Upon arriving in Salzburg we found our hotel, after a few loops around the river as we figured out which were one-ways and pedestrian-only streets (which aren't always marked on tourist maps, designed for pedestrians). The hotel was great - we had one large room with a sitting area and a double bed, and an adjoining room with three other beds. Mom and dad got a kick out of the way they just push singles or twins together here , with separate sheets still, and call it a double. Though they were more appreciative of the two separate single duvet covers than Jeremi and I are. Mom claims that they're a godsend for people suffering from hot flashes, but we always end up using just one of them, and something is always sticking out in the cold.
As everyone was getting settled in, Jeremi and I went to park the car in a nearby garage owned by the hotel, and we stopped to pick up some Austrian beer, funny European snack food (they look like cheesies, but taste of peanut butter, and are generally packaged in stars and stripes, as are many apparently "American" snack foods) and Mozart Kugeln (Mozart balls, a very typical confectionary from here, the birthplace of Mozart). Here we are, making our plans for the evening, and refueling with such nutritious snacks.
After that we headed out on foot to get our bearings, figure out how far things would be to walk the next day, and to find some supper. We were staying on the east side of the river, while many of the historical attractions (and the main Christmas market) are on the west side. It wasn't a long walk however, and most of it was along lovely shop-lined pedestrian streets. We were able to find the Christmas market that night (and a few glasses of Glühwein)...
...and somewhere pleasant to eat.
Walking back, we headed over another, smaller, pedestrian bridge, which was covered on both sides with Christmas lights.
The next morning we had beautiful weather, yet again. After a hearty breakfast at our hotel, we headed again across the river, though this time we were able to see considerably more.
And through the narrow alleys of the city, on the way to the Christmas market, to explore in daylight.
Mom loved this door, just because of the thick-planked rusticness of it, but I was more impressed with the two stone arches around it, which were clearly built at different times, and with different ideas about where they ought to be centered. And yes, that is a buzzboard on the right - this is the entrance to residential apartments, of course.
Many of the decorations we found in Salzburg were different from what we'd seen in Germany. In particular, they had many hanging garlands, balls, and wreaths made up of fragrant spices. Here you can see garlands of threaded cinnamon sticks. There were also lots of balls and stars covered in cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves, etc. I read something about this in the guidebook, and how it had to do with the fact that back in the day people couldn't afford to heat the whole building, and the animals would sometimes end up bunking with the people during the coldest days of winter (rather than letting the livestock freeze to death). This naturally led to some unpleasant odours, so they developed a lot of decorations that also act to hide the smells with more pleasant ones.
Some more scenes from the Christmas market...
In the bottom half of this picture, in the centre, you can see some sort of shell, hanging from a string, and hollowed out. They had little nativity scenes or other seasonal figures inside, and lots of glitter. To be honest, they were some of the ugliest decorations I'd ever seen, but we were really curious as to what kind of shell they were. Alas, I didn't ask.
Perhaps I didn't ask because I was too busy drinking Glühwein...
Here mom is posing with one of the apple garlands she loved so much. (I think a couple may have even made it to Canada with her.) My German teacher was telling us that Christmas trees (Weihnachtsbaüme) used to be called, and sometimes are still, Trees of Paradise (Paradiesbaüme), and that they were traditionally decorated with apples, the fruit of paradise (from the garden of Eden, in the traditional European retelling). He still decorates his tree with actual apples, but over time most people replaced the fruit with glass balls.
The next stop was the Salzburger Dom, or the Salzburg Cathedral. Despite the many pictures of the interior that were snapped, we somehow neglected to take a picture of the hulking exterior. Perhaps it was just too large to capture from the close proximity of the market? In any case, Wikipedia provided me with this suitably unprofessional photo. Imagine it with blue skies, and with the tower on the left hidden behind scaffolding, and it's like we could have taken it.
The church really is enormous, too large for the surrounding squares if one were to ask me, though quite impressive. Apparently it was first consecrated as a cathedral back in 774, but the space was used by Celts and Romans before that. The structure there today is notable for being the first Italian Baroque building north of the alps, completed in 1628.And now, some views from outside and in:
While these old cathedrals are impressive, they're not known for being particularly cozy. Above Jeremi is warming Baba's hands while I warm her mittens. (I didn't steal my 88 year-old grandmother's mittens, I swear.)Another statue outside the cathedral is Anna Chromy's Coat of Peace (sometimes called Piétà). I'd seen this statue before in Prague, and it really is haunting. With the flash here you can see right into the empty cloak, which makes it a bit less evocative compared to when you can only see darkness within. Wikipedia tells me that the sculptor is currently turning this sculpture into a 4 m (13 ft) marble chapel in Carrara, Italy.
Behind the church is yet another square, with some men engaged in a public game of chess...
...and a lovely view up to the fortress on the hill (die Festung Hohensalzburg), if you can look beyond the enormous golden sphere that is.
Our next stop was that very fort, though we thought it better to take the funicular, rather than dragging poor Baba up the mountain.
From the top the view was truly spectacular, and you can actually see the exterior of the cathedral from here!
Mom's a bit twitchy when it comes to heights, and she did not too badly in the funicular, but she wasn't getting any closer to the edge then this. (And dad wasn't allowed to either.)
Up at the fortress there was a small Christmas market (which unfortunately wasn't open yet), and an audio-guided tour through some of the rooms. It quickly became clear that Baba wasn't going to be able to handle the 100+ steps on the tour, so mom and dad went first while Jeremi and I hung out with her at the restaurant up there, having a light lunch and warm drinks.On an aside, Baba loved the coffee in Europe. This was partly because I wasn't able to find half-and-half at the grocery store, so I got some whipping cream instead (Schlagsahne, 35% fat), and figured that she could use part that and part milk. Well the cream side of it may have won out. Also, at the airport, mom ordered her a Milchcaffee, basically like a latte, and she loved it. Once we got to Austria, her drink of choice was a latte macchiato, with whipped cream on top. Basically, she was loving the super-creamy high-fat milk, with a kick provided by strong espresso. I don't know if she'll be able to go back to Tim Horton's after this!
Here's just a couple of pictures from the tour. This was taken from the "torture room", which was lined with various instruments of torture, and shows the only access to the prison cell below. People were actually lowered and raised to the cell 4 m below through this little hole in the ground with ropes. Creepy.
The tour also brought you up to the top of the torture tower, which had another great view over the city, from even higher.
After mom and dad were done with the tour they headed down with baba, and took her back to the hotel, and then went exploring a bit. In the meantime Jeremi and I went on the tour. When we were finished the sun was just setting behind the mountains in the background, which was just beautiful.
Here are some pictures from mom and dad's explorations. Mom loved these little lanterns, which stood in front of many of the shops.
And they went to their first Vienna-style café. (Okay, so we were still in Salzburg, but the wood-panelled walls and the coffee served on a little silver tray with a glass of water seems Viennese to me, though it might just be Austrian. It certainly isn't seen much in Germany...)
Here's just one of many of the devils which could be seen in the decorations around Salzburg. There were honestly as many Satans as there were Santas. We asked at our hotel about this, and the concièrge (who was awesome) explained that this was something found only in the alps, and on Saint Nicholas' day (December 6, and the eve on December 5), both Saint Nicholas and this guy, sometimes called Krampus or Knecht Ruprecht (maybe something to do with Saint Rupert, the patron saint of Salzburg) come to town. It seems that the bad kids get something much worse than a lump of coal in their stockings. Again, Wikipedia provided more information, and it seems that young men dress up like demons and roam through the streets on the 5th of December. I'm sort of sorry that we weren't in Salzburg on the 5th, but at the same time, it sounds damn scary.
Afterwards we all met up in the lovely lobby of our hotel, where they offered free coffee, tea, and cake in the afternoon. It was a bit chilly with the door always opening and closing though, so Jeremi kept Baba nice and warm.
That night mom and dad splurged for a touristic experience quite typical to Salzburg - a Mozart concert. The one they opted for was held in Stiftkeller St. Peter (the cellar of the old monastery), which is renowned as the oldest recorded restaurant in Europe, with records dating back to the early 9th century. It's said that Charlemagne himself ate there!
It's a huge place, with many small and large banquet rooms. We were in a beautiful Baroque room, with gorgeous blue on white decorations on the ceiling. (I don't know the proper name for it, and I'm not looking up anything else before finishing this post!) Dinner was also included, and it was quite good. The hightlight for me was the soup, a cream soup with lemon and cinnamon, which was interesting and delicious.
The music was selected from Mozart's most-known operas: The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, and Don Giovanni. (Apologies for only the English titles.) There was a chamber ensemble, and two singers (male and female), and it was really lovely. Here they are, at the end of the performance.
To give you a better idea of the setting:
On the way out mom also got a couple pictures of this dining room, which was empty at the time. It looks like a small cavern, as if it were carved out of stone. It was a pretty cool place.
On the way out mom wanted to get a picture of us at the entrance, and this group of young men took the oppportunity to pose for her. This was one of the most notable things about Salzburg (and Vienna as well, but less so) - how different the people were from Germans! (Even Bavarians.) I know this sounds silly, but I honestly didn't think that the culture would be so different. Our good friend Gerd is Austrian, and always tried to explain this difference to disbelieving Canadians, particularly as he was always lumped in with the other "Germans" among our friends in Victoria, just because they spoke the same language. I honestly thought that the differences would be on the level that only a native person would pick them up, but this was really not the case.Austrians are so much funnier than Germans. I love Germany, and German people, but in general people in Austria didn't seem to take things (and Ordnung) so seriously. They were also very fashionably dressed, though this may be the Italian influence as well. I've never seen so many fur coats in a city (mostly on older women). And the accent is awesome.
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Great read! You might want to follow up on this topic?!
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