Salzburg- Day 1

I updated yesterday`s post with details about my trip to Neuchwanstein Castle, so you can check that out if you want.

I still cant get back to Edinburgh, so I moved from Munich to Salzburg. What an awesome place! I love it here! The weather is perfect and it`s a beautiful city. It`s famous for being the birthplace of Mozart, and where he grew up, as well as for being the place where The Sound of Music was filmed (and where the Von Trapps actually lived).

I arrived around 11 this morning, and walked from the train station instead of taking the bus to save money. It was a long walk, but like I said the weather was perfect, and most of the walk was along the river, so it was a beautiful walk. I got to the hostel about noon, then set off to see the city.

I started off by going into a few churches, because those are what I passed first. I went into Kajetanerkirche and Katakomben. Eventually I found the main area, which consists of 4 squares: Mozartplatz, Residenzplatz, Kapitelplatz, and Domplatz. They are all connected to each other.

Residenzplatz:

Domplatz, and the Cathedral:

Giant chessboard in Kapitalplatz:

Mozartplatz:

I went in to the Dom, the main cathedral. It is beautiful, and Im going to go to a free concert there tomorrow night.

Cathedral:

Next I went in to the Residenz, the palace. There´s an audio guide that takes you through the state rooms, so that was pretty cool. It was cool to hear more about the people I learned about in Vienna.

One of the rooms in the Residenz:

After that I just walked around and explored the city. There are tons of really cool streets, and most of the city center is pedestrianized so that`s nice. I loved walking around in the beautiful weather.

Eventually I headed up to Festung Hohensalzburg, the castle. It was a steep climb up to the fortress, but the view was fantastic. The castle was cool, and there were some nice museums, but I think the view was the best part.

View of the castle from Kapitelplatz:

View from the castle:

I spent a few hours there then walked along the river to Schloss Mirabell, a palace with beautiful gardens.

Walking along the river:

Schloss Mirabell is where some scenes from the "Do-re-mi" song in The Sound of Music were flimed. You`ll probably recognize the pictures below from those scenes.

Mirabell Gardens:

Doe, a deer, a female deer...:

After that I bought a ticket for the official Sound of Music tour tomorrow. Im actually really excited about it! It goes to a bunch of the places where they filmed the movie, like the gazebo, the church where they got married, the abby, and more. The hostel that I`m staying in shows the movie every night so Im going to watch it tonight to get ready for tomorrow! Im excited.

It was about 6 by then so I walked back to my hostel to get settled in, bought a book (I finished both of the ones I brought with me), then found an internet cafe to type this up and do research on Salzburg.

Tonight, the Sound of Music. Tomorrow, the Sound of Music tour, then something else. I really wanted to go to the Eagle´s Nest, an observation bunker thing used by Hitler, but it is closed until May! Im really disapointed about that. Instead, I might go to the world`s largest ice caves. I need to do some research though.

Update: The ice caves are closed until May too! Ahhh! I was going to do this a different day, but maybe Ill rent a bike. Biking is really popular around here and there are a ton of paths. Ill look into a place for hiking for Wednesday I guess.