Salzburg

The weather has finally broken here in Mitteleuropa, and today the maximum reached a mere 27°C. Last night our programme director, Krzysztof, gave us some bad news…the water level of the Danube has fallen to very low levels, and this is going to prevent us from docking at our final port of call, Regensburg; in fact, we were lucky to get a berth at Passau. Alternative plans have been put in place, though. Once again we cruised all night, eventually docking around 8:30am, in time for our departure at 9:15. We have arrived in the small village of Engelhartszell. 

The usual procedure applied, and we were again enjoined to bring our passports as, having just arrived in Germany, we would be leaving it to go back to Austria. The bus journey took us over two hours, on a picturesque route with quaint little villages everywhere. We arrived and immediately set off on the walking tour. Our guide, Julia, told us all about the history of Salzburg (salt city), and how salt made the city rich. She told us there were four things we should experience whilst in the city: salt, beer, Mozart balls, and pumpkin oil. Well, I had some beer at lunchtime. We managed to take in pretty much all the sights of the Old Town on our tour, including the cathedral, views of the castle (we didn’t go up) and the nunnery made famous by The Sound Of Music. 

Residenzbrunnen fountain - made in the Italian style, by Italians

Shopping street

The castle

The nunnery

Mozart, of course, is a major draw to the city and we went past the house where he was born and lived, which is now a museum. The main square is called Mozartplatz. What it was called before he arrived we weren’t told. It’s on the main shopping street, which in olden times conveyed the contents of the shop with symbols, as people couldn’t read – an umbrella for the umbrella shop, scissors and people in clothes for a tailor’s, etc. The modern shops which are now on the street pay Unesco a large amount of money to put their logo inside these old signs (the old city is a World Heritage site), and the shops must still reflect what the sign says – the tailor’s sign is now a Zara, for example (the umbrella shop is still the original umbrella shop, still selling handmade umbrellas). The exception to this rule is McDonald’s, which paid an even larger amount of money to put an M in the sign for a brewery, as fast food shops didn’t really exist back then. 

Mozart house - back. The ground floor is a Spar, for historical reasons, apparently

Mozart house - front

We were pretty well knackered by lunchtime, which was around half past one. Although the temperature had dropped 10°C from the previous day, it was very humid. We trooped upstairs to a grand ballroom for our rubber chicken, and were entertained by a quartet dressed in traditional costume, who sang the main songs from The Sound Of Music whilst we dined.

After lunch we had just over an hour of free time, so we took a quick gander inside the church of St Peter before making our way back to the Mozart House, where we spent the rest of the afternoon, seeing the violin he played as a child, and also a spinet (a type of early piano) they had owned. The house tells the story of the family and employers of the Mozarts (dad was famous for writing the definitive “how to play a violin” book) and how they spent their lives. Apparently Wolfie himself spent around ⅓ of his life in coaches, going from place to place. 

Inside St Peter's

Statue of Mozart in Mozartplatz

His violin

We arrived back in Mozartplatz with ten minutes to spare – enough time to get a t-shirt from a souvenir shop. There were no I ♥ MOZART t-shirts available, which I thought was a trick missed – it even rhymes!

The trip back was uneventful, following the same route. We returned just in time to hear the briefing, which included important information on how and when to get breakfast and disembark on Saturday. The ship needs to be cleared by 8:00am so we won’t be shilly-shallying, nor indeed lollygagging, over breakfast. Departure times and luggage tags are colour-coded depending on which airport or onward destination you’re going to – ours is one of the latest, at 7:45am (some have to leave at 1:00am!), for our journey to Nuremburg.

In the evening, the chef had prepared a traditional Austrian dinner. Yeah, it wasn’t brilliant. The Austrians are known for music, alps, and picturesqueness, not for their cuisine. Very meat-heavy, and the only vegetable in evidence was cabbage. They managed a decent pudding, though. 

Esterhazy cake and sachertorte