Mozart's Town: Stairs, stairs, and more stairs! (May 28th-30th)

On Saturday, May 28th, we took a train from Fulda to Salzburg, Austria. This town is best known as the birthplace and residence of Mozart and as the site where The Sound of Music was filmed. We spent most of Saturday traveling and finding our hotel. We had no problems with the trains, but once we arrived in Salzburg we had a little trouble with the busses. After a while of roaming around looking for our hotel, a fellow American overheard our conversation and offered to help us find the right bus. We were so glad to have some help from someone who spoke English and knew the town very well. (She is from California, but has been studying music in Salzburg since September.) Once we found our hotel most of the day was gone so we had dinner, walked around part of the town, and then relaxed for the rest of the night.

On Sunday we got an early start and followed a walking tour that we had found online which directed us to all of the major sites of Salzburg which consisted of an array of churches, gardens, fountains, and museums. We ended up doing a lot of hiking so that we could see the views from atop the mountains that surround Salzburg. There were walking paths up to the top of the mountains but it was not an easy walk... the whole way consisted almost entirely of stairs. We probably ended up hiking up and back down several thousand stairs on Saturday because we observed the view from three different locations in the mountains. The most impressive of the views was from Hohensalzburg Castle.

We had found all the sites on our tour on Sunday, so we spent most of Monday browsing through stores and relaxing. Then we took an evening train back to Fulda.

Fun Fact: Stores close by 6pm on Saturday night in Salzburg and they remain closed for all of Sunday. (ok, maybe this one's not fun haha... it was rather unfortunate for us actually.)

We have a flight to Ireland this evening (Wednesday, June 1st) and we will be there for a week before heading to Scotland.

Happy 19th Birthday to my little brother, Jeffrey!

-Brooke

Us with Salzburg's most famous citizen, Mozart.

Marina with the view of the river taken from a monastery in the mountains

Me with the view from Hohensalzburg Castle

The house where Mozart was born

The house where Mozart lived before moving away from Salzburg

Schloss Mirabel and part of the garden