Salzburg

15/8

Nice quiet sleep in a big open carpark with views of the granite massive housing the ice cave jewel and foreground schloss rising out of the rock of it’s very own peak.

Day off exercise - the olds are feeling creaky!  Stretch session beside the river instead.

Whilst school is happening the carpark is dramatically filling up. Almost at bursting, we decide to free up our space after a last coffee just as the kids skid back from the playground.  A quick chat with Aunty Dan has us sure-ing up some Xmas and NY ideas - seems crazy - nowhere near ready to close this episode in our lives & haven’t seen Italy yet! 

Easy drive to Salzburg.  Ugly outer city (as they all are) and bum steer to now defunct campsite - remembering why we like the countryside so much.  So, using TomTom, we find another overlooking the altstadt where Little Italy is holidaying.

On the bikes on yet another exquisite afternoon, we follow the powdery blue Salzach only 5 kms into town where we simply wander aimlessly as the day cools off and the soothing evening colours take over.  

Salzburg skyline with the Prince Archbishop's castle aloft

We happen upon Mozart’s birth house & then his later residence; are serenaded by excellent buskers (especially an animated chap on electric violin playing popular classics - Wil is transfixed and we buy the CD) and the sounds of rehearsing opera singers booming from glorious billowy-curtained windows at every turn; gardens where Europeans picnic on a summer evening, sprawled on blankets drinking beer & champagne; the more formal gardens of Schloss Mirabell where scenes from Sound of Music were filmed;

charming shopping streets and endless arcades full of high fashion, music and all things Mozart (including chocolate shaped violins and furst - a sticky Mozart inspired chocolate & nougat ball); magnificent churches one of which has a sublime opera accompanied mass ongoing………..

Full up for now, we book a Sound of Music marionette show for tomorrow and leave exploration of Mozart’s Wohnhaus until then as well.  People speak of being moved to tears with different experiences - this historical city of music makes me wonder about my previous………... or future life.  So sophisticated, the rich & abundant sounds with melodies so utterly exquisite just make me blubber.

Back home, the campground is full to the tippy top.  We squeeze around our outdoor table for a snacky dinner and cold milk before an Italian serenaded sleep.

16/8

10BX on mats by the river together - I’ll really miss exercising with my beau every morning.

Walk to bakery hand in hand.  We buy the brownest, most granular one (dinkelbrot) - the sauerdoughs are too smooth and whilst heavy, are relatively uninteresting when it comes to seeds & grains.

Maths power whilst we figure the cloudy skies & cooler temperatures.

Piles of sandwiches made, nuts and dried fruit packed in as well, we jump on the bikes  UNESCO city bound & equipped with all weather gear.

Mozart’s Wonhaus is our first stop after which we all felt a bit unsatisfied.  The whole journey was ‘studied’ and quite intense.  There was just not enough about the man rather more about his travels with sister Nannerl & father Leopold all over Europe playing in courts and palaces from age 5.  His genius saw him pour out great  gallons of enormous works almost effortlessly.  Apparently he naturally woke to the piano stool and needed no encouragement.  Wil said he doesn’t believe it - we explained the possibility of Aspergers, he is thought by some to have had Tourette’s as well.   Whilst whisked away in classical yesteryear, the rain cleared enough for us to walk up to Friedhof St Sebastian church where we wolfed down our sandwiches beneath the cloisters.  The Lonely Planet suggested it might be quieter here away from the unbelievable tourists crowds in the altstadt.  Mozart’s father & wife have a small modest grave in the foreground of the hideous mausoleum to Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich.  Found here are also the graves of the Doppler family. 

St Sebastian Cloisters and Cemetery

Bellies full, we walk to St Blasius church built into the rock of the city cliffs for a free Mozart Marriage of Figaro opera.  We are absolutely blown away by talented young singers & learn that it was put on by the Franco-American Vocal Academy whose mission it is to discover, educate and inspire promising young vocal talent. The performers set my skin prickling with notes so pure and powerful and to add to the goosebumps, they were accompanied by a small youth orchestra in the adjacent cloister.  I swooned, kids loved it but practical Jeff was ready to go at intermission (90 minutes later) because he couldn’t understand what it was about given most opera is in Italian, and we had a marionette show to get to.  Even so, we had to cut things short in order to walk across town, cross the river, and have a coffee before our major attraction in Salzburg - the famous Salzburger Marionettentheatre performing The Sound of Music!

It was a very, very significant treat and utterly delightful.  The puppets flew, danced, jumped (bounced on their heads) and sang and the props were fabulous. Wil exclaimed many times about the superb choice of colours, sounds and props to convey powerful messages and moods.  Kel was thoroughly engaged in the fantasies and familiar songs.  I think Jeff’s biggest pleasure was watching Kel’s face.

Maccy's Gren?

On our walk back to Schloss Mirabell gardens we shamelessly loudly sang all the tunes, doing ‘rounds’ to Do-Re-Mi as we passed the Pegasus sculpture and then real deal singers warming up for evening performances all over the city.

Mirabell Gardens - fit for an Archbishop's Mistress!

"Doe, a deer, a female deer...."

We lost ourselves for a bit in the incredibly handsome marble staircase of the palace.  All colours of coffee, cream and gold make the lines of Greek God statues even more sumptuous. 

marble staircase, fit for an Archbishop's mistress!!

We recross the bridge of knowledge (3^rd or 4^th time today) on which lovers have taken to applying locks with their names on them.  Getting closer to Italy the ice-cream is getting better and bigger - our choice for dinner.  We arrived home exhausted and ready for bed.

locks of love on the bridge of knowledge

bridge of knowledge

see ya Salzburg

17/8

Jeff off for a lone run whilst the injured one does 10BX by the river & stocks up at the local bakerei (including some heart shaped pepita rolls for breakfast!)

Starting the exit routine including a clothes wash (always an issue when the campground population is that of Indooroopilly Shopping town buyers on Xmas Eve and only two of the small domestic machines work) and school.

The kids zip off down the hill to “the best playground discovered this year” whilst we tidy and ready...starting to think that our journey might just re-include Croatia if we kick along a bit.

Our drive out includes a stop at a caravan store looking (unsuccessfully) for a bolt and the rare find of an LPG outlet.  A short distance down the road to the Austrian Lakes district we meet a father & son from Salzburg at an unbelievable lookout over the spectacular Wolfgangsee.