Salzburg, Austria

There's a castle above the town on the hill to the right, the Hohensalzburg castle, the "largest fortress in central Europe".

This picture shows the old part of town, the main area you'll want to see.

Vienna is bigger and has more attractions, but I thought in some ways Salzburg was nicer, it's old center section is very nice, more old-world than Vienna, even though both have many old buildings. There's lots of Mozart stuff, he was born here. This is one of the streets in the old section of Salzburg (center of the previous picture), the Getreidegasse. As you can see, there's plenty of activity, and it's nice just to pass some time wandering and observing what's going on.

This is St. Peter's church, showing styles of the 13th, 17th, and 18th centuries, and cemetery, most interesting because it's so unlike any cemetery I've seen in the US. Real iron crosses actually marked R.I.P., marking carefully tended rasied plots decorated with flowers and burning candles. They've dug up old bones to make room for new, and you can see some of the bones along the base of the cliff (the church is directly below the castle) and in a cave carved into the rock. I've seen similar cemeteries in other places too, one in Hallstatt (better pictures of that one below), and another in Switzerland.

You may know that Salzburg is also known as the setting of the movie The Sound of Music. There are Sound of Music tours available, but I didn't take one. When I was there, I had never seen the movie so I wasn't particularly interested in its tour, but I did rent the movie some time later to see what all the fuss was about. I did recognize quite a few things from the movie, but I still liked Salzburg just for being Salzburg more than because of anything I saw in the movie. The movie Portrayed Julie Andrews as being full of energy, but having been there I'd say even more so! Scenes that show her singing as she runs through the town begin in the old town by the river, the next part of the song is in the castle on top of the hill, then the next few bars she's in a garden over on the other side of the river. It's like she was running a marathon while singing!

Hallstatt and the Salzkammergut

Hallstatt is nestled on a narrow ledge on the edge of a lake in the center of the Salzkammergut. You can get here by car (the road has been tunneled through the rock in back of the town so the traffic doesn't disturb the town) or by train as I did (the train stops across the lake and you ride across on a boat that meets the train) or by bus.

I was here in mid November, 1996. This is not the best time of year to visit! My guide books say finding a place to stay in August can be difficult because of the crowds. Well, let me tell you, it can be difficult in November too! Nobody is here and nothing is open! I tried several places before I found a place to stay! Two hotels (including the expensive one) mentioned in my guidebook were closed, another private place wasn't particularly interested in my buisiness because they'd have to heat a large room just for me (explained to me in German), so I finally found a room at the Seethaler, a simple old pension and the lowest priced place in my book. Under the circumstances, I would have preferred a little bit better place, they might have been more generous with the heat. But I did have a really nice view from my balcony high up above the lake. I think I was the only guest in the whole place. I was the only one at breakfast, greeted initially only by the owner's 3 year old asking me in German if I wanted Coffee or Tea. The owners of course did show up to serve breakfast, assisted by an older daughter of about 5, again trying to say things to me in German that I couldn't understand. She gave me a funny look when she said something and all I did in return was to give her a blank stare. I guess she didn't understand why I didn't understand her. It's a funny experience when you can't speak the language as well as small children.

There's two churches in Hallstatt, a protestant church down by the lake and the Catholic Church higher up (the two tallest buildings in the pictures above). The Catholic church has an interesting cemetery, shown here. In November this was the liveliest place in town (!) At least there were live flames in candles on some of the graves.

Like Salzburg, there's limited cemetery space so the old bones have been dug up and put on display to make room for new. Here's the bones, painted with the owner's name and decorations, and sorted with skulls on top an long bones down below.

I did see a few other live tourists in the town, and even some local people, though there didn't seem to be that many of them either. One group of Japanese tourists came through (a common sight at most of the big-name places in Europe), and a few others I saw, mostly at dinner. The restaurant situation wasn't much better than the hotels. At first I thought I might have to buy some groceries at the grocery store in order to eat, most of the restarurants seemed to be closed (though I finally did find two open). There weren't many customers, and they seemed to be out of most things on the menu except for the specials (I guess that's why they were specials).

I took a nice hike up the valley that leads to the town, and also up the trail on the side of the mountain that my book says is a difficult hike down, and back down again, just for the walk and the view (in summer, there's a lift to take you up, but it wasn't operating in November so my only choice was to walk). There's a salt mine up there (I passed by one of the entrances on the way), but it of course wasn't open either (I have already done the standard salt mine tour in Berchtesgaden, so wasn't that interested in another anyway). In fact, about all I could do in Hallstatt was walk, because everything else was closed. The town has a museum, only open one afternoon a week in November (of course not the day I was there). I also tried to take a bus ride up to the Gossausee (a nice lake), but the bus driver informed me that the bus dosn't go to the lake in November. Of course. Finally, leaving the town, I was the only passenger on the boat over to the train. So if you want to know what it's like to vacation in a ghost town, you can try Hallstatt in November. It was a nice town, but try to go when things are open! It's OK to avoid peak months, but try September or October, not November!