I have been to Salzburg several times, and each time I find it a great little city. But to be honest, I have never spent an extended period of time here. Further, apart from touring the birthplace of Mozart, I have not done any of the touristy things. When we come to Salzburg, we are with college musicians and the focus is on performing and music history. This time it is about discover the city!
I know it is cliché, but yet again Sarah worked a miracle in terms of housing. We have an apartment in a historic building in the center of the old town. I have never stayed in Salzburg at such a perfect location. It does have one minor challenge, and that is that we are staying on the fourth floor of a building built in the 1300s and there is no elevator, and the stairs are steep and made of stone. We got a workout moving in, and every time we walk back up the stairs, we feel it.
We have decided to really make the most of this visit and even watched some travel shows to see what “tourist” things we might not know we should do (and eat/drink). For example, one of the reasons I initially wanted to return to Munich was so I could celebrate my birthday at Hofbräuhaus (I love their beer and the vibe inside). But now that we decided on Saltzburg, I can do The Augustiner Bräustübl! We watched Samantha Brown visit this spot where you grab your own mug (ONE LITER!!), wash it in cold water, and then hand it to a person who fills it with beer. It is a huge place with indoor and outdoor seating, great beer, and amazing food sold by different specialty food stands inside the brewery. If it were not a half hour walk from our house, I could have eaten there all week! I had both their standard house beer and the special Lent Bier. Those monks know how to do lent!
One day we decided to take the funicular up to the fortress that protects the city. This is again a place I have never visited before. The ride up was fun (really quick) and the self-guided tour of the fortress was informative. I personally loved the views most of all. As a person who loves snow and cold there is nothing like looking out onto the Alps. We took a lot of pictures and then hiked back down into the city and did more wandering around the streets.
We don’t watch much tv at home, but on this trip we have occasionally done a family night with a movie or documentary related to wherever we are going. One night I suggested we watch the movie version of The Sound of Music. I love von Trapp Beer and Sarah and I have spent some happy times at their brewery in Vermont. Believe it or not, I am pretty convinced that before this trip I had never watched the movie version from beginning to end. So, one night we did takeout and watched the musical. At intermission Tommy and I ran downstairs to buy some authentic hand-made Mozartkugel. And after we were done watching, we booked The Sound of Music Tour!
The Sound of Music Tour is a bit dorky, and they work hard to find four hours’ worth of places to go, but it was a lot of fun. We loved seeing so many locations from the movie and listening to the real story of the von Trapps (I am now reading a new book about them). I also realized the tour was a good decision because it took us out of Salzburg and into Upper Austria where we visited lake-side village where we had performed the Mozart Coronation Mass with the Castleton Chorale twenty years ago! And where the older ladies of the village had asked to do homemade apple schnapps with Sarah! Aww the memories….
We learned they used two houses. The yellow one for the front and the white for the back patio and the water scenes.
We have thought a lot about our various musical tours trips over the last few months. And while we were in that nostalgic mood we had dinner at the Stiegl restaurant at the base of the cliff under the fortress. This restaurant is where we had our first dinner in Salzburg with the Bangor Seminary Festival Chorus! The place has not changed (except they no longer have green beans and bacon)! And in fact, we liked it so much we ate there a couple of times this week.
This restaurant is alsonwhere we did another tourist thing: We ordered the famous Salzburger Nockerl! This is a souffle with three or four peaks covered in powdered sugar. It is supposed to represent the snow-covered peaks around the city. We had it with the optional raspberry sauce. It was a decadent splurge!
Mozart is everywhere in Salzburg and we had to make sure Tommy got his fill of Mozart sights. We took him to see Salzburg Cathedral (Salzburger Dom) where Mozart was baptized and I gave my European debut as a conductor. We were even able to take in an organ concert where they demonstrated three of the seven cathedral organs. We of course toured Mozart’s birthplace, and Tommy and Sarah gave me a Mozart Duck for my jeep collection. So when you add all the Mozart candy, there is no question we celebrated this being the land of Mozart!
We have gotten to know Salzburg much better through this visit, but the time has gone by far too quickly. We don’t want to leave, but we are due in Stuttgart, Germany to prepare for the big Unconditional Love Festival. And while I am sad to leave, I am very excited to conduct the upcoming festival chorus and orchestra!
See you in Stuttgart for the festival!
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