The Home of Mozart
As the last installment of our European vacation this summer, we have one more place to describe. After a few days in Munich we hopped on a train and headed to Salzburg, Austria. Munich is a tourist stop but is also a fast-paced city where people work and live. Salzburg is definitely more of a slow-paced, made for tourist location - at least in the historic part of town where we spent more of our time.
We found and checked into our hotel and then set out to explore this new city. We quickly caught site of the Fortress that sits atop of the city of Salzburg. As the most obvious part of the landscape we knew we had to make a trip up to it. There is a funicular (tram) that takes you up in about one minute. From there were got in line for our audio guide and took the tour around to see the major highlights. After finishing our tour we checked out a few museums that they have in the Fortress now and had a quite snack at one of the restaurants located at the top.
The view from the fortress.
Back down in the city we walked around, getting our bearings and trying to see some of the historic and important sites, according to our guidebook. Finally we decided it was time for dinner and because we weren't that hungry we decided to look for a restaurant mentioned in our guidebook. We chose this particular restaurant because in the Salzburg section there was a quote from someone saying the peach souffle at the Stiftskeller St. Peter was absolutely fabulous. Dessert for dinner is perfect in my book! Besides this quote our book mentioned this restaurant being famous for it's "Salzburger Nockerl." We made the assumption that this was the Austrian name for peach souffle.
How come when a dessert is delicious you never want it to end and this one was TERRIBLE and it was never-ending.
First Anniversary, Rome. Second, Salzburg. Third ???
Saturday we woke up early to catch a train to the salt mine just outside of Salzburg. Salt, like the kind you have on your table, is extracted from the Bavarian Alps. The salt mine we toured is no longer a working facility, but there is an excellent tour taking you 1 km inside the mountain and through the caves to see how the process worked. Basically they would create a large cave inside the mountain and then fill it with fresh water. Water can absorb salt, up to 27% of its total make-up. Once this brine solution was created they would pump the salty water out of the mountain and send it off to be evaporated and turned into the salt we know. The tour included four little movies explaining the process, two fun wooden slides to get around the caves, and a boat ride across an old salt like inside the mountain.
.
Had to wear these stylish outfits in the salt mine. It was 10 degrees (C) down there!
Recognize this? I am 16, going on 17...Liesel? ...Sound of Music!
We finished our trip in Salzburg with Sunday "High Mass" at the main cathedral, the Dom Cathedral. Mass lasted and hour and forty five minutes. Normally this would've been way to long for my liking, however, the high mass had a full orchestra and choir. It was essentially a free concert with some of the most talented musicians living and studying in the home of the musical master Mozart. In fact, we sat down for the Gloria and Alleluia because they were each ten minutes long. It was the perfect way to end our visit to this magnificent city.
See the full album of Austia photos here.
We found and checked into our hotel and then set out to explore this new city. We quickly caught site of the Fortress that sits atop of the city of Salzburg. As the most obvious part of the landscape we knew we had to make a trip up to it. There is a funicular (tram) that takes you up in about one minute. From there were got in line for our audio guide and took the tour around to see the major highlights. After finishing our tour we checked out a few museums that they have in the Fortress now and had a quite snack at one of the restaurants located at the top.
Fortress atop the city of Salzburg
The view from the fortress.
Back down in the city we walked around, getting our bearings and trying to see some of the historic and important sites, according to our guidebook. Finally we decided it was time for dinner and because we weren't that hungry we decided to look for a restaurant mentioned in our guidebook. We chose this particular restaurant because in the Salzburg section there was a quote from someone saying the peach souffle at the Stiftskeller St. Peter was absolutely fabulous. Dessert for dinner is perfect in my book! Besides this quote our book mentioned this restaurant being famous for it's "Salzburger Nockerl." We made the assumption that this was the Austrian name for peach souffle.
Well, we had a little bit of difficulty reading our map and finding the restaurant we were searching for. We found one that had a similar name a figured there was some sort of typo and went in. The restaurant we entered was absolutely beautiful! It was on the second floor of a building and sort of at the edge of the city so there was a fantastic view of the other rooftops and buildings in Salzburg. It was also very close to the main cathedral, where a concert of Mozart's Requiem was going. We could hear the beautiful music through the open cathedral windows.
As we looked at the menu and at the food other patrons were eating, the ribs looked especially delicious. The plate seemed to be quite full of them (on another table) and we knew we wanted this famous dessert, so we decided to share the ribs, the pickled veggies it came with, and some french fries. The plate of ribs that was placed down in front of us was GIGANTIC. Most of you who read this know Ryan and I pretty well. I can hold my own at a table, and we know Ryan is like a bottomless pit when it comes to eating. WE COULD NOT FINISH! We were defeated by one plate of ribs that we shared- it was actually quite impressive. I think they were possibly the best ribs I have ever had.
Actually, maybe we could've eaten all the ribs but we had to save room for the special dessert, Salzburger Nockerl. It takes 20 minutes to make so we enjoyed some cappuccino while we waited and got to talk to the Australian couple who was sharing our table. They were an older couple and made for very nice company on a gorgeous evening in Salzburg. Finally the dessert came. You can see below what it looked like. As for what it tasted like, imagine filling a bowl with fluffed egg whites, or the foam from a cappuccino (without the coffee flavor) and that is what the entire thing tasted like. It was truly terrible. Being a quite expensive dessert we really tried to eat it, but eventually even putting a spoonful in my mouth made me want to spit it out. Luckily our Australian tablemates enjoyed it and we were able to share.
How come when a dessert is delicious you never want it to end and this one was TERRIBLE and it was never-ending.
This trip was essentially our anniversary present to one another. We decided as we were eating delicious ribs, enjoying a Mozart masterpiece, enjoying great conversation, and overlooking a beautiful historic city that this was our anniversary dinner. The dessert did not fit into our beautiful evening- but even a gross dessert couldn't ruin it!
First Anniversary, Rome. Second, Salzburg. Third ???
Saturday we woke up early to catch a train to the salt mine just outside of Salzburg. Salt, like the kind you have on your table, is extracted from the Bavarian Alps. The salt mine we toured is no longer a working facility, but there is an excellent tour taking you 1 km inside the mountain and through the caves to see how the process worked. Basically they would create a large cave inside the mountain and then fill it with fresh water. Water can absorb salt, up to 27% of its total make-up. Once this brine solution was created they would pump the salty water out of the mountain and send it off to be evaporated and turned into the salt we know. The tour included four little movies explaining the process, two fun wooden slides to get around the caves, and a boat ride across an old salt like inside the mountain.
. Had to wear these stylish outfits in the salt mine. It was 10 degrees (C) down there!
From there we toured Hellbrunn Palace. This palace was the summer home of an Archbishop Andreas Jakob von Dietrichstein. This archbishop had a particularly keen sense of humor and enjoyed getting his laughs by surprising his guests. He would often hold gatherings in his gardens during the summers when being in the city was hot and unbearable. He installed trick fountains on the paths and in the grottos of his gardens. With the push of a button, his guests would receive an unexpected shower. I had two favorites. The first was the Elk heads that hung on the exterior of the palace wall and sprayed water out of the antlers. The second was a cement table with 9 cement stools around it. There were four stools on each side and one, for the archbishop, at the head of the table. Each stool had a small cutout in the middle of the seat. When he wanted to get the attention, or sober up his guests, the archbishop would have a servant hit a button that would send water shooting up through that small cutout. The only seat that didn't have a fountain in it was the archbishop's. According to etiquette of the time, no one was allowed to stand up until he had stood. Since there was no water soaking him, there was no reason for him to stand. I assume he just really liked watching his guests squirm!
Recognize this? I am 16, going on 17...Liesel? ...Sound of Music!
We finished our trip in Salzburg with Sunday "High Mass" at the main cathedral, the Dom Cathedral. Mass lasted and hour and forty five minutes. Normally this would've been way to long for my liking, however, the high mass had a full orchestra and choir. It was essentially a free concert with some of the most talented musicians living and studying in the home of the musical master Mozart. In fact, we sat down for the Gloria and Alleluia because they were each ten minutes long. It was the perfect way to end our visit to this magnificent city.
See the full album of Austia photos here.
I'm already excited to see what trip is going to work out for us next...
Comments