Salzburg

The city of Salzburg is, if anything, a city of music! Best known as the birthplace of W. A. Mozart, this city is full of beautiful sounds! This being the case, it seemed fitting to attend a concert held in the "Residence" the home of the Prince Archbishops' (the rulers of the city in earlier days). The concert consisted of a demonstration of traditional Renaissance instruments, an excellent pianist and a very gifted 18-year-old opera singer. It was altogether very enjoyable!
We also made sure to see the Residence itself, as it was a rather elegant and richly furnished building. The Prince Archbishops' reigned over Salzburg from the early 14th century, right up until the Napoleonic wars in 1805. Unfortunately, they were not the kindest of rulers...

We also learned a little bit about the history of Salzburg when we visited the Salzburg Museum that same day (we only had one day, so...). Turns out, Mozart technically wasn't Austrian: Salzburg did not become a part of Austria until the early 19th century!!

Later on, we paid a visit to the city's catacombs. We amused ourselves in picturing the Von Trapp family hiding in a similar location...
We also explored several ancient churches, the oldest of which- St. Peterskirche- dates back to AD 847!
We unfortunately did not make it to Stiftnonnberg, the abbey where we are first introduced to Maria in "The Sound of Music".

We stayed in a youth hostel fairly close to the city center for two nights. From there, we were directed to a reportedly lovely restaurant in town, but got lost and ended up at a friendly Austrian pub instead. The next night, we dined at a quintessentially Austrian biergarten. Lots of fun was had by all! The hostel itself was very comfortable and we enjoyed our stay.

Although our time there was short, we very much enjoyed Salzburg and all it's many charms!

Elizabeth :)