We spent all day in Salzburg, visiting more favorite haunts, and discovering some new stuff. We got a very early start since the city was starting a new environmental measure that blocked the city to all cars between the hours of 10 and 3. Sounds good in theory, but as we read in the local paper, it really meant that lots of local businesses were losing tons of money due to no customers being able to reach their stores.
Anyway, we were determined not to have to park out in the middle of nowhere and be stuck taking a shuttle that would come who-knows-when to take us who-knows-where. But due to some construction traffic a bit outside the city limits, we were over the cut off by a few minutes. Fortunately, the road was still closed, we have no idea why, and we were able to still drive to right downtown and find a great parking spot. Whew!
All along this bridge there were locks attached to the posts with peoples names carved or written on the backs. Apparently it’s supposed to be some sort of love declaration, and you toss the key to the lock in the river. All I could think of is how many people break up within a year of renewing their vows, and what the chances were any of these couples were still together. I’m so cynical.
Since we were on the other side of the river already, we decided to stroll up the Kapuzinerberg. Noah especially loved looking at all the statue scenes from the life of Christ that were placed all along the trail. It was a bit steep for a few little legs, but everyone made it eventually, and the view was fantastic.
Don’t you just love the roof-top garden?
We must have hung out here for at least 15 minutes, just chatting and enjoying the scenery. Then Chris noticed a little trail that went across the mountain a ways, so we decided to follow it. Nick and I had a good laugh at the sign warning visitors that “this was an alpine trail and could get very steep and dangerous at times. Please proceed with only proper walking shoes.” 
Um, we had just been on an actual alpine trail that was very steep and dangerous. This was not even comparable. I handled it just fine in my flip flops!
The trail followed the Salzach for quite a while. In fact we could have followed it to another castle about 3 kilometers away, but we wanted to see more stuff in town, so we turned up the hill for a bit and made a loop. Just before we turned off the main trail, we saw a rather sad, and also ingenious sight.
Someone was obviously living there, as they had cardboard and blankets covering up the window openings. There was also a grill spot and some laundry hanging out to dry. My kids were fascinated as to how the person got into the locked tower and also, how the chair was transported to its current location.
Definitely not the kind of setting one normally associates with sightseeing in downtown Salzburg!
We wandered back down the hill, across the river and into the Mirabelgartens.
Recognize these famous steps? 🙂 We almost have enough kids to stage the same shot from the movie, but I wouldn’t put them through that. Not anymore. haha Every time we come here, this particular patch always reminds me of Christmas.
All that beautiful dark red against the bright green, and then little splashes of white. Just gorgeous!
They were having some sort of display dedicated to remembering those Austrians who helped save Jewish lives during the Holocaust. There were many stories printed on large canvases, set up all all over the lawns. Each was very moving, and we all kind of got separated because some wanted to read more intently than others. But we all found each other pretty quickly. 
The best part about this whole trip is that every one truly enjoyed themselves for most of the time. There were lots of opportunities to take great shots like this one, they just happened so frequently.
On our way to the Mozarthaus, we saw a catholic church for Croatian speaking people, and it reminded us very much of one of our churches.
It was simply decorated, and one of the knaves was turned it what we dubbed the Primary room. There were smaller chairs, in a semi-circle, set up and a large poster with all the kids pictures and names on it. They also had dioramas all along one wall with scenes from Christ’s life. The kids were fascinated and studied them for quite a while.
The Mozarthaus was very interesting. I had only ever been to the Geburtshaus, which is kind of boring in comparison. This was where he lived for most of his life with his family, except for when he was traveling around giving concerts, but even then, he always came home to this place. Once he was married, he of course, lived in different places, but this was his childhood home. They had lots of original music pieces from his early compositions, books from the family library, and other memorabilia.
I think everyone’s favorite part of the tour was the many pieces of his music they played during the commentary on the audio guide. Did you know many of his pieces were written as piano lessons? He taught piano to many wealthy ladies and their daughters, and when they were ready to give a little concert to show off their hard work, he would write pieces especially for them to play, geared to their skill level.
I thought often while we were there, how much more successful he would have been if he could have lived in our day. If he had access to Itunes and Youtube to promote his stuff to the entire world? Wow! Of course, Chris rightly pointed out that he was very good at writing music that was popular for his day, but would we like it as much if it came out new in our time?
I suppose now would be a good time to point out something fun that Chris did for our trip. He always fills up an SD memory card with lots of different music, sometimes an audio book as well, for us to listen to while we drive on long trips. For this trip he brought lots of Mozart music. Said it seemed appropriate. 🙂 The kids honestly enjoyed listening to it, and even now, when I turn on his music they get all sentimental and say it reminds them of our trip. Aww!
We briefly considered taking the kids to a marionette theater, since they were showing “The Magic Flute”. But then we looked at the prices and decided to wait until the next trip, so we would have time to get them familiar with the story. Hopefully then they would appreciate it more.
From there we walked over to the big Dom. It was really beautiful. 
I honestly can’t recall if I have ever been in here or not. I have walked past many times, but nothing inside seemed familiar to me at all. The detail on the ceiling was really impressive;one giant art piece.
Many of the paintings were done with bright, light colors as well. Not the usual dark, somber ones I have seen in many other cathedrals.
We also went down into the catacombs. Well, first Nick and I went down, because the other kids were too afraid there would be actual skeletons and stuff down there. When we saw that it was pretty tame, we went back up to get everyone.
There was one little room that had us all laughing, though. It was just so unexpected. To evoke the feeling that people expect in a room full of graves, this macabre little exhibit had been set up.
It was hard for Chris to get a good picture of the thing on the right. There was a tin cutout of a witch on a broomstick that was on a rotating base. There was also a light shining directly on it, so as the base spun, the shadow of the witch “flew” around the room.
The last thing on my list of stuff I wanted to see was the Residenz, so we meandered over there, not quite sure where the entrance was.
Along the way, we passed this huge screen set up in the open plaza. The week we were there they were having the Festspiele, where they perform lots of operas and plays in the open air, all over Salzburg. We also saw lots of people going to them in the evenings, all dressed up in Tracht and Dirndls. Gorgeous! This area is for those who want to watch the plays, but don’t have the money for a ticket. You can come early, get a seat and watch a live video of the action. Would have been cool, but our kids are still too young to stay up that late.
So we finally figure out that the Residenz Art Gallery and the Residenz house are the same building, just different directions down a corridor. Whew! We tell the lady how many tickets we need and Chris whips out his magic money card to pay for them. She looks at him, shakes her head and hand at the same time,then says “Nein, Baaaahrrr!” while rubbing her thumb and forefinger together up in the air. You know, the universal sign for cash. We couldn’t help it. We were tired and a little punchy. We laughed right in her face. It was just so over the top dramatic. Of course, we had no cash, and so this meant we would have to go find an atm and then come back to the museum.
Chris was willing to do it because he knew how much I had been looking forward to touring this place, but honestly, my feet were hurting, and I could tell the kids were about 5 minutes from losing it completely. Although they had been excellently behaved up until this point. I told him we knew we would be coming back again someday, we could visit it then. Let’s just go home. The look of relief on his face was priceless. What a sweetie, though, to not say anything until I made the call.
The outing did end on a high note, however. We passed this totally bizarre statue on the way out of downtown. 
The kids immediately dubbed it “The Doom of Salzburg”. They decided it was a close cousin to a Dementor, since it had no face. 
We still laugh about it and the “BAAHHHRRR!” lady all.the.time.