I confess I was attracted to Salzburg by The Sound of Music, but I was surprised how completely charmed I was by the city.
Crammed with beautiful churches, Salzburg was first settled by monks. I guess they were impressed by it’s dramatic surroundings of cliffs and mountains, who wouldn’t be, and by the wide Salzach River running through the middle of the valley. These days it is a really beautiful city with a surprising amount to do for such a small place; the population is about 146,000.
 |
| Light shining on Salzburg, Austria |
The main obsessions in Salzburg are Mozart and The Sound of Music. Both had their births there – 1756 and 1964 , respectively - and both now fuel the tourist industry. The locals are clearly prouder of Mozart than the industry von Trapp, with most of the souvenirs being Mozart-related. If only they’d cared about him so much when he was alive. But I have to say the town’s signature Mozartkugeln (Mozart balls) are delicious, chocolatey goodness. They were developed in 1890 at Café Konditorei Furst and its still there in all its elegance.
If you like chocolate, head straight to the café at the Hotel Sacher, sit overlooking the river and the old town and order the Sacher Torte. Yes, this is the real Sacher Torte, still handmade to the original recipe and best eaten with unsweetened whipped cream. The very first was made in Vienna in 1832 by Franz Sacher. Only a second year apprentice chef at the time, Prince Metternich ordered a totally original cake, the head pastry chef was sick, Sacher stepped in and developed this iconic, not too sweet but just right chocolate cake which became a legend. He went on to open a successful patisserie in Vienna and his son Edward and wife Anna opened the first Hotel Sacher in 1866. If you’ve got the money, stay in the hotel as well, great location and you could have cake everyday. Everyday for the rest of your life if you want because from their shop they ship cakes all over the world. Their house blend of tea is great too: Darjeeling, earl grey and jasmine.
Salzburg is a city of walking so you need feel no guilt about all that cake. Wandering the streets, looking at all the shops, finding the little markets in squares of the old town all keep you occupied for hours. There are also contemporary art galleries, palaces to visit and Festung Hohensalzburg, the best preserved fortress in Europe perched dramatically on the hill at one end of the city. It has 6 acres or 33 000 sq metres of living space and the city grants spaces for artists to live there. How great would that be? I presume they have updated the bathroom facilities – one small room jutting from a tower was apparently the prince-archbishop’s toilet with everything just falling away to the ground far below – effective but not pretty.
One night we had dinner at the restaurant of the Museum der Moderne Art, perched on the clifftop of the Monchsberg mountain. The food is good, the service great (we sat outside and the head waiter wrapped me in a blanket) and the view even better. We watched the light change dramatically as storms threatened and the sun set over the city’s slender spires and the fortress, with the Untersberg mountain in the background. Fantastic. And you reach the place by a lift inside the mountain – I love unusual public transport.
 |
| View from Eagle’s Nest |
Something I didn’t know about Salzburg was how close by Hitler’s second headquarters were, just over the border in Bavaria. We took a tour to the (in)famous Kehlsteinhouse (Eagles’ Nest). This is a teahouse perched high on a sheer white-gray craggy, barren mountain. It was the Nazi party’s 50th birthday present to Hitler and is an amazing engineering achievement even if completely haunted and creepy through association. But it’s worth going for the amazing views and mountains alone – you can see all the way back to Salzburg. And to see what money and power can achieve.
Built in 1937-38, in just 13 months, the building was only ever intended as a teahouse, a mountain top retreat above the village of Hitler and his henchmen, where visitors could be entertained and impressed. It is reached by a very steep road serviced by buses equipped with special brakes and the only way up there, apart from on foot, is via these buses. The road is all hairpin turns and tunnels, only wide enough for one bus except in the special passing bays, and the cliff drops steeply to lakes and villages far below – not for the faint-hearted, my vertigo did not enjoy it and I had to go to my happy place several times. The bucket and broom at the front of the bus were a worry too – are there many uneasy travellers on this bus?
Finally you reach a parking area and, on foot, enter a long tunnel into the mountain. This leads to a lift inside the mountain that takes you up into the hallway of the teahouse. Apparently Hitler had several resting areas on the way due to his terrible claustrophobia, and the lift is large and brass lined for reflections to belie its enclosed nature; perhaps the party didn’t like him that much – the Eagles’ Nest doesn’t feel like a very sympathetic gift for a man with so many deep phobias.
The Kehlsteinhouse is now used as a restaurant and the advantage of going there on an organised tour was that we arrived in time to see inside all the rooms - by the time we came to leave, the main dining and conference rooms were closed off to tourists. Apparently there is some disagreement about why this building was not destroyed along with all the rest of Hitler’s Bavarian HQ at the end of the war. Some say the Allied bombs missed, some say it was deliberately left. In 1952 the building was opened to the public and leased out as a restaurant. All the profit after running costs is donated to charity.
Heading back to Salzburg, we stopped to pick up people who had done the tour of the famous salt mines, drop off people going to the ice caves and others going to the lakes. I was impressed by the efficiency and good humour of the tour guide who was wrangling all these people with different wants, some of who changed their mind halfway through the tour. He took in his stride, made a call and waited to make sure they made their new bus. Great service.
Returning to Salzburg, I was interested to see how different the colour of the river was to the cut-glass clear of the mountains streams not that far out of town. The water of the Salzach looked quite opaque, milky green, not for drinking or falling into its fast running depths. I’m not sure whether the Salzach has picked up dirt or pollution and I wasn’t about to slide down the banks to find out. Too far inland to be tidal, the level of the Salzach rose and fell dramatically in the few days I was there. I guess it was to do with rain falling in the mountains and in Salzburg itself – there were a couple of mighty tempests while we were there even though it was mid-summer.
I would happily go back to Salzburg with no thoughts of nuns, captains, or singing children.
Planning a trip? Browse all of Viator’s Salzburg things to do and tours in Austria.
Source: Sara
