Salzburg, Austria

During our week in Germany, my family also had the opportunity to spend a day in Salzburg, Austria, as it's only a few hours away from Munich.

Salzburg is known for several things, including the birthplace and hometown of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and for the singing Von Trapp family depicted in The Sound of Music. The city is incredibly old, having been settled during the "New" Stone Age (which stretches from 3,500 B.C. back to something like 10,000 B.C.), but it's so well-preserved that it definitely gives tourists that whole "stepping back in time" feeling.

Here are a few of the photos I took while I was there.

Above: This was one of my first views of Salzburg. On top of the mountain you can see the Hohensalzburg Fortress. In front of the fortress is part of the old downtown area of Salzburg, and in the photo's foreground is the Salzach River.

Above: Here is a better photo of the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which was originally built in 1077. In that day and age, it looked much humbler, and it wasn't until the time of Napoleon that the fortress came to look the way it does in this photo.

Above: This is Mirabell Palace. It's probably more famous for its gardens than for its architecture. A number of scenes for The Sound of Music were filmed here, including the scene in which the Von Trapp Children sing "Do, Re, Mi" for the first time.

Above: The gardens of Mirabell Palace.

Above: A fountain in the gardens at Mirabell Palace.

Above: The two statues of the unclothed men leaning toward each other are shown in one scene in The Sound of Music. I tried to find a screenshot from the film showing them, but alas, I came up empty-handed.

Above: The steps that Julie Andrews danced upon in The Sound of Music.

Above: Since it's the the birthplace of Mozart, you can imagine that the town of Salzburg tries to promote this fact every opportunity it gets. Chuckle. (Time actually did an article on that very subject manner. You can find it here.). Something Salzburg has made famous are the Mozart Kugeln, or the "Mozart Candies," which are balls of chocolate that are something like bon-bons with marzipan (= heaven) filling. They're always wrapped in gold and red wrappers with a picture of Mozart on top. You can see boxes of them in this store's window.

Above: One of the streets in downtown. Do you see all the wrought-iron signs above the stores? That tradition began back in a time when most people were illiterate, so the store owners would put symbols of their goods or services on their stores' signs. If you were looking for a tailor, you looked for the wrought-iron sign with the scissors, or if you were looking for the bakery, you looked for the sign with a loaf of bread, etc. Things have changed a lot since then, however, as "symbolized" by the United Colors of Benetton sign in the forefront.

Above: The Sound of Music's filmmakers asked the Roman Catholic Church for permission to film in the beautiful St. Peter's Cemetery in Salzburg; they wanted to use it as the place where Liesel hides from her Nazi boyfriend, Rolf, behind one of the gates. But the church refused, and so the cemetery was photographed and reproduced on a set in Hollywood. Nevertheless, it is easily recognizable to fans of the movie.

Above: One of the grave markers with elaborate script that reads: "All what is, lives. Nothing is annihilable, Even mouldering is transition to new life."

Above: Another beautiful grave marker.

Above: Next to St. Peter's Cemetery are catacombs and a small chapel that early Christians carved into the mountain. Their handiwork dates back to 400. A.D. -- a time when it was against the law to practice Christianity. Here you can see windows that were added in later centuries.

Above: This photo follows the view to the right where the previous photo ended. The door below the small steeple is where people can enter to make the climb up to the catacombs.

Above: Here is St. Peter's Cemetery as seen from the catacombs' windows. On the right side of the photo is St. Peter's Church. I would have liked to bring back some photos from inside the catacombs, but the truth is it was so dark in there none of them came out well. Try to imagine very tiny, rudimentary stone steps that open to a small room with depressions in the walls, probably where the deceased were laid to rest.

Above: St. Peter's Cemetery as seen from the catacombs' windows. The green dome that you can see belongs to Salzburg's cathedral, which is a very beautiful, baroque masterpiece. It's also the place where Mozart was baptized.

Above: Maybe this was a lot cuter to see in person, but I loved this little house and had to bring back a photo of it. A long time ago, a man could not marry until he owned property, i.e., a house, i.e., a roof over his head. The man who built this house in the alley between these two very old buildings was either very poor and very in love, or he was incredibly cheap. Hopefully his bride didn't mind either way.

All photos by Sway Sovay