Annual road trip to The Netherlands, Salzburg Austria

So last August we said we would not drive the insanely long hours to Zwolle conference again ... but we did!
However this year, we did stop to smell the roses along the way!

Salzburg Austria

1st stop - a picnic lunch and sightseeing in Salzburg Austria. 

  - Salzburg on foot - 

 Too stretch our legs we had planned two hikes, however the day was very hot. So we slightly changed our plans, eating our lunch under a shade tree, along the river Salzach,  a nice picturesque walkway with many benches.
We then took the Museum der Moderne's elevator {The Mönchsberg Lift}, to the top of Mönchsberg’s cliffs.

 From low and high ... cityscape, river, alpines, fortress, & other historic icons

Mönchsberg cliffs look out across the city; with the Salzach river on the left, and  Festung Hohenwerfen to the right, plus a panoramic views of the Alpine mountains and valleys.

FACT:

• The 900-year-old medieval Salzburg Fortress [English for Festung Hohensalzburg], is Salzburg’s most visible icon, built in 1077 by  Gebhard von Helffenstein, it began life as a humble bailey. The present structure owes its grandeur to Leonard von Keutschach, prince-archbishop of Salzburg from 1495 to 1519 and the city's last feudal ruler. 

You can see the fortress from the river bank, the cliffs, and quite a few places around the city. We did not tour it, maybe next time! But we did view some of the main tourist sights, ditching the second hike, before heading back to our car  -  a car with air conditioning. 

 Steingasse; a narrow, cobbled lane, which was the main trade route to Italy in medieval times. 

 The street has pastel-coloured townhouses and shops, some set right in the cliff. We checked out a couple shops looking for and finding, narrow rooms with exposed stone back walls. There is also the 13th-century Steintor gate and the house of Joseph Mohr , who wrote the lyrics to 'Silent Night'. 

We also wander into Salzburg's old town.  Window shopping down Salzburg's famous shopping street, Getreidegasse, checking out a couple of the side streets and hidden alleyways, and the house were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born. Pasting the Salzburg Dome Cathedral and St Peter's making our last stop the Mirabell gardens. Relaxing in the outdoor cafe' over a much needed ice coffee, made with ice cream.

Salzburg Austria - "You are here"

 Mirabell Gardens and Palace, 

FACT: 

• Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich had this splendid palace built for his mistress Salome Alt in 1606, with whom he had 15 children. Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, of Schloss Belvedere fame, gave it a baroque makeover in 1721. The lavish Marmorsaal (Marble Hall), replete with stucco, marble and frescoes. 
•  A young Mozart performed concerts in the Marble Hall with his sister. 
• Scenes from the 1965 movie The Sound of Music was shot on these grounds.
• Today, it’s the official seat of Salzburg’s mayor and in spring and summer, you can listen to choirs and orchestras and concerts. For stellar fortress views, stroll the fountain-dotted gardens.  

Salzburg is an Austrian city on the German border, with views of the Eastern Alps. By car, it is about 5 hours north west of us. The city is divided by the Salzach River, with medieval and baroque buildings of the pedestrian Altstadt (Old City) on its left bank, and 19th-century Neustadt (New City) on the right. Salzburg’s Old Town, it is a typical European town, small in size and big in sights with some great stories and histories behind it.  Because we did (internet) research, even only have a couple hours, we managed to see quite a bit.  Although it has been said a picture is worth a 1000 words,  it is hard to capture the beauty and depth the naked eye can see. 

More random facts:

• Not to be confused, Hohenwerfen Castle standing high above the Austrian town of Werfen in the Salzach valley, approximately 40 km (25 mi) south of Salzburg, is a "sister" of Hohensalzburg, in Salzburg, both dating from the 11th century. 
• Hohenwerfen Castle served as the main backdrop for the song "Do-Re-Mi" in The Sound of Music and was used as the castle 'Schloss Adler' in Where Eagles Dare, the British 1968 World War II film starring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood.
• Wolf Dietrich received an ecclesiastical education at the Collegium Germanicum in Rome and became a member of the Salzburg cathedral chapter in 1578. He continued the harsh measures of the Counter-Reformation initiated by his predecessors, and in 1589 had all Protestants expelled from the city of Salzburg. 
• Address: Getreidegasse 9; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was born in this bright-yellow townhouse in 1756 and spent the first 17 years of his life here. Today it's a museum.
• Salzburg chocolatier Paul Fürst invented the Mozartkugel “Mozart ball” in 1890 and named it after his city’s most famous son.
• Sight vs. site - {dictionary} A site is a place where something is located. Sight has many definitions, including (1) the ability to see; (2) one’s field of vision; (3) something seen; (4) a place or thing worth seeing; {from internet} "Technically you're using your sense of sight to see. So in order to Site-See, you have to Sight-See."
• The expression "Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words." appears in a 1911 newspaper article quoting newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane[1]

Along the way 

On the road you see quite a few old castles, forts and church steeples... next post ... the rest of the trip, Nuremberg, Germany and Heerlen and Zwolle Holland.
Also see:
2014/02/zwolle-conference.
2014/08/road-trip-to-netherlands.
2015/08/august-raod-trip-cont-nuremberg-germany