delicious thing. Not to be missed!
Also, i went to a Mozart concert on Sunday night--a string quartet who played (of course) Eine Kleine Nacht Music and then Schubert and Beethoven (i was too stingy to buy a program and am going by the poster). It was fabulous, and in the Marble Hall of the Schlossmirabelle, a Baroque (i think) style palace with beautifully manicured gardens. The hall was, as the name suggests, done all in Marble and embellished with gold and stone carvings of cherubs. It might sound typical but was exactly what fits in that kind of concert situation.
The hostel was also one of the many, many high points of the this city, possibly because the last few hostels i have stayed in have not been superb (but hey, they're hostels, so there is no sense in complaining), but this one was extremely clean, comfortable and bright with a large common area, a flat screen TV that showed The Sound of Music every night at 8pm and an astonishing array of food at the included breakfast. i won't go into detail because that's weird, but i was very impressed. Also, we ended up making 4 new friends in 3 days, which must be a record. 2 Irish boys, an Australian girl and a boy from San Fransisco who were all extremely personable and fun to hang out with. Is it the weather that makes everyone so friendly? Or good karma saved up for this weekend? i don't know. Anyways, hopefully the pictures attest to what a wonderful time we had and how i now desperately want to go back to Salzburg and how i want to see if they have a music school that does exchanges. |