Sound of Salzburg

As I later learnt, I got to Salzburg on an unusually sunny day. I have been here before, briefly, though at age 7 or so. People in Germany had warned me it always rains in Salzburg but when I arrived, it was the same sunny Alps I remember. And, eager to explore something new, I of course made the best of the afternoon by walking a lot. Beautifully situated between the hills, whereof a few still were snow covered, the Salzach river cuts smoothly through the city. It has all the same rich gloriousness as Vienna, only much smaller, more rural.

The main selling point for the city is of course Mr Mozart. He is everywhere, but not nearly as trashily exploited as some other tourist symbols you see around Europe. And the chocolate they make out of him is quite delicious (however, I already had my share of Mozart Kugeln in Munich, so I only looked for the Mozart Kugeln ice-cream, but was thunderstruck to not find it! Berlin-Salzburg 1-0).

The second selling point I was not prepared for, but it turned out to be - obviously - Sound of Music. Since Americans and Asians have started to become major tourist groups in Salzburg, this for local people completely unknown movie attracts a lot of people. For me personally, I found it great... there's nothing better than popular culture tourism, especially when it's about pop culture you like yourself. This movie is on place 3 of my How-many-times-I've-seen-it-list.

Mirabell garden. On these steps the von Trapp children
practiced Do-Re-Me

The pavilion where Lisl dances with Rolf,
and where Maria and captain von Trapp finally admit
their lover for each other

Doing the whole Sound of Music Tour seemed a little overwhelming for me, though. Had it been in May, would I certainly have loved to engage in the Fräulein Maria's Bike Tour, but late March here is like Sweden - sudden rain showers and only around 8-10 degrees outside, so this was not yet a possibility.

Instead I went to the places I could reach by foot or a local bus. Of course many of those places are also interesting and/or beautiful to see, whether you care about the film or not - the movie actually uses several of the main attractions of Salzburg as a scenery.

Because of the season, the weather and my inability to climb too high of a mountain, I chose not to go up the Unterberg to hike. But I got to see nice views anyway, living by the foot of the Kapuzinerberg, a sort forresty mini-mountain just by the city center. On top of it climbs a small, solitary, secret monk monastery like some tale from Medieval times.

Apart from my first and half second day in Salzburg, it constantly rained. Apparently the normal Salzburg every-day-rain is called "thread rain", but I was unlucky enough to also suffer stormy winds and hail. One rainy day when I had done my work, I stayed in and sat in the otherwise empty hostel and watched Sound of Music. For the fifteenth time. It was still good (just so you know).

I also met up with an Austrian girl I had talked to on Internet, we went for coffee and beer for a few hours, just talking about traveling, languages, life, work, culture and more. Very nice end of my stay.

Salzburg was sweet to me, and I perceived it as a city truly charming, very self confident and exceptionally classic - and classy. I will probably go back, some day, because I still want to see the Alps in the Summer.