Bones and Silver…

After a maintenance check on the bike (tightening the chain again!), we left the beautiful city of Vienna making tracks towards the small medieval town of Kutna Hora in the Czech Republic, the journey is less than 300kms, just just a short ride today, thankfully as the weather was not in our favour again. (hope the rest of Europe does not dish out this ghastly weather!).
Once out of Vienna we were back riding through the beautiful green country side, passing through small towns and villages along the way.

In the distance we could make out a couple of small tatty buildings on either side of the road, these must be the old border control huts at Hatě, Znojmo, Wahoo our next country, the Czech Republic…

No checks at the border for us, not even a half hearted glance at our passports!
We pull up at a petrol station right near the checkpoint and put on our waterproofs, we’re heading into some rain by the looks of it..

A few minutes of arriving in the Czech Republic we came a cross a strange site, Excalibur City a theme park in the middle of the country side, it seemed an odd place for it, feeling curious and in need stretching our legs we rode into the car park and found the perfect spot to park, under the wing of a plane, where else would we park? ha ha

Our undercover bike spot is a decomissioned plane is a Illuschin UK-62, which is now a diner, the colourful paintwork was designed by artist Ernst Fuchs, one of the founders of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism!

Taking a look around we found lots of restaurants, shops and rides for the young ones, it was a great place and not what we expected as soon as we crossed the border.

That was a bizarre place, right out in the middle of nowhere…

The rain was now relentless and depressing and it was getting very cold, we stop to fill up on fuel, while paying i noticed that the fuel shop had a little cafe, and in need of warming up i wave to Clive to park up and come in, we both were cold, and in need of a warm drink, the Hot Chocolate was pretty good and we weren’t too keen to get back on the bike, we would have been quite happy to stay in the warm cafe, the shop assistants didn’t seem to mind we were forming great puddles underneath our seats from our soggy clothes, on using the cafes Wi-Fi we found that we were not that far for where we had to go, so back on with our wet gear and on the bike, we set off in the pouring rain towards Kutna hora.

Within minutes of arriving in Kutna Hora we found Hotel U Kata, while Clive unloaded the bike i checked in…
Our room was large, so lots of space to spread out, with our ever faithful mini kettle (that we purchased in India) we made a cup of tea, which was just what we needed as we were both still feeling cold.
After a hot shower we decided to make the most of the afternoon, as thankfully the rain had eased off so we could now go off and explore for a while.

Kutná Hora developed as a result of the exploitation of the silver mines and reached its climax in the 14th and 15th centuries when the city became one of the richest places in Europe…its built above the steep descent of the Vrchlice Creek, in the Kutna Hora plateau, 254 m above sea level and about 60 km east of Prague.

Walking up the cobbled streets past the charming old coloured terraced houses and shops was peaceful, just a few locals going about there daily chores, it hard not to get swept up in the charm of these old building, as we continued up the hill towards the town square…

There were lots of tiny cobbled ally-ways branching off the main streets, some going down and some up towards St. Barbaras church, we decided not to go up to the church as daylight was slipping away, plus it has started to rain again also the cobbled stones were getting slippery, so we carefully walked back to our hotel.
Some amazing smells were coming from the hotel restaurant so we decided to eat in…

OMG the meals were gigantic Clive had two whole wheels of Camberet on top of his huge chicken breast, Clive really struggled, but managed to finish the lot.
While enjoying a drink after dinner, a young man approached us and asked us if the bike in the court yard was ours as he had been looking at the map on one of the side boxes, we said it was our bike, he interduced himself as Jakub and wanted to buy us another drink as he was so impressed with our trip, he told us that he has plans to do a trip one day but needs a suitable bike.

Jakub was very passionate about his home town of Kutna Hora, that he wanted to take us for a walk to show us the delights of the town at night, even though it was raining, how could we refuse such enthusiasm.

After quickly retrieving our coats and my now very useful umbrella we head out into the dark softly light streets, there was barely anyone around, it was so quiet, except for the gentle rhythm of the rain coming down around us.
Jakub told us that not many tourists stay in Kutna Hora, as they all stay in Prague and come here for day trips, from what we have seem so far i think the tourists are missing out big time.

We head up town towards the silver mine which was discovered in the 13th century, the mine brought great wealth to the town and the royal mint was established in 1300, Kutná Hora then started producing the Prague groschen coins, thus becoming the second most important town in the Kingdom of Bohemia, in the 14th century many new buildings were built as a result of the wealth of the town-residential houses, churches, one of the country’s most significant monasteries, and the majestic Church of St. Barbara, when fires damaged or destroyed many of Kutná Hora’s buildings but the town was quickly rebuilt thanks to the income from silver mining.

The silver mines were depleted in the 16th century, and Kutná Hora’s wealth took a sharp decline as did the growth of the town. The miners average ‘life’ age was 35, thats very sad.
Walking in the dark and up the wet cobbled path we came to a magnificent building- St. Barbara’s Church (Chrám sv. Barbory) my its spectacular, i could just imagine that it looks even better in the day light, we took a few photos and left, we’ll be back tomorrow afternoon for sure.

Thanks Jakub for the tour of your beautiful town.

Today our plan is to walk the Ossuary / Kostnice (Bone Church), we have always wanted to come here since we saw it on ‘The long Way Round’ documentary by Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor and finally today we were going to see it for ourselves.

We decided not to take the motorbike as the ‘Bone Church’ was only about fifteen minutes away from our hotel and the skies were blue with just patches of black dotted about.

The old Catholic Church is surrounded by a huge brick wall, we walk up the old cobbled path and decide not to go straight in to the church as a bus load of tourists had just turned up, so we took a walk around the small cramped graveyard first.

A little information on the Church:

There are over 40,000 bodies bones here! You may wonder how all these bodies bones ended up being craved in a small chapel, well it all goes back to 1278 when the King of Bohemia sent the Abbot of the Sedlec Cistercian Monastery to Jerusalem, the abbot came back with a jar of soil from the Golgotha, that was known as the “Holy Soil”, and sprinkled it on the cemetery surrounding the Chapel of All Saints.

This direct association with the holy land led to the graveyard becoming a sought after burial site among the aristocracy of Central Europe, and after thirty years of war in the 17th century, the number of burials outgrew the space available, the older remains had to be exhumed and stored in the chapel.

An Urban myth has it that a monk went mad and made objects from the bones, and there are stories to suggest that partially blind monks entrusted with the care of the chapel were the first to begin piling the bones into geometric shapes!

But we also heard that the decorations and sculptures were created though by a woodcarver named František Rint. In 1870, and he was commissioned by the landowners of the time, the Schwarzenberg family, to decorate the chapel with the bones and create a reminder of the impermanence of human life and inescapable death.

It will cost you 40K (AU $2) entrance fee, not too sure where the bus load of tourists were but there weren’t too many people inside the church.
This place is amazing, totally bizarre bone ‘bunting’ hangs from the domed roof like Christmas decorations, and tall bone and skull pyramids are presented in the middle of the church, there was even a family crest made up of various bones, the centre piece for me was the chandelier, Undeniably brilliant, theres so much ‘art’ here in this special little Church.

The Church was now getting busy, i think a few coaches have pulled up, thats our exit! but not before we take a quick peek upstairs at the chapel that still holds regular Mass.

Set into the entrance pathway…

On the way back to the hotel we decide to make a quick stop at the supermarket to get some stuff for lunch, when we get out of the shop the ground outside was soaking wet, looks like we missed that down pour.

After lunch we head back up into the old town through Palackeho Square and up to St Barbara’s church, its as stunning in daylight as it was last evening.

The UNESCO-listed Church of St. Barbara is a monumental Gothic church consecrated to St. Barbara, patron saint of miners.
Its an exceptional building is a magnificent example of Gothic architecture, symbolises the power and importance of the mining city, which is linked to deposits of silver ore.

Building started in 1388 and after 500 years (construction was stopped several times during this period) it was completed in 1905 with a Neo-Gothic restoration.

The roof has a unique design with a three-tent roof that reminds me of a circus tent and intricate flying buttresses make it a show piece.
The cathedral sits at the top of the town proudly over looking everything below it.
I have to say this is one of the most beautiful churches we have ever seen, after walking around the outside trying to capture it by camera proved hard to get the whole building in.

We found a bench in the beautiful manicured gardens and admire this stunning church and its peaceful surroundings.
On the way back to the hotel we take another look at this pretty little town…
The tourists that just come here for a few hours on a day visit from Prague are missing out on a beautiful place, Kutna Hora is well worth more than a hurried visit. We have a very long list now of places we would like to revisit…

After another wonderful dinner and beer at the hotel…We went for the same meal again! yet again fantastic- we then turn in for an early night, as we have a big day of walking tomorrow, we are heading into the city of Prague by train…

It Means Nothing To Me….Oh Vienna…..

It rained for most of the night and knowing that we were going to spend the morning getting wet on the motorbike didn’t fill us with a lot of enthusiasm, especially while we were in a nice warm room in the hotel…

But we need to ‘get this show on the road’ regardless of the weather, plus we only had about 300k’s to get to ‘The City Of Music’…Vienna.

Hence the title of the blog, we couldn’t help singing the eighties hit by ultravox every time we saw a road sign leading to the city bearing its name…

But before going to Vienna we were making a stop off in the town of Steyr, which was about halfway to meet up with Andy and his wife Andrea, Andy is from Bristol and has been following our trip on line for most of our trip and gave us an invite for lunch if we were in his area, Andy had given us some great tips along the way during our journey and we couldn’t wait to meet him.

We were to meet Andy and Andrea at his office, which is located at the old factory of M.A.N trucks as he wasn’t flying today… we reckon he has one of the best jobs in the world, he’s a pilot for hot air balloons, but he was telling us he is having a bad season in Austria due to all the rain (he is now currently in Myanmar ballooning), Andy is also a motor bike fanatic…

Andy and Andrea took us out for a fantastic lunch at a Italian place, right opposite his office.
Over lunch Andy being a ballon pilot gave us some great advise on what the weather was doing and also some advise on where the rain depression is heading, it seemed to be right behind us chasing us along, no wonder we have been wet for the last week…

It was really great to finally meet them after exchanging comments on the net for so long, hopefully will meet up with them again one day.

Andy gave us a sticker of his ballon company to stick on our bike boxes.

With the rain right behind us we took the fastest route to Vienna, looking over our shoulders most of the way, hmmm lots of black clouds around…
I couldn’t believe we could have been so stupid as to not book a hotel, but we just couldn’t decide, as the prices were not suitable or the location was too far out of the city, surely there were other hotels that weren’t online that would be suitable to meet our needs? But we did have a short list though to check out!

We checked a few hotels out when we got to Vienna, most on the list though were booked out, one random Hotel that looked ‘just’ ordinary was ridiculously priced, at over $600 a night and you get the choice of either a parking space or Wi-Fi… For that price I would expect both…

Time was ticking and the rain was still coming down fast and heavy, just down the road from one of the hotels that we enquired in, was an arch way that lead into a court yard that took us to Hotel Fabrik (it used to be a fabric factory).

In the hotels courtyard was a huge chimney stack that was all lit up, dripping wet I went into the reception area enquired on the price, thinking to myself just by looking around at the low brick ceiling and boutique style, it was going to be way out of our price range, it was, so I booked us in for two nights, lol..

I couldn’t believe that we still had to pay extra to park the bike, unbelievable. That was the most expensive hotel we have used on the entire trip so far…

Our room was modern, clean and warm and overlooked the courtyard. So off with the wet weather gear to hang in the bathroom to dry, next were hot showers and out for a bite to eat.
My umbrella was now becoming handy, Clive really didn’t want to bring it at the start of our trip “we’ll never use it” he said!
Over dinner we planed on what to see tomorrow and where we should go in Europe as so far we have just been bumbling around with no real plan, not that is such a bad thing anyway…
After a massive buffet breakfast, where we got our moneys worth of everything on offer!
Our plans for the day were to see as much of Vienna as we could cram in.

We decided to catch the train to the city centre, there was a station 100 metres away, so in the pouring rain we ran to the station, when we arrive at the station we couldn’t find anywhere to purchase tickets, we asked a few people but they just shrugged their shoulders, oh well you can’t say we didn’t try, we got on the train feeling a little nervous that we didn’t have tickets.

Hope we don’t get caught, we’ll just have to act like ‘dumb’ tourists if we get caught!
After a ten minute ride we arrive in the city centre and back up the umbrella goes, with my brolly being blown around in front of my face i nearly walk into the path of a moving tram! Flamin heck that was a close call…

The streets are laden with well looked after historical buildings, even with the 21st century shops inside them; it doesn’t alter the charm of the buildings.
Unfortunately we know our time in this city is not nearly going to be long enough.
Following our little guide map we find St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Stephansdom) its the most important Catholic Church in Vienna.

The Cathedral has a multi-colored tile roof with a diamond pattern and two tall towers, which are the most identifiable symbols of the city. You can see why it’s the number one tourist attraction in Vienna, Simply stunning.

Inside was another Wow moment…

We’re not religious, but we lit four candles, one for each of our grandchildren, who we were missing terribly…

Outside there were horse carriage rides for the tourists.

Ha Ha ear muffs for horses!

With a reprieve from the rain we head over to the Spanish Riding school, hoping that we may get to see the famous Lipizzaners in action, but we were to be disappointed as they were not performing today, such a shame, this now means a return visit one day ☺, however we did how ever get to check out the horses in their massive yard, even if they were only housed in their stalls.

Before we knew it, it was lunchtime, no wonder our stomachs were growling, we find a little cafe to not only eat but to rest up a little, our legs were aching…

Lunch over we decide to walk it off, we must have walked miles, checking out the city centre, some of it in circles lol, our legs were still aching!

Walking over to the Hofburg Imperial Palace for a look, what a stunning building, for more than seven centuries the great empire of the Habsburgs was ruled from the Imperial Palace, part of it is now a museum, but by the time we arrive, there it was less than an hour to closing, so we decide to give it a miss, but still got to enjoy the architecture.
Every thing about this city is amazing, you cannot help but fall in love with this place.

Oh dear looks like the rain is building up again in the distance…

Later that day we were due to meet Lisa and Gerhard, a lovely young Austrian couple that live here, we first meet them way back at the beginning of our trip in Malaysia, we were all staying in the same hotel, Hotel Station 18 in Ipoh, where we had a fun packed day with them and we said if we did head to Vienna (it was not in our plans at the beginning of our trip) we would catch up with them.

A bit later we received a text from Lisa to let us know what time and place to meet them, thankfully we were able to get onto Google maps to find out how to get to the cafe.
While walking towards to Café Prueckel we came across Vicki Butler-Henderson from Fifth Gear filming a scene about the new Bentley, it was stunning, believe me the two tone car looked better in life, than in the photo.

We arrived first at Café Prueckel, and Lisa and Gerhard arrived shortly after, walking into the busy café is like going back in time, the café is more than 100 years old, and was renovated in the 1950′s, and it hasn’t changed much since, there was a great atmosphere about the place, lots of laughter and chatting going on…

A little bit of a wait was in order as the there weren’t any vacant tables, this café is a very popular place with the locals, we did however not have long to wait till we got a table, Hmmm the menu’s were in Austrian, lucky we had Lisa and Gerhard to translate.

We decided to go for the Fritattensuppe, which is a traditionally home made beef broth topped with rolled up and thinly sliced strips of pancake, it was really good, and for desert (I had been eyeing up the yummy looking cakes), but we were happy to try the suggestion form Lisa and Gerhard which was Mohnnudeln which means is poppy seed noodles in German, i’m not sure what we were ordering but was surprised when it arrived at the table as it looked like thick slug shapes, its made from a potato dough, and is served with melted butter and tossed in poppy seeds and a side of stewed apples, it was really good and dipped in the apple, it gave it the sweetness that was needed, yum yum…

It was so great to catch up with Lisa and Gerhard, we had a pleasant evening of chatting and laughing, they are a really great young couple, we feel lucky to have meet them.
We catch our ‘free’ train back to our Hotel and settle in for the night, desperately hoping that the rain will ease for our ride into our next country, Czeh Republic..

Well at least now we have some sort of plan of where we are going…

As for ‘Vienna’ it does mean something to us…

Soaring To The Eagles Nest and Finding Mozart…

Apart from a few dark clouds scattered about, the weather was looking good, lucky for us we didn’t have too far to go, as we discussed over dinner the previous night we wanted to go to Hitlers Eagles Nest while we were in the area, it was less than 60kms from the town of Lofer.

Clive had adjusted the bike chain again, but we had our suspicions that this chain was on its way out, we load up the bike and head for the Bavarian Alps, yet again the scenery was spectacular, I have also never seen a country so clean and its so tidy, no litter to be seen, love it…

We stopped in the beautiful little town of Berchtesgaden and go into the tourist information office and grab a map of the local area on how to get up to the ‘Nest’.
The very helpful ladies dressed in traditional costume were very helpful, they explained that we couldn’t take the bike all the way to the top, we have to ride half way up and park up and then catch a bus to the elevator shaft entrance.
We found a spot to park the bike and head over towards the ticket box, the queue wasn’t too bad, i think the grotty weather put a few people off!
While we were in the queue we got talking to an elderly couple of German sisters (but now live in America), they were pretty hilarious, taking the mickey out of each other, thus keeping the queue entertained while we wait to purchase our tickets, when it was the the German sisters turn, she flashed a card to the ticket attendant then passed it to us to use, what ever saver card, she had was great, we got in for something like 40 Euros, saving quite a few Euros..

We had to queue up for our allocated time bus, which was 20 minutes away, so we whiled away the time talking to these lovely sisters, who made sure we understood that they were ashamed of how Hitler treated people, and is not a reflection on what German people are like!
Once on the bus we slowly head up. Its a single lane with a few passing spots and the view is magnificent, but looking out the window down its a sheer drop….

Due to its high elevation the Eagle’s Nest is open in summer only, usually from about mid-May through October, so we only just made it by a month, phew…
Hitler’s Eagles Nest, is in a little pocket of Germany that juts into Austria, it sits on a mountain peak high above Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps.
It was a 50th birthday gift by the Nazi party secretary Bormann’s to Adolf Hitler.
Its unusual position makes of the daring project a unique engineering feat and when here you can see why.
It took 13 months to construct and was finished in the summer of 1938, it cost a staggering 30 million Reichsmarks to build which is about 150 million Euro’s (2007)…
Few realise that Hitler’s home and headquarters – the second seat of 3rd Reich power – was located at Obersalzberg, at the foot of the Eagle’s Nest Mountain.

Off the bus we walk into a stone-lined tunnel leads 124 meters, straight into the side of the mountain. At the end of the tunnel we got into a large queue to wait for our turn in the elegant brass-lined elevator that takes visitors on a 41-second ride another 124 meters up through the heart of the mountain and into the building itself.
The inside of the elevator was stunning, but we weren’t allowed to take photos…although we did mange to get a bit of a photo!

Once at the top, we decided while the rain had ceased we would walk up the path that leads up to a higher point, it was well worth the short climb, even though at times I thought we could get blown off the mountain.
The view is incredible, you are eye level with the Alps, looking over both Germany and Austria, with jagged mountains in all directions, and lake konigsee that looked like it as squeezed in between surrounding mountains.

Looking flash in my new motorbike jacket..

Ironically, Hitler suffered from vertigo and rarely took pleasure in the views.
Apparently on a clear day you can see Salzburg.

But today it’s misty, rainy and very cold.
Being here gives you a strange eerie feeling, knowing that such a hated man used to come here.

Its now raining again so we decide to go to the kehlsteinhaus for a hot drink, this is located in the same spot that Hitler, Eva Braun, Himmler held banquets and entertained foreign diplomats.

The vast dinning hall was packed, but we managed to find a table next to the deep set windows, and the thick granite walls, the ceilings were high and were heavily beamed the beams in the ceilings are the original ones, as are some of the light fixtures only a few are copies of the originals.

Looking around this amazing room you can’t help but notice the huge marble fireplace that Mussolini gave to Hitler. There is some names carved into the marble from the American soldiers who liberated the Nest.

Its amazing to think that Eagle’s Nest wasn’t damaged during the war, although most of the furniture was removed by the occupying forces.
Going up some steps we entered into a small, paneled dining area, which is also part of the restaurant.
There is a sideboard in here that’s the original one!
This is the room where Hitler had a long dining table for banquets.
Eva Braun’s (Hitlers partner) sister Gretl and SS Officer Hermann Fegelein got married here, on June 3, 1944.
Its a very popular tourist site with over 300,000 visit here a year, mostly British and Americans.

With the clouds now completely shrouding us at the top we decided to go and catch the bus back down to the bottom. At least its not raining down here so we decide to go and look at the famous Konigssee lake

The car park to the lake was packed, and were glad we had a bike as it allows you to park so much closer to the entrance of places, especially with rain around.
We by passed all the tourist shops that were selling the same things and went straight down to the lake, wow, its a stunning spot, alpine mountains either side of the lake, the water was crystal clear, we bent down to feel it, it was freezing although the ducks didn’t seem to mind…

We sat there for a while and enjoyed the view, but due to the high number of visitors it wasn’t peaceful, we brought a German hot dog and high tailed it out there, got back on the bike and rode towards the city of Salzburg..

As we arrived in Salzburg, coming in the back way we thought the streets looked rather ugly and cold looking, Just like our mood as it’s still raining and we were getting cold.
Yet again the hotels I enquired at were all fully booked and they didn’t have anywhere for the bike..

Riding down the now soggy roads we saw a sign for 59 Euro’s for a room, as Clive parked the bike up on the side of the busy road, I enter the smart entrance of the hotel (dripping water everywhere) I am greeted by a beautiful five year old girl…they put them to work young here lol, the young girls father soon appeared and said the price we saw advertised is for one person for two it will be 89 Euro’s, ok we’ll take it.
We had to off load the bike from the main street entrance then park the bike in the Hotel car park that was around the back of the hotel with no adjoining gate to get into the back of the hotel, the manager assured us that the bike would be perfectly safe, as there is barely any crime in Austria…

To be sure we throw the lock around the wheels and put on the bike cover…
Lucky for us the hotel had a lift, which after loading all our bags and side boxes into didn’t leave us any room to get in as well, so we walked up the stairs leaving a trail of water behind us.
The room was small and spotlessly clean, it had heated towel rails which would make drying our washing easier, its doesn’t seem that long ago that we could peg our washing outside and it’d be dry in a matter of hours, but here it’ll take days (welcome to Europe in the autumn)
After a quick clean up, the rain came down even harder, looks like we’ll be staying in and make use of the fantastic free internet that was super fast.
The rest of the afternoon was a lazy one, internet, Skype and watching movies, looking out the window at the rain, we were both glad that we could take the time to lounge around and not rush out to cram in some sightseeing, we could now spend the whole day tommorow checking out Salzburg, even if it’s raining, we’re going to explore!

After a night of heavy rain the following morning we were welcomed with blue skies, it was still only 8am but we wanted to make the most of the day so we got out early, after crossing a few roads we come across a pathway that ran alongside the Salzach River, what better way to get into this beautiful old town on a Sunday morning, there weren’t a lot of people around except for joggers.

We need to get over to the old town via the modern Makartsteg bridge, once on the bridge you can’t help fail to notice a sea of padlocks attached to the fence just below the railings, we saw these ‘loveLocks’ when we were in Venice, we have spare padlocks, why didn’t we bring one with us and add to them…

The old town is a maze of cobbled streets lined with 3-4 story colourful buildings, many dating back to the 15th century, most of these buildings were cafés, posh clothes and gift shops all displaying anything to do with Mozart, of course this was where (full name) Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart was born on January 27th 1756.

As it was still early most of the shops and attractions were not open yet, so seeing as we hadn’t yet had breakfast we head into the most up market MacDonalds we have come across.

Walking through the cobbled streets, which were now getting busy, we past buskers (who were brilliant) and street actors doing a fantastic job of staying still while kids poked them…
The city was now stating to come alive with people.

These guys were fantastic and drew quite a large crowd.

Breakfast over now to explore Hohensalzburg Fortress (built in 1077)….at the ticket box we brought the Combined ticket which allowed us to see more of this amazing Fortress, so for an extra 3 Euros each we got to go up and down on the cable railway, fortress courtyards, peel towers, State Rooms, Fortress Museum, Rainer Regiment Museum, Marionette Museum, Sound and Vision Show, Almpassage.

An amazing gun cabinet..

Great way of showing off the weapons…

We get to do the tour with audio guide in 9 languages – we choose english!… which told us about the interior area (gallery, torture chamber which was a bit gruesome, observation tower and the “Salzburger Stier” – mechanical organ).
At the top you get breathtaking views over the whole of Salzburg and the mountains, we were lucky the day was clear and sunny.

There is a small museum about the castle and Salzburg history, the exhibits were interesting and informative, i found the masks the most fascinating, Clive thinks i would look good in them lol…

We spent the best part of the day there, we really enjoyed it, it may not be the most beautiful Fortress (my opinion) but it was one of the most interesting, worth a visit if your in Salzburg.

We decided not to use our return ticket for the cable car, but walk down the very steep and slippery in places cobbled path.
We came across St. Peters church, and decided to take a look at the famous grave yard-which dates back to 1627.
Walking through the huge wrought iron gates, you find yourself in the most beautiful grave yard, full of colourful flowers and graves that had small head stones with ornate wrought iron grave markers.

Back to the cobbled streets we pass dozen of Haflingers pony and traps a stunning horse that originates from Arab blood, brought back from the Continental wars with the Turks and was crossed with the native Tyrolean Pony – thus establishing the Haflinger Horse Breed.

Moving on we were now feeling hungry, not sure what we wanted to eat, until we passed a little restaurant and the waitress had in her hand the most amazing looking desert we had ever seen, well we have got to try one of those, we asked the waitress what it was she told us it was Salzburger Nockerl (Soizburga Noggal in the Austro-Bavarian dialect) it’s sweet soufflé with a fresh raspberry sauce on the base, its culinary speciality of Salzburg, we felt it was our duty to try this local dish….

oh my it looked amazing with three huge mountainous peaks in a large dish, the waitress said the serving is for four people..
We did our best and ploughed through the pudding, it was like heaven in your mouth, and not too sweet either.

Feeling rather full we decide we were in need of a long walk, first stop was Mozart’s birthplace at No. 9 Getreidegasse. The Mozart family lived on the third floor and Mozart himself was born here on 27 January 1756.

He was the seventh child of Leopold Mozart who was a musician of the Salzburg Royal Chamber, the house is now a museum and was extremely busy, underneath the house is a Spar supermarket, an expensive one at that, i think a music shop would have been more suitable.

Heading off towards the main part of the city, we came across Mirabell Palace and Gardens, as you entered through the opening you came into a vast garden of many types of flowers and roses, fountains and statues it was stunning, the colours were amazing.

The man himself…

The building here is a former palace and is now government offices, even so is is a very relaxing place to visit.
The gardens are where the von Trapp children sang “Do-Re-Mi” in the Sound of Music, Clive had to stop me from dancing in and around the fountains, like Julie Andrews lol.

Some great art work…

We are seeing Bristol signs everywhere now…

The day was slowly drawing to a close heading back to the hotel, we needed to buy some supplies, but even though we were in a city, there were no supermarkets open, hardly any restaurants either, and what was open we really didn’t fancy, we ended up getting Subway and eating it back in our room with a cup of tea, whilst packing up, for the our next City Vienna…