Salzburg's Old Town

We arrived at Frankfurt International Airport around 0630, safe and sound.

Feeling quite ok as we all managed to catch some sleep during the 12-hour flight. William is the champion, he has slept nearly 7 hours though in a curly position. When he got to sleep, nothing can stop him. He has my genes.

Waiting in the Frankfurt Airport for the flight to Austria, departure time : 0830. See the leather couch husband was lying on, it's so comfortable. We haven't been in such a position for at least 24 hours by then Gosh, it's so comfortable that we lazed there for quite a long time.

The most sleeping piggy wake up as the most playful piggy of all.

The kind of plane that commute between Frankfurt and Austria. Wow, look at the propeller... some kind of antique huh? When I first saw it, I really preyed hard and tried not to think negatively.

There is only 76 passenger seats in this small plane. Its interior is quite cute, something like a big toy plane.

The flying time is slightly more than 1 hour, piece of cake to us now. The boys spent their time munching the simple snack and playing the simple toys they have been given. One hour pass by very fast.



As for me, I spent my time looking out from the window...




It's a beuatiful sunny day, the scene we saw with human eyes is prettier than the image captured by a camera.

Being live in a crowded city for such a long time, I really envy the people who live down there. I wonder how's the density like, 1-in-20 meter?

Slowly approaching the landing point...

Finally we arrived our first destination, Salzberg, the fourth-largest city in Austria.

After claiming our baggages, we hired a taxi and go to a small town in Germany's border to take our rented car. We were surprised to see the car is a luxurious Mercede Benz Kompressor instead of Golf. Husband said Avis had upgraded the car for us with no additional charge. Strange enough.

The next thing we got to settle was to pay for the road toll charges. Husband drove to a nearby convenient store and I accidentally spotted an unknown sticker put on the windscreen. Suspecting it might be the sticker for road toll, husband removed it and took it to the store for checking. Gooddy, we are right. The sticker is still valid. Save us some money.

We then drove to the hotel that husband had booked via internet before departure. It's in Salzbery down town area, so he didn't take a long time to find it. Everything ran smooth. After we checked in to the hotel and off load our baggages, the time was 12 noon.

Feeling a bit hungry, we went downstair, crossed the road and walked to the nearest restaurant. Well, the nearest is a Chinese Restaurant, just opposite our hotel. The interior design looks pretty high class to us, or it's normal here in Austria, I have no idea then.

We checked the menu, 90% of the items cost above €10. We ordered 2 different kinds of fried rice and 2 bottles of coke. The bill was €26 (HKD280). We paid 10% for tips as it's a norm here. My gross impression about the living standard in Austria vs HK is 1 : 2.5 (Taking a deep breathe).

After the lunch, seeing the weather was just fine, we decided to go into the town for a tour. Yo, let's go....

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The white building on the right is our hotel (Star Inn). This one cost €105 per night, including breakfast for 4. Husband said that's the best deal he could get near down town area. We stayed in this hotel for 2 nights. Oh yeah, must mentioned that breakfast was good, lots of variety, better than our expectation.

Knowing it could be difficult to park our car in the town area, we decided to walk. Husband said all we need to walk is just to cross this tunnel. Fine.

The entrance of the pedestrian tunnel. At the midway, there is a detour leading to elsewhere. We were eager to enter the town, so we didn't go to check it out.

The tunner is indeed short. We were out from there after a 5-min walk. This place served as the landmark for us to walk back to our hotel.

The Old Town of Salzburg was was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.. Salzburg is a toursit favourite, with the number of tourists outnumbering locals by a large margin in peak times.

Mozart Monument. Salzburg is the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It's also the setting for parts of the musical and film "The Sound of Music", which features famous landmarks in Austria, but focuses mainly on Salzburg.

The late Mozart had been used in various chocalate packaging. He probably have never thought about it for his whole life. Yes, life is like a box of choclate, you'll never know what you are going to get (quoted by Forest's mom).

Ancient transportation method...

vs modern transportation method. Interesting.



Shoppers on Getreidegasse, along the street is a concentration of interesting shops and numerous restaurants.

A concentrated street artist who ignored the whole world around him.




Those rolls look very attractive. No wonder many people were lining up there to take their order.



Out of so many choices, I'd picked the tuna fish roll.



No kidding, it's very delicious. I love it.



The boys found their toys along the street too. Of course they bugged their boss to buy one for them, but the boss didn't give in. After some time toying the puppet, boss asked them to thank the lady and leave. Didn't know if the lady had given us a black face at our back or not?

The Franziskanerchurch, which is the oldest church in Salzberg.

Same as many famous church in other European cities, the interior of the dom is remarkably beautiful. The main and side altars of the Dom are quite pleasing.

Although the church is small, it is unique.

The baroque main altar is one of the masterpieces of Fischer von Erlach in 1709. He was one of the best known baroque artists and architects in Austria.

It's good to sit underneath the dom to appreciate the detailed of frescos and stuccoworks that adorn this structure.

This large "bowl' is the place to baptize the newborns.

Next to the Franziskanerchurch is the Petersfriedhof (St Peter's Cemetery), the oldest Christian graveyard in Salzburg, dating back to 1627. Many of the aristocratic families of Salzburg lie buried here along with many other notable person.

St Peter's Cemetery is one of the most important tourist attraction in the city. Many visitors come to see the place where the Von Trapp family hid out in "The Sound of Music".

This place have many beatutiful ornamented graves, with lot of flowers and small trees. It looks more like a garden than like a cemetery.

Catacombs in the clifff face. For a small admission fee, visitors can climb a steep set of stone-carved stairs and view several rooms with altars, faded murals, and inscriptions. But we were too tired to do that.

The Hohensalburg Castle that sits on top of Festungsberg Hill, which overlooks the city, makes for quite an icon on the horizon.

The cemetery includes two notable chapels. One is the St. Margaret's Chapel.

And this one is The Romanesque Chapel of the Holy Cross.

The Hohensalzburg Castle (Festung Hohensalzburg), sits on a hill is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe, with views over Salzburg. It was built in 1077 and expanded during the following centuries.

Hohensalzburg Fortress was refurbished at the end of the 19th century. It is easily accessed by cable car (funicular), installed in 1892, reaching the top in just 1 minute.

To reach the castle, visitors can choose between the funicular, departing every 10 minutes; or taking a 30-minute walk to the top. Looking at the hot sun, plus tired, we'd decided to buy the Fortress card.

Fortress Card, which includes the funicular ride; admission to the fortress grounds and interior rooms; Fortress Museum; Rainer Regiment Museum and Marionette Museum; Almpassage and Multimedia show cost us €24.30 (family ticket).

There's a restaurant at the fortress. It is very rewarding to take a nice meal overlooking the city from the top at the same time.

The magnificient panorama of Salzburg City, view from the top of Castle Hohensalzburg.

Salzach River divides the city into 2.

We walked up the castle by climbing this staircase.

I like the backdrop...quite an extraordinary view.

After the Napoleonic wars, when Salzburg was secularised and became part of Austria in 1816, Hohensalzburg Castle served as a prison and an army camp. During World War I, Hohensalzburg Castle was used to imprison Italian officers as prisoners of war.

After 1933, Salzburg became one of the areas in Austria that were most fiercely targeted by Nazi unerground terrorists. When some Nazis launched an attack near Salzburg, they were imprisoned in the fortress in 1934. This was the last time that Hohensalzburg Castle held prisoners.

Running up to the rooms, which mostly have become museum now.

Some of the things that is displayed in the many different rooms...

Inside the walls of the Hohensalzburg, it's like a small town inside a castle.

Started feeling exhausted, we have no mood to continue the tour. We then walked back to our hotel by using the same road. After taking shower, we all felt into sleep very fast. The time was about 6pm.

The next morning, we woke up early. After taking breakfast, we couldn't wait to depart to our next destination. Before that, husband drove us to another famous attraction located in Salzbury town, the Mirabell Palace.

The famous fountain in Mirabell Palace (backdrop), as seen in the Do-Re-Mi song from the film "The Sound of Music".

Gardens in Mirabell Palace, full of flowers.

This photo was taken by a tourist from Shanghai, as a favor after he asked me to take a photo of him.

We didn't spend a long time here, because husband and I were eager to go to our next destination.

In fact, we didn't spend any other time to tour around Salzberg. City sight seeing tour is seldom our cup of tea, not at this time, this age. Maybe some other 15 or 20 years later, when we become physically weak, then city tour is our target.

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When we can still walk and run freely, we want to go for more challenging trip.

One last glance at the city...I feel the intricated cable web that cover the whole city is a way bit too intensive, to the extend that it spoilt the view. Anyway, it's still a beautiful city, no doubt.

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So long Salzberg.

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