Thursday 17 August 2000. After last night, raindrops on noses are not quite one of my favourite things! However I'm prepared to forgive and forget when faced with such a beautiful morning with early morning mist against the mountains and the prospect of a day in Salzburg - the city of The Sound of Music.
We've walked a bit further than usual after breakfast and before the coach leaves and we found the walkers about to board the little train for Zell-am-See.
Coaches are not allowed into Salzburg, except to drop off and pick up at pre-arranged times. John and Keith deliver us into the hands of local guide, Margarethe. After three people though she drops them and asks the drivers, "Please just leave them on the pavement..."
She takes us on a walking tour of the city for almost an hour. She sets off at quite a ridiculously fast pace and soon we are strung out in a long straggly line as we stop to take photos or find it difficult to keep up. Apart from anything else, Salzburg is crowded and we are not sure if the people we are following can see anyone from the coach in front of them or whether we are just wandering aimlessly...
For some reason there were fibreglass cows all over the place, painted in different designs.
Saltzburg has many squares, as we shall see once we get up to the castle! The cathedral stands in a square and a huge stadium had been erected for a concert. There was no way I could take a single photo of it from top to bottom as you couldn't stand far enough back. I took three and have stitched them together.
There are no less than five organs in the cathedral, all of which must be played seperately. The largest, high above the entrance at the back was played only for notable occasions, whilst Mozart himself was not averse to twiddling the ivories of one of the others. He was born in Salzburg and we were to see his birthplace a little later in the tour.
If you watch The Sound of Music You will find a troupe of von Trappers traipsing through this very arch. The only thing we found going through it though was a horse and carriage - but quite splendidly adorned with a miniskirt... In fact there are not many references in Salzburg to The Sound of Music at all. Hollywood has one take on the story. The Austrians perhaps have a different perspective on it.
Hang on a minute, the gang have stopped whilst Margarethe explains something. I couldn't hear her half the time and gave up after a while. Not a von Trapp in sight... Margarethe: please start at the very beginning...
Here's a flight of stairs at the side of a courtyard that may be familiar from the concert sequence in The Sound of Music. It's not in the castle however (which we shall see in the next article).
We come to a large square where a thriving market has been set up. The surrounding palaces are quite something. One of them was Mozart's birthplace.
So a quick look around the market and try to keep Margarethe in sight in the crush of people!
The cheese stall. The market obviously attracts stallholders from all over the place. The young lady was Dutch and in case her cheese wasn't enough, she has a whicker basket full of plain wooden clogs on the ground.
Miss Franny: "Isn't that Christopher Plummer?" Me: "No, it's a fruit and veg stall - they're just ordinary plums..."
Margarethe managed to round us all up and herded us into a very crowded street. "Now ve haf valked you many tvisty turns and you are all lost and disorientated, I leaf you here in zis busy street to find your own vay! Meet back at the bus station vhich you cannot remember and don't be late because der bus can only vait fife minutes! Unt der virst von back ist der sissy!" Disclaimer: she didn't really say that. But, then again, she didn't need to really...
It is a very quaint street with lots of swinging signs outside the shops. We find somewhere for lunch then, successfully fed and watered, we decide to head on up to the castle. Miss Franny stops to admire some plates. Thay are decorated with real gold. I work out the price in UK pounds and push her quickly on...
The Hohensalzburg fortress. It's an impressive chunk of masonry and design, giving an air of both calm beauty and impregnable mass. Should we walk it or take the easy route we wonder? There is a funicular railway that takes you to the lower levels of the castle.
We decide to take the funicular railway up and walk down - we may not be in a rush but we are no fools... This is a funicular railway with a driver's cab! We were at the bottom and were going up. It was crowded and I couldn't see if we had a driver or not.
The car itself was quite steeply racked and had three or four compartments for passengers. At the top of the slope we looked back to watch the cars going up and down for a while. It doesn't look so bad here but I was looking down somewhat - tilt your head to the left a bit!
Ok time to take a few photos and stitch them together to form a panorama. We have arrived at the castle which looms over behind us opposite the view you see here. For those who wish to try their hand at spotting the joins there are four photos...
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