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Salzburg, Austria
I'm never gonna dance again, guilty feet have got no rhythm
Salzburg is located on a rail line between Munich and Vienna, although in reality it's much, much closer to Munich- something to keep in the back of your mind should they win their bid for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. For me it was a nice stopover, a certainly scenic pleasant enough place, one that I would have wished I stopped at if I had wrongly decided to just stay on the train.
Salzburg is especially famous for two unavoidable musical events. One is that it was the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, even though he moved out early and wrote most of his best music in Vienna. The other is that it was the home of the von Trapp family and subsequently the location that the unavoidable "The Sound of Music" was filmed. The city does its best to remind you of both events, culminating in a summer long music festival- something of interest for anyone interested in such things.
This first picture shows the arbor at the Mirabell Schloss Gardens, a surprisingly still free amenity just off the Rainerstrasse and (of course) a Sound of Music site.
The balance of the old city (concentrated on the southern side of the Salzach River) is extremely walkabale- lots of narrow scenic streets, inviting cafes and quaint little shops selling everything from Mozart souvenirs to Sound of Music souvenirs greet you at every turn. Still if all that walking is too much there are alternatives, with more than enough horse and buggies to satisfy even the greatest buggy enthusiast, should such a person actually exist.
Besides the music festivals, the cafes, the horse and buggy rides, the gardens and the von Trapps, the other thing to do is to ride the funicular up to the top of the Hohensalzburg Castle, the best place to look back to see where you've been.
The view back down the hill and into Salzburg. For reference, the rail station is back and to the right, the Mirabell Schloss Gardens is at the center left (the larger green area to the right of the river bend), while the Domplatz (and the dom) are front, center and mostly cropped out of the picture.
A rare alpine view featuring actual Alps- an all too welcome respite for anyone already sick of all of those damn pictures of buildings that just never seem to stop.
