BigWeather's Blog

Genetta and I woke up just after 6a.  After our showers and we headed to breakfast around 8a at the Cafe Englander just down the street from the apartment.  We had the English breakfast — two fried eggs, “bacon” (really ham), two sausages, baked beans, bread, coffee and tea.  It was quite a decent start to the day.

Got some money from the teller machine and took subway U3 from Stubentor station to Wien Westbahnhof station.  In the station I used the bathroom where there was quite the interesting sign.  There was also a statue of a fancy-looking woman, one of the early leaders of Austria.  We hopped on the 9:40a Westbahn train to Salzburg.  Westbahn being a private company alternative to the state-run OBB and far cheaper — the desk lady at the apartment highly recommended it.

The two-hour and change train ride was uneventful and offered amazing views of the beautiful countryside.  It started out flat and mostly farmland and transitioned by the time we got to Salzburg to hills and mountains and forest.

We arrived in Salzburg just after noon.  We walked around looking for lunch for a bit but had no luck finding a restaurant.  We opted to have pastries instead — Genetta had a sweet bread with some kind of filling that her fencing coach had made before and I had a cherry pastry with white icing, both were grand.

We headed to Mozart-Wohnhaus, a house where Mozart’s family moved while he was a young man.  It was quite large but sadly we couldn’t take pictures.  Did get an audio guide with combined ticket for 17 euros.  In addition to a number of mementos, letters, etc. they also had one of his violins.

Leaving Mozart-Wohnhaus we crossed the river Salzach via Makartsteg pedestrian bridge.  The bridge was covered with locks with lovers’ names on them.  Beyond the river was the old center of Salzburg with Festung (fortress) Hohensalzburg looking on a mountainside beyond.  A small stream gushed water into the river from the mountains around town.

We headed to a biergarten and had a really tasty lunch.  Genetta had sausage, sauerkraut, and roasted potatoes.  I had roast beef with reddish gravy with onions, green beans with ham and some vinegar, and a sort of pasta.  Both were wonderful.  The waitresses and waiters wore traditional Austrian dress.

Our next stop was the house where Mozart was born.  It was fascinating!  They had many artifacts including a lock of hair, a cane he owned with a sphinx on it, and mock ups of many of the sets for the operas he composed.  Opera was his primary medium and though he was only thirty-five when he died he had produced six HUNDRED works, his first when he was about five years old.  His wife, Constanz, was not his first choice as wife — that was her sister — but he loved her dearly.  The notes from him to her during his travels were very romantic and touching.  On his death she worked tireless to ensure his legacy.  We saw his childhood violin and the room in which he was born.

After leaving we passed some traditional clothing shops (very pricey!) and walked past Mozartplatz with its Mozart statue then on to Residenzplatz.  That plaza had a nice fountain and was adjacent to Dom zu Salzburg, Salzburg’s main church.  Many horse-drawn carriages sat nearby to ferry tourists about the central part of town.  We headed back to the north side of the river via a bridge built with slave labor from 1941 to 1945.  At Schloss Mirabell we saw a band performing for a group of spectators among formal gardens and neat fountains.

Back at the station we took the 5:52p train back to Vienna, arriving just past 8p.  We dropped by the apartment and freshened up before checking with the front desk about dinner.  They recommended a restaurant just down the street for authentic Austrian food called Magazin 3 Hacken.  It was fabulous.  Genetta had breaded chicken and potato salad.  I had grilled steak and fried onions.  We shared roasted potatoes and pickles.  For dessert we had coffee and chocolate mousse.

Left dinner about 10p and walked back through the center of town.  Passed a closed Starbucks and ended up back at the room just before 11p.  Took some time to charge phone and camera batteries, offload pictures, and went to bed about 1a or so.