Ah, Salzburg. The land of Mozart and the Sound of Music. The hills are alive and all that. One of my favourite cities in the world - when the sun's shining, at least.
I have been to Salzburg many times on day trips while on holiday in Austria, but until recently had not actually stayed there (though it was only for 3 days). Unfortunately the weather for those three days was not kind, but this did give me the impetus to explore more of what the city itself had to offer.
You can't move in Salzburg without being reminded that it's the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - although the city spurned him while he was alive. One place that is definitely worth visiting is the Mozart Residenz (Mozart's Residence), which contains some fascinating information on about his father Leopold (who held the post of Assistant Court Musician and also sold pianos & harpsichords from his home) and sister "Nanerl", who was herself a talented composer and violinist (though she never received the acclaim of her younger brother), and who remained Wolfgang's best friend throughout his short life. Indeed, the tale told in this house is as much of familial tragedy as it is of musical genius; Mozart's mother died while he was in Paris trying, unsuccessfully, to earn a living writing the music that he loved; Leopold despaired at his son's recklessness, Nanerl had to marry a much older man who she didn't love and forsake the man she did; Mozart himself was tormented by personal demons and the heartache he caused his family, and both Mozart and Nanerl, while touring as child prodigies, suffered nearly fatal illness. There are of course lighter touches, such as the family's obsession with target shooting with air rifles (indoors!), and rather coarse sense of humour that young Mozart displayed in his designs for the targets. The commentary provided (on personal players so you can take it all at your own pace) is interesting and well structured, and of course punctuated by Mozart's music, including some played on the traditional instruments on display at the residence. Mozart Geburtshaus (Mozart's birthplace) is much less interesting, and only really worth a visit if a/ you are a dedicated fan, or b/ if you have a Salzburg Pass.
More of that later.
Other places worth seeing are the palace residences, which feature some of the most gorgeous and well preserved surroundings I've ever seen, and the HoenSalzburg, Europe's oldest completely intact fortress, which dominates the surroundings wherever you are in Salzburg. The tour is interesting, showing you how the fortress was altered by successive Archbishops, how Salzburg developed from a small settlement to a thriving town (much of the wealth of the area was due to the nearby salt mines), how the borders with nearby Bavaria have altered over the years, etc. One nice thing about the fortress is that, although there is a "Torture Room" there, it is only called so because the instruments of torture were kept there - as far as official record goes, no-one was ever actually tortured there, since it was not an "instrument of court". Also of note is that in the large banquet room (which is now used for official functions and concerts), where one of the huge supporting columns was actually hit by a cannonball - you can still see where it impacted - but was so strong that all it did was take a chip out of the column! You ride up to the fortress in a fernicular (cable railway) - though it's a very short ride. (You can walk if you really want!) For those who are interested in marionettes (puppets), there is a museum in there and a theatre that still plays occasionally - though unless you have a Salzburg card it's definitely not worth the money to go the Marionette museum.
So what is this Salzburg Card that I keep going on about? It's a card that gives you free access to several attractions (once only to each place) and the buses / trams, along with discounts for several other places. The costs are:
Prices: Jan 1 - June 15, 2004 and Sep 16 - Dec 31, 2004 Hours Adults Children (6-15 Years)
Which is very reasonable considering the number of places you can go to. If you're planning to actually see a lot of the city and its sights while you're here, you'll definitely save money by getting this card. You can book it online at http://www.salzburginfo.at - (which also contains a lot of other useful info about Salzburg), but every hotel should have them too. The deal gets even better if you have it for 2 or 3 days - you might be rushing around a bit to make sure it saves you money if you just go for the one day pass (though it's still worth it), but with the 3-day pass you'd have a hard job not to save money with it! (Between 6 of us, I think we saved about 100 Euros altogether - though it would have been more if the weather had been nicer and we'd been a little better organised.) Among the places you can go is the Steigl World (Steigl are Austria's largest beer producer) - it normally costs 9 Euros but is free with the card. You get a breqery/museum - relatively interesting - a gift (glass or bottle of beer), two free (small) beers, and a freshly baked pretzel. Great value for free! (Incidentally, you must try the "Paracelcus" beer while you're there - I'm not much of a beer drinker but I could drink a lot of that one!) You can also do the river cruise, which unfortunately was not running while we were there because the river level became too high (the river in Salzburg is the Green Inne, a tributary of the Blue Danube). Another place well worth a visit is the famous water gardens at Helnsbrug, which were designed by a mischievous Archbishop who was fed up of being the political pawn of manipulative princes - so he designed it so that water would jet up from (among other places) their seats at the dinner table - and custom was that no-one (not even a Prince) was allowed to rise from the table before the Archbishop!! The nearby Alpine Zoo is nice too, and the animals seemed to be kept in much better conditions than in many zoos. (This is from memory as I didn't manage to get to the zoo or water gardens on this trip, but I have been before.) There is
Pictures of Salzburg (Austria)
When the sun's shining. the scenery's amazing...
also a folklore museum (though I was rather disappointed with this), a toy museum (not bad but nothing amazing), and two others that I didn't see - a natural history museum, and a folk costume museum. The really nice thing about the Salzburg card is that it gives you the option to visit places that you'll go through really quickly and you won't feel cheated - for instance, paying 5 Euros to see the Mozart Geburtshaus or 3 to see the Marionette museum is not exactly value for money! Getting free access to the excellent public transport system is also terrific.
If you want to go to a concert, there are several available, including dinner concerts - but be prepared to pay around 50 Euros each for them. We went to one in a hotel, which was quite nice - but I thought it could have been better. They served an authentic menu including what was supposedly Mozart's favourite dessert - I have my doubts about that, but it was quite nice! Again, your hotel or rep will have details of the various concerts available, and there are some cheaper ones available at slightly odd times.
Salzburg is more expensive than most places I've been to in Austria, but even then it isn't as expensive as London or Paris. As far as food goes, there's a good mix of different types of restaurant, though surprisingly there doesn't seem to be all that many of them. If you're feeling a little adventurous try one of the gigantic pretzels sold in the old town square (underneath the entrance to HoenSalzburg) - it was hilarious seeing a little boy carrying away a pretzel that was bigger than he was (though not as big as his grin!). Some of the places frequented by locals don't seem very interested in attracting tourists - though that's just one more reason to search them out! (You may get some unfriendly looks from the yokels, but just ignore them.) The old town itself is a wonderful place to walk round in the sun, and I have many fond memories of it - but sadly this time, the sun did not have its hat on and was most definitely not about to come out and play. Which is one of the two main reasons I am only giving it a 4-star rating - it's a bit miserable in bad weather, which is quite a frequent occurrence. I know bad weather makes anywhere less attractive, but when you've seen the beautiful Mirrabel Gardens in the sun, and then in the rain there's just no comparison.
The other reason I'm not giving it 5 stars (much as I love the city), is that of the many things there are to do and see if the weather's not too good, not many of them actually left me feeling impressed. The palace residences and the Mozart residence are definitely worth seeing, as is the fortress - though many things actually inside the fortress were disappointing. The water gardens and zoo (and, I suspect, the river cruise) are great - but they are great in good weather. Steigl World is well worth a visit if you like beer. The Untersberg mountain cable car would have been a wonderful thing to go on (unless you don't like heights - I hear it's a bit hair-rasing!) - but when the weather's as bad as it was when we were there, you wouldn't be able to see anything. (Kudos to the staff there for actually telling us that - they could have just taken our money and let us be disappointed - it's not free with the Salzburg Card but you get a discount.) The fairly nearby salt mines in Berchasgarden are very well worth a visit if you get a chance.
Overall, Salzburg in the sunshine is a very beautiful city, but in the rain it really suffers, more so than most cities. It's still a great place to go, but the Tirolean capital of Innsbruck holds up much better in poor weather than Salzburg. If you can see it in the sun you'll fall in love with it.
Well, there you have it. I hope you found this review enjoyable and informative! If you didn't, tell me, and I'll see what I can do
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Apr 30th, 2005
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