THE SUN COMES OUT IN SALZBURG - Phil & Jill

Waking up on our last day in Salzburg and seeing a clear blue sky was magic. Earlier in the week we had had a dilemma what to do with the weather pattern showing constant rain day after day. We decided to stay another night in Salzburg thinking that it would not be smart to go to the mountains (our next stop) in heavy rain. However the Atel Lasserhof was full. On hearing this we hastily made a booking at the Hotel + which was in the station platz. This made the next day really easy when travelling by trains to the mountains.

We left our bags at reception and really worked our two day yellow and blue line Hop on/Hop off bus pass. We started in the big coach which runs on the yellow line. It goes out of general area and gets to outer place. It takes an hour to do a circuit. It goes by Mirabell Platz and goes out passed Schloss Leopoldskron on the lake where the von Trapp family lived during the Sound of Music film; the Schloss Hellbrun with the Salzburg zoo and others. The audioguide helped to understand the range of areas and their historical signifance. At various points you can swap over and go the blue line which was a small bus which could override the pedestrian bollards and drive us right around the pedestrian sector of the Old City. From this bus you see amongst others, all the main platz like Mozart Platz, Markartplatz, the Dom, the Salzburg Museum, the Modern Art Gallery and the steep funicular to take you to the Hohensalzburg fortress. The approach to the funicular was on a decent slope which was so difficult for Phil who had been having feeling stronger today, but he didn't fair well with this.

The Hohensalzburg fortress was built in 1621 by the Archbishops who clearly wanted to show their power and authority when building this imposing Baroque structure which is sort of the symbol of Salzburg and can be seen from every direction.

The views were breathtaking on such a clear day. This gave us a better appreciation of Salzburg, a city built on the wealth of trading salt, as wealthy as finding gold. The salt was mined invthe mountains behind and floated down the Salzach River in specially designed wooden containers, then floated down the Inn River to the Danube and then to world markets. Hence the value of the taste of salt forever more in our lives.

The fortress was a walled city with the living quarters of the Archbishops, a chapel, houses for workers with their various trades. Today the houses are used for galleries and gemstone jewellery boutiques. Inside the fortress there is a museum. Along the walls there are canons in place in case there is enemy activity again...well thats what lots of kids thought whilst clambering all over them.

The sun certainly showed this iconic monument to its full beauty and helped us to get in touch with Salzburg. The blue line bus was our way to go back to the Hauptenhof and to our very comfortable hotel.

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Panoramic views from the fortress looking down over Salzburg.