Our ship tied up early this morning in Linz, the third largest city in Austria with a quarter of a million people. Hitler spent his early years here, before relocating to Vienna. During WWII Linz was home to the largest Nazi controlled military complex, the Reichswerke Herman Göring factory. Herman Göring, the named successor to Hitler, founded and organized this complex to become the largest company in Europe in 1941. The city was heavily fortified and was bombed by the Americans during the latter part of the war. In addition to manufacturing war material, Linz had a large petroleum plant and a main rail center in support of the Nazi military.
Another noteworthy resident of Linz was Johannes Kepler, who discovered the three Laws of Planetary Motion. He defined the first two while living in Prague, but was forced to move when the city ousted all Lutherans. Kepler relocated to Linz where he published the third law in 1621. Even though the city is recognized for several important sites, our guides suggested that given the limited time, we would find Salzburg more interesting. We made our way to Salzburg.
View of Salzburg’s Old Town
Salzburg, located about 80 miles southeast from Linz, is most noted for its old town of baroque buildings bounded by the Salzach River on one side, and the salt hills on the other. The picturesque setting is completed with the snow-capped Alps as a backdrop. It was the main town supporting the underground salt mines in the surrounding mountains – salt mines that had been an important source of salt for more than 7,000 years. Salt was so precious that it’s price was equivalent to its weight in gold. Today, salt is available from other less expensive sources, so the mines serve mainly as a tourist attraction, offering electric train rides through the various tunnels.
Who hasn’t heard of Salzburg (Salt Castle) – the setting for the Sound of Music movie with Julie Andrews, about the real life Von Trapp family? The birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? The birthplace of Christian Doppler who discovered the Doppler effect? For the uninitiated, the Doppler effect is the core theory behind radar and gave us those nasty speed guns that catch us going over the speed limit, as well as the more important echocardiogram.
Mirabell Palace
Mirabell Palace Garden – Location for several scenes in the Sound of Music
After getting off our bus, we proceeded to walk through the Mirabell Palace gardens. Unfortunately, we missed the vibrant colors of tulips which had bloomed earlier, in April. The newly planted flowers had not yet taken hold to display their colors. As a consolation, our local tour guide, mesmerized by the Sound of Music, began to sing one of the songs, Do-Re-Me, as he led our march to Old Town. CORNY! I dropped way back…pretending I was not part of this pageant. We crossed the Salzach river on a bridge with chain link railings completely covered with thousands of attached, colorful, locked padlocks. The practice of writing the two lovers’ names on the padlock, attaching it to the bridge, and throwing the key into the river, supposedly ensures the binding love to each other for life. As I understand it, this ritual started with the 2007 Italian film I Want You – I never saw it. The practice is so pervasive that the city has to periodically cut off the locks at great expense. Their cumulative weight puts the railing at risk. One of the guides noted that she had participated in adding a lock several years ago, but has purchased a second one recently – to lock her ex-husband out of her house. Pad locks are multi-purpose!
Bridge across the Danube to Old Town
Railing of locks
Hm, how many couples do you think are still together?
The old-town city center consists of well preserved baroque architected buildings, narrow streets lined with shops, cafes, and restaurants. While the buildings were spared from bombing during the war, most have had a face lift and ‘beautified.’ The local joke is “If it’s baroque, don’t fix it.” The shop-lined streets are interconnected by arched tunnels that run through the center of buildings. No vehicles are allowed. We stopped to see Mozart’s birth house (or rather apartment) where he was born on the third floor, as well as his favorite café where he spent many hours – Café Tomaselli. As you can imagine, the Old Town has been ‘touristized’ to maximize economic benefits from visitors. It was difficult to spot anyone in the street that you might consider a local. Only a small percentage of the 150,000 residents live in Old Town. Mostly young people live here to enjoy the cultural richness and culinary choices, especially later in the day after most of the tourists leave. It is not easy to live in Old Town. The four-story buildings do not have elevators. Everything must be carried to the upper flats. For that reason, almost all apartments on the fourth floors are used for storage only. The rooms are small, and not designed for comfort or modern conveniences. Most couples leave Old Town once they have children, opting for more space, greenery, and parks for the kids, while some leave because of tourist fatigue.
A typical Old Town street, lined with shops
Mozart’s birth apartment
Mozart’s favorite café
After reaching the main, central plaza, we made our way to board a funicular that transported us up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress sitting at the top of a small hill overlooking the Old Town. It is a very large castle complex that you might consider a self-contained village with streets, shops, and a church. Building started in the 11th century and was enhanced periodically. Whenever Salzburg was under threat, the population would retreat into the castle. The most serious siege came in 1525, during the Peasant’s War. It was never conquered. During the Napoleonic War in the 1800’s, the castle surrendered without a fight following a prolonged siege after the castle ran out of food and water. In World War I and II, it was used as a prison for prisoners of war. Today, it is primarily a tourist attraction with several museums and audio tours. The key attribute is the view from the castle over the city of Salzburg. Beautiful. We discovered a small outdoor café, with an expanded view of Old Town below, great local beer, and traditional Austrian fare. I ordered a dumpling dish that came with two huge dumplings (about the size of the Carnegie Deli matzoh balls in New York), made with grain, cheese, and lard. Very heavy, very filling, very delicious, but…never again!
Hohensalzburg Fortress overlooking Old Town
The only way in to the Fortress
Protecting the Fortress
View of Old Town from the Fortress
Beautiful setting for a typical Austrian lunch – Mel, Barbara, Roselie, and André
Returning to the main town square, we visited the Salzburg Cathedral which houses the baptismal font in which Amadeus Mozart was baptized. As with other churches we had visited, it was beautiful and key to many events over the centuries. Several churches had been situated at this site, starting in 774, with the current cathedral built-in 1181. While we enjoyed the visit, we are subject to church overdose, as I suspect the readers of this blog are also. Feel free to bypass the two photos.
Salzburg Cathedral
One of several altars in the cathedral
We couldn’t return to our ship without the traditional afternoon coffee and pastry…how about the Mozart Café? Having learned how to order coffee, we did get the equivalent of an Americano coffee….enhanced by a delicious serving of apple strudel. I can just feel the calories contributing to some extra weight. Recalling the competition of who has the better coffee experience – Vienna or Salzburg. I vote for Vienna.
Finishing the day with coffee and a strudel
In retrospect, while Salzburg is hands-down more charming than Linz, I would opt to explore Linz, given its history and importance. It is recognized as the leading city in Austria to reveal and reconcile its role in the Nazi period. Perhaps an opportunity, for a future trip – a reason to return.
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