A Day in Salzburg

The Church of St. Michael

This morning we departed from our cruise ship with the option to transfer directly to Munich for free time or do an optional tour to Dachau with a visit to the Memorial site on the grounds of the formal concentration camp.

​The other option was an excursion back to Austria for a day in Salzburg. Being a long time fan of the movie “The Sound of Music” I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit Salzburg and perhaps see a few sites used in the filming of the movie. It was a rainy day but we weren’t about to let that dampen our spirits or our experience. All suited up in our rain gear and we were off! Our first stop was in Mondsee where we visited the church of St. Michael that was used in the movie for the wedding scene of Captain Von Trapp and Maria. Can you envision the long center aisle of the church with Maria’s  wedding gown and veil trailing behind her and up the steps to the alter…..I had to walk that same path, reliving the movie scene in my mind.

The entire church, alter and pipe organ are very beautiful making it evident why it was chosen for the wedding church in the movie. We also walked down the tree lined lane where the children were hanging from trees in their play clothes which was also filmed in Mondsee…..onward to Salzburg! 

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Mirabellgarten

Upon our arrival to Salzburg our local guide led us into old town, the historic part of the city. We saw Mozart’s birth place, Mirabellgarten, Residenzplatz, the Marionette Theatre, the birthplace of Christian Doppler (a mathematician and physicist known for the principle of the Doppler effect........now you know where the name Doppler Radar came from!), St. Peter’s cemetery (which was recreated in a studio for the movie) and through the street market. The street market consisted of many kinds of stands; sausage, cheese, fruits and vegetables, pastry and of course pretzels! We were told that many locals eat at the sausage stands but you don’t eat your sausage in the bread……only tourist eat sausage that way.
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You have the sausage in one hand (on a plate) and bread in the other. Even though it was rainy and cold we decided to huddle under the awning of a sausage stand and eat like a local. I had a Kasekrainer sausage with mustard and fresh grated horseradish……yummy.

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The drizzle had let up so our group decided to hike up the hill to the Nonnberg Abbey whose exterior was used in the movie. This is still a working abbey and you aren't able to tour the interior and unfortunately after getting nearly to the top of the hill the road was blocked for construction so we were unable to see the outside of the Abbey……but we did get a great view of the city of Salzburg! Back down the hill we went where we stopped and bought some roasted chestnuts from a street vendor and also some of the famous Mozart chocolates, the Original Salzburg Mozartkugel.

​The original recipe for these was created in 1890 by Paul Furst and was awarded a gold medal for his creation. There are imposters of this candy being sold throughout Austria but the original chocolate is still being made today by hand and can only be purchased in Salzburg or Sankt Gilgen at the Furst Cafe’s. Our free time in Salzburg was over and it was time for us to board the bus to go on to Munich for the remainder of our trip. One day in Salzburg was good but I would love to go back and spend a couple of days, anyone interested in taking in Salzburg with me?