SALZBURG: A LITTLE SLICE OF AUSTRIAN BEAUTY

Article by guest author Peter Brooker

Today I'm going to give you a quick recap of my long weekend in Salzburg. My partner and I love Austria and we flew into Salzburg from Gatwick, hired a car from Alamo Rentals and drove about 40 minutes through the city centre to a Villa Sissi, a beautiful boutique hotel just off the river Salzach. 

When we got to the Villa we were greeted by a lovely lady of the house called Elizabeth. She made us feel welcome instantly with her positive smile and energy. She gave us a choice of rooms, and gave us a detailed layout of Salzburg on the map circling recommendations, some touristy some no so. 

Salzburg is mainly famous for two things, the Castle (Fortress Hohensalzburg) and the birth town of Mozart. Let's start with the latter. Mozart is everywhere in Salzburg. There is the big statue in the square, that was only revealed after his death. His sons were present to see the unveiling. There is the birth house and the museum which is on either side of the river. 

There is also a Mozart chocolate empire, and I'm not sure what Mozart had to do with chocolate back in the 18th century, maybe he was a hobbyist Chocolatier. The birth house is a large 3 floored house in the city centre, and chronicles his time in Salzburg, ironically a town he hated. Mozart couldn't wait to get to Vienna which he eventually did in his later years before he died of a fever at the age of 35. 

The house is typically austere, but sadly they don't actually play any Mozart music in the house. I asked one of the guides why that is and she said, 'can you imagine working here and listening to Mozart all day?' 

Yeah, it would be f&cking awesome, I thought. By the way the guy wrote 23 operas, he wrote over 200 hours of music, and by the way, you work in the Mozart birth house. Surely this comes with the job. The people working in the all-year-round Christmas shop over the street get to listen to f*cking Jingle Bell Rock 365 days of the year. How about a little Mozart over the loudspeaker, that's all I'm saying. I'm a paying customer. And by the way, Aren't we trying to preserve the legacy? Keep his music alive? 

So go to the Mozart house of birth, but be prepared to get angry and learn next to nothing. 

The castle is worth a visit. I asked the guy on the front desk if it had been featured in any movies, he told me no. But they have filmed naughty films here back in the day. He looked the kind of guy who owned those films. It will take about half a day to walk around and explore the castle. You should stop off and have some food there, it's a lot better than it has any right to be. 

I found the history interesting, but it's a long complicated one. The main take away was this place was built to be a fortress. And they kept adding walls, and extensions, and over time created a supposedly impenetrable fortress. Only when Napoleon turned up, they handed over the keys without so much as firing an arrow. 

The shopping is so-so. Fairly standard Austrian commercial fashion. Not really my cup of tea but my partner picked up some swimwear bargains from the likes of Palmers. There are many restaurants and you can't go wrong with an Austrian sausage. I would say carry cash with you always. Cash is king here in Salzburg. 

If you're into Hiking there are countless trails, but you'll need to drive out to get to them. The Dachstein hike is a beautiful one, and famous for its disaster in 1953 that killed 13 people. 

My favourite hike was a little less taxing, down in Altaussee lake. The lake takes around 2 hours to walk around, but you can stop off at the Jagdhaussee Wiese which was featured in the movie Spectre. The food is great too, all homemade and the fish sourced from the lake and the mushrooms sourced from the forest. 

The weather in Salzburg during July gets quite humid. Though with a mild threat of rain on some days. Things to do in Salzburg? Aside from the castle there are several other museums we didn't visit. The cathedral is beautiful and should not be missed. Outside of that we just enjoyed walking around, taking in the sights. Trying different bars. The Stiegl beer is served everywhere and it's delicious. You can hunt out some happy hour cocktails and generally we found the prices very affordable. 

4 days is certainly enough in Salzburg, but we will return and use it as a basecamp to try more hiking trails. After Salzburg we drove off to Viva Mayr in Worthamsee for a much needed detox. You can find a review to that place in a previous post here. Oh lastly the Herenhof Castle as seen in Where Eagles Dare is a must. Ask for a gentleman called Floren as he will show you all the filming locations where they filmed inside the castle. There is even a little mini museum inside the castle dedicated to the film.