Today I went into my blog archives to see what was languishing in the drafts folder. And lo and behold, I found the most interesting things - including some unpublished posts from some of our travels! I was ever so surprised - and quite delighted.
Oh, the wonderful memories that I found from our trip to Poland, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic in September of 2007! I decided they simply must be published - mostly for my sake.
St. Rupert welcomed us to the first of many interesting sites in the Old Town of Salzburg. This square is surrounded by early 20th century Bauhaus style dorms for student monks.
On one side of this square is a restaurant where Charlemagne ate in AD 803, making it the oldest restaurant in Europe - according to the locals. Many restaurants in the city combine dinner with a concert, very appropriate for this city of music. We didn't get to take in one but will definitely do that next time.
This fountain was the first one we saw (after parking in a parkade inside the mountain!).
These mini-gardens and Renaissance style tombs hug the rock wall. This cemetary inspired the one in the Sound of Music where the Von Trapp family hid after the concert, on their way out of the country.
St. Peter's cemetary. In Austria, gravesites are rented, not owned. Every 10 years, a bill is sent to the family and if the fees are not paid, remains will actually be moved out!
Monschberg Mountain, above the Old Town, is the home of Hohensalzburg Fortress, a forbidding fortress that wasn't even used. Salzburg never was attacked until WWII but they did surrender to Napolean. We didn't get up here but would definitely make this a stop on our next visit.
The Prince-Archbishop who ruled here from 1587 - 1612 had grand plans to build Salzburg up as "Rome of the North". This square was going to be the centerpiece of his Baroque dream city. Salzburg has a series of inter-connecting squares that make a grand processional way, like nothing else we saw. This fountain is modelled after the Triton Fountain in Rome.
A detail of one of the horses supporting the fountain. Each of the 3 unique horses had water spouting from different places.
The Glockenspiel has a carillon of 35 bells from the 17th century that play 3 times daily (7 am, 11 am, and 6 pm). We heard them play for nearly 15 minutes twice while we were in the city. They play different music through the seasons. The sculpture on top of the tower is an upside down heart symbolizing that God loves all of creation. (Thanks to Rick Steves and his tour book for these amazing tidbits of information!)
Salzburg is the birthplace of Mozart and this square is named Mozartplatz. You can also see his birthplace, residence and places where he spent the first 25 years of his life.
This shop had incredible displays of painted and decorated eggs! There were eggs for every special day of the year and then eggs in every color of the rainbow, not to mention all the special character ones or the fancy scroll decorated ones. We asked and they ARE real eggshells with the contents blown out. It was a simply amazing place!
This is another of my trip favourites!
As we left the city center, darkness was descending and the castle looked so beautiful.
Beautiful and what fun to "stumble" upon it once again and get to relive the moments.
ReplyDeletewow, that's kinda like finding a treasure! so many memories. does it seem like it's a million years away? love the photos and that you finally shared this!
ReplyDeleteAh, such a great find. I love these memories, and that I get to share them with you. I can't believe all the detail and info you included in this post. I don't remember half of what you wrote, but I'm so glad it's written down so we can relive those memories. What a sweet treasure.
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