Travel Date: August 2016
'The Sound of Music' was a multiple-Oscar-winning-film (including Best Picture and Director) released 15 years before my birth that told a romanticized story about an Austrian naval captain and his family of singers who escaped Nazis by climbing the alps on foot and crossing the border into Switzerland.
A young me will have had no idea what Austrian and European geopolitics was in the '40s and yet, on a worn out VHS tape, that movie was a favourite Sunday afternoon watch that I would return to, repeatedly, over the years.
Despite the critical bashing the movie received and the fact that it hasn't aged all that well, the movie (apart from the history and Mozart) was one of the reasons for our 4-day visit to Salzburg.
Transport & Logistics
Salzburg is connected to Zurich by a few modes of transportation. With sufficient planning and a SBB-Tageskarte (travel pass available to residents) from the local stadt office, we took a train from Zurich HB (the main station) to Salzburg with a change at Innsbruck. This is a journey that can take up to 6 hours depending on your connection, despite the efficiency and best efforts of the Swiss rail system.
Salzburg is an extremely tourist-friendly city with most tourist attractions set around the Old Town and easily walk-able.
Salzburg also has the 'Salzburg Card' available to tourists for a 24 / 48 / 72 hr period that comes with free travel on public transportation and free entry into almost all of the city's attractions. The card is priced at 44 euros for an adult for 72 hrs, which is a pretty good deal if you spend enough of that time visiting the city's sights.
Accommodation
We stayed at Hotel Pension Frauenschuh, a medium-sized family run hotel, set just off a quiet, tree-lined street about 15 mins away by bus from Salzburg's main attractions.
Comfortable spaces, satisfying breakfasts and a large kids' play area ticked most of our boxes at a very reasonable price.
Salzburg Sights
As with most west-European cities with a sizable number of tourists, Salzburg's attractions are generally accessible by foot. In such cases, all you need is a good map.
Here are the top things to do in Salzburg.
1. The Mirabell Gardens, part of the Mirabell Palace complex was completely designed in the late 17th century. Apart from famously featuring in 'The Sound of Music', the gardens feature a Pegasus fountain, the chapel of the Mirabell palace and a dwarf garden (that's how they describe it) with 17 dwarfs made from white marble and is the oldest of its kind in Europe.
When traveling with kids, this is a must-visit. Most old cultural cities in Europe tend to not have open spaces to run around in and therefore, the gardens suited us perfectly.
2. Walking through the Old Town is much recommended. It has been on the list of UNESCO heritage sites since 1997 and therefore is one of the best preserved in terms of architecture and layout of its streets. There are numerous bridges over the Salzach river (the Makartsteg has its locks and we stopped for a song on the Mozart bridge), there are stunning sunset views to the Salzburg cathedral and the Hohensalzburg fortress, there's Residence square with its fountain depicting giants and dolphins, there's the home where Mozart was born. There is, quite simply, something for everyone on the walk.
3. The Salzburg Cathedral (called the Dom) is effectively the center of Old Town. First established in 774 AD, the cathedral has many things to see - the font for baptism (the same one in which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was baptized), the crypts and the 3 bronze entrance doors with carvings (signifying the 3 divine virtues of faith, hope and love).
From the marble facade, 4 enormous statues of apostles Peter and Paul (holding a key and sword) and Salzburg's patron saints Rupert and Virgil (clasping a salt vessel and a model of the church) look down upon you as you enter.
The cathedral was damaged once by lightning in 842, and twice by fire, in 1167 and again in 1598. After the 2nd fire, the cathedral was completely rebuilt in the baroque style, resulting in its current appearance.
The cathedral is located adjacent to the Residenzplatz (Residence Square), the Domplatz (Cathedral Square) and the Kapitelplatz (Chapter Square).
While Residenzplatz has the fountain, for which it is famous, Domplatz has the column of the Immaculate Mary (cordoned off during our visit, Wikipedia picture here) and Kapitelplatz today, has a large chessboard with over-sized chess pieces and "Sphaera" a work of art by Stephan Balkenhol.
4. The view from Monchsberg. The Monchsberg lift is a lift that goes up the Monchsberg mountain (507m / 1663 ft) - one of 5 mountains in Salzburg.
At the top of the mountain is also one of the locations of the Salzburg Museum of Modern Art and a panorama terrace with a vantage point and view over the entire old town.
5. The Hohensalzburg fortress (high Salzburg fortress) sits on the Festungsberg mountain at an altitude of 506m.
Construction of the fortress began in the 11th century and was gradually constructed and expanded until 1519. For a hill fortress, it unsurprisingly came under siege only once, in 1525, when a group of peasants and farmers revolted against economic and religious taxation. The revolt failed as a result of opposition by the aristocracy, who slaughtered up to 100,000 peasants and farmers.
The fortress itself consists of a main courtyard and several wings containing halls, chambers and chapels (some with gold detailing) and is accessed through a funicular, called the Festungsbahn.
We did discuss the necessity of spending 4 hours on a tour bus chasing after movie filming locations, but given the cultural relevance of the film (for me in particular), and given that there was terrible weather and rain forecast throughout the day, spending it covered and in a bus didn't seem like a terrible deal.
We covered the Mirabell gardens where Do-Re-Mi was filmed, Leopoldskron Palace, which served as the Von Trapp residence and its lake, the Hellbrun palace to see the gazebo that served as the setting for '16 going on 17', drove rapidly past Nonnberg Abbey where the real 'Maria' was a novice and to the wedding chapel in Mondsee in the lake district where the wedding of Maria and Capt. Von Trapp was filmed.
We also separately covered the Mozart bridge and St. Peter's Abbey & Cemetery where the Von Trapp family hid from the German forces before their escape into the Alps.
You might laugh at the above detail and the madcap obsession with a 55-yr-old movie, but hey, that's why we love the movies and half a century later, the hills seem very much alive.
7. The Spielzeug Toy Museum in Salzburg is located just below Monchsberg and was selected as a stop to allow the adults to take a breath and feel just a little less guilty about the trip's itinerary.
Famous for its antique toy collection and spread over multiple floors, it has exhibits that represent 3 themes - Games, Experiences and Fascination. There's also a slide that takes the kids down to 1st floor from the 2nd, where there's also a 12 m long railway line and antique model trains. Almost the entire museum is barrier-free, allowing kids, and adults to try toys out for themselves.
There's one more thing that's mentioned in the guide books and is worth a try.
Salzburg has a branch of the famous Sacher Hotel - home of the Sacher Torte. While the original is still firmly located in Vienna, a Sacher Torte is a Sacher Torte.
It is rich and chocolaty and heavy but it goes down so easily.
In Summary
Salzburg is perfect for a 4 or 5 day break, even if you don't have an unhealthy obsession with Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals.
There's history, culture, opulence, struggles everywhere you look...
If you're sitting on the fence, Salzburg is the beer capital of Austria. There, that settles it!
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