Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens

This weekend was rather a rainy one, but I spent the day in Salzburg so it didn't seem to matter so much. Salzburg is the home of two musical greats: Mozart and The Sound of Music (well sort of ;) In fact the place I visited first was the beautifully manicured Mirabellagarten, famous as a backdrop in the Sound of Music. It was a beautiful array of colour and trees, but also a bit too much of an array of tourists too (obviously me being a tourist there is fine though!).

I also enjoyed the rather quirky (and short) statues in the garden, and found myself a nice young man ;) 

I also spent some time touring one of the apartments where Mozart lived with his family. It was partially destroyed during that war, but has been lovingly restored and is now a museum, where you can find out about himself, his family and the kind of life he lived. You can also find out about how much he hated Salzburg and its people, but hey, they still love him here regardless! They even sell his own brand of perfume. The museum was great because it was an audio tour, where you could hear various things explained, and then some extracts from a relevant symphony or opera, so you certainly get you fill of Mozart.

The heart of Salzburg is definately in the Old Town, which is beautiful, and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, although a little less beautiful at the moment because of all the seating and sound stages being erected where ever you go for the Annual Salzburg musical festival (Festspiele). I didn't venture as far as the Festung Hohensalzburg, the 900 year old fortress towering above the city, but I did climb what seemed liked a rather large number of steep uneven steps to visit the catacombs carved out of the cliff face. Not necessarily worth the climb, but the view was fantastic.

I also visited the Salzburg museum, which was rather quirky, but also rather interesting. For example they had a whole floor devoted to exhibitions of people who have achieved great things in Salzburg, or who have contributed to the name of the town. There was one room devoted to an Apothecary from the 16th Century which was very dark and painted all black, and which had each exhibit behind a door. It was very strange, you find a wall of doors and have to keep opening them to learn something more about this man. Not sure of the significance, but it was certainly novel. They also had a very interesting exhibition of artwork from German and Austrian artists whose careers were left in oblivion as a result of Nazi censorship. There were some incredible pieces.

Salzburg is certainly full of tourists, which brings its own sort of cheesiness to the place, but among this it also brings some cool stuff too, like a classical serenade on crystal wine glasses: