If you get our weekend newsletter on Sundays, then you already know that my daughter and I took a quick trip to Salzburg, Austria, this past weekend. Since we just arrived home today, I thought I’d share a few pictures with you.
It was rainy and pretty chilly (in the 40s mostly) but Salzburg is absolutely beautiful and of course we still had a wonderful time. It was about a 3.5 hour drive from Stuttgart, so a very easy trip. There were no crowds; I had an interesting and sad discussion with the manager of our hotel about how the tourism industry has been devastated this year by Covid-related travel restrictions. We were in a wonderful boutique hotel with just sixteen rooms and we might have been the only guests this weekend because it was very quiet. They took exceptional care of us and we will be back again!
After checking in and dropping off our bags, we grabbed coffee and a cinnamon sugar pretzel and took the funicular railroad to the top of the Hohensalzburg Fortress. The view from the top is above; the fortress itself is at the top of this photo I took from the Museum of Modern Art.
After doing a little shopping, we headed back to the hotel to change for dinner. We attended a Mozart concert and dinner in the baroque hall of St Peter’s Benedictine monastery, and both were wonderful. We shared a three-course dinner at a table with a lovely couple from Frankfurt, then enjoyed duets and arias from two opera singers and a chamber ensemble. Salzburg is home to world-class musicians and artists and they were excellent.
Food is a recurring theme in my travel posts because we are huge foodies. We typically don’t buy a lot of souvenirs, preferring to spend our travel budget on great meals instead.
The breakfast at our hotel on Sunday morning was stellar and just what we needed before braving the cold and rain for our Sound of Music tour.
Annabelle hadn’t seen the movie for quite a few years, but I’ve watched it dozens and dozens of times, so it was a real treat for me.
Typical of Hollywood, there wasn’t a single location where they filmed…the lake behind one schloss was used, then the exterior of another (they built sets in Hollywood for the interiors), etc.
This is the real “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” gazebo; however:
We also went out the Lake District to Mondsee to see the church where the Captain and Maria were married in the movie.
The tour finished up at the Mirabell Palace and Gardens (you might recognize the gardens from “Do Re Mi.”
Then we grabbed coffee in at Cafe Fürst, along with some famous Mozartkugel (Mozart balls), and then felt sufficiently revitalized to hit the Dom Quartier and Cathedral.
We also went back to St Peter’s (where we attended the Mozart dinner and concert the night before) to walk through the cemetery and catacombs.
Our sightseeing day ended at the Museum of Modern Art. We had initially intended to also stop into see Mozart’s birthplace, but decided an hour of downtime at the hotel before dinner was necessary. We ate dinner at our hotel; the restaurant has a Michelen star and was absolutely delicious. In case you’re wondering, I had their signature fried chicken and Annabelle had their autumnal market salad; we shared Salzburg’s famous Nockerl (a sweet soufflé) for dessert.
We headed home this morning; the weather was still yucky and while it was a school holiday for Columbus Day, my daughter is right in the middle of college essays and applications, so she wanted a few hours to work. It’s such an easy drive that we’ll most certainly be back again soon.
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen goodbye!
