Day trip to Salzburg

24 April 2022.

There was promise of rain today but we've seen that claim come and go in the past couple of days. Anyway, we opted to wear our raincoats and take an umbrella, which would eventually prove useful.

Sunday was quiet and the streets empty when we left the apartment a little before 8:00am. It took us about 25 minutes or so to walk to the central train station. The Munich station is in the throes of a complete makeover and construction outside choked much of the surrounding streets. Inside the station showed its age but they had a Starbucks so we grabbed our morning coffee while we cooled our heels before our 8:56 train for Salzburg

The train was mostly empty when we boarded. It left on time and shortly afterwards a conductor came by our seats allowing us to inaugurate our Eurail passes. We settled in for the (relatively) short ride through southern Germany on into Austria.

As we neared our destination riding past rolling hills, and farms with that distinctive alpine architecture we could see snow on the alps off in the distance. The journey was pleasant and uneventful.

We arrived in Salzburg on time. Before we could leave the platform however, everyone had to show their passports and proof of vaccination to several police before we could take the escalator down into the station. (And a very nice station it is, I might add.) 

Once inside we made our way to the information office, grabbed a city map and inquired as to which bus would take us across the river into the old town.

a quiet platform in Munich

We walked outside into the sunshine and found our no. 1 bus line platform (C). A few minutes later we were aboard the bus and off across the river in search of Susie's baking class. She had discovered an available strudel class in Salzburg before our departure from the USA and decided to sign up for it after we arrived in Munich. 

Since the old town is literally built into the cliff face overlooking the Salzach River it wasn't too difficult finding the Edelweiss Cooking School at Ursulinenplatz.

Susie's group with Johann the instructor

After dropping Susie off I headed off in search of Saint Peter's cemetery. I followed the base of the cliffs of Mount Monschberg and strolled through the old town. Although this part of the city is somewhat claustrophobic one nevertheless gets a true sense of the old Salzburg. 

note the sign. . . "Water for your dog or your children, we don't judge"

Located at the base of Mount Monschberg, the cemetery is tucked in behind Saint Peter's church. Although small, the chapels built into the side of the mountain are filled with paintings and relief sculptures, usually depicting a religious or spiritual scene but occasionally representational as well.

For you Sound of Music fans - this cemetery was the inspiration for the escape scene where the family hid from the Nazis. In reality the scene was filmed on a Hollywood set, or so we're told.

view from a landing on the stairs up to the catacombs

The unique thing about this particular cemetery is its catacomb built above and into the side of the mountain and which contains the remains of composer and organist Johann Michael Haydn, Joseph Haydn's younger brother, and Nannerl, Mozart's sister.

The climb up the steps inside was dark and the footing very uneven, some of the steps were stone, others marble and a few wooden and all of varying heights. The lighting in the catacombs itself was virtually nonexistent so one had little opportunity to appreciate the spiritual value of the space. Interesting but not particularly stimulating.

This video will give you a much better sense of the space:

Once back into the cemetery the clouds opened up and the rain began to fall in earnest. Properly prepared with umbrella in hand I made my way back to the cooking school. (Johann had graciously invited me to join them for lunch after the baking session.) I took time to stop in a small church, sit for a few minutes and await the passing of the rain. 

Back at the school I joined Susie and her five colleagues, five German women from Augsburg who were in the midst of a much-belated (thank you Covid) bachelorette party. The lunch consisted of Goulasch (scrumptious and, yes, I got the recipe) followed by (of course) the apple strudel.

After class Susie and strolled in the sunshine along the Salzach river. We made our way to the nearby bridge where we bought tickets for a river cruise. 

Marko-Feingold-Steg pedestrian bridge

cruise boat landing near the Marko Bridge

Since we had a little over an hour before our cruise we stopped at a nearby wine bar for a glass of Cremant d'Alsace. Using their Wifi we chose our return trip Eurail tickets for Munich.

From the wine-bar we strolled across the Marko-Feingold-Steg Bridge in search of the Mirabell Gardens. Again, for you Sound of Music fans, this is where the children are out skipping about as they romp gleefully with Maria. Note: not being a fan of said film, I took these movie cues from Susie.

We eventually made our way back across the river and at 15:00 (3pm for non-military types) our boat pulled away from the dock and headed upstream.

Mirabell Gardens

a little imagination on the street never hurts

We have often found when visiting a new place on a river (as so many cities are!) a river cruise is just the ticket to get a good perspective of the city. Salzburg was no exception. The audio narration was helpful (German and English) and, since there was a large contingent of Italians on board, one of the staff members took it upon herself to explain much of the trip in Italian, which earned her a large round of applause near the end of the trip. 

The trip lasted about 45 minutes with intermittent showers but since we were all sitting inside the rain mattered little. 

As we approached the dock the captain informed us that it wouldn't be right to finish without a little dance. So she put some Mozart on the sound system and put the boat into spinning round and round to the music much to the glee of everyone on board.

our captain

After leaving the boat and after some confusion and consternation we found the bus to take us back to the train station. 

awaiting the Munich train

After a few minutes our train pulled in on time. It was packed -- we assumed because it was a late Sunday crowd heading home -- and we were lucky to snag a couple of seats. Although the train was reportedly direct to Munich (as opposed to our morning train which made a number of stops) shortly after leaving Salzurg we stopped and several police came aboard. Everyone had to show their passports, papers and IDs. No explanations were given. After about 20 minutes we were back on our way.

We arrived back in Munich a little before 19:00 (7pm) and walked home in a light drizzle.

Once settled back in we had a glass of wine followed by a dinner of left over curried chicken and rice mixed with tiny blanched potatoes.