Salzburg

I spent a night in Liechtenstein to be able to say I had been to that small country, my third one in Europe. I remember entering the country on a postbus from the nearest station in Switzerland. It went over a bridge and voilà I had crossed the border. The water from the tap in the youth hostel was the freshest I had ever tasted anywhere.

I don't remember much about the country. Looking at the surroundings, it resembled Swiss countryside. That's probably why I don't have any pictures of it. But I mailed some postcards from there for the novelty.

Salzburg has an alpine border with Germany, so I took a trip up the Untersberg by cable car and had this view over the city. This part of Austria is actually north of German territory.

The ski slopes are used in winter but of course bare in summer.

Even so there were large patches of snow and I made some snowballs. Prior to that the only times I had seen snow were on a trip up Mount Wellington above Hobart, and a ski trip to Thredbo.

It looked pretty formidable above the snow line.

This part of Austria is close to a finger of German territory that includes Berchtesgaden, a famous mountain resort.

View from the mountain refuge.

The friend who gave me an introduction to the Swiss couple was born in Austria and she asked to look for some clover and run 3 steps on it, barefoot. I reported my results on a postcard: ouch, ouch, ouch. I was joking of course. She also asked to to look out for edelweiss. I don't think I saw any but there were other lovely flowers on the mountainside.

When I arrived at Salzburg, it was in the evening. I was outside the station wondering where to get accommodation. A lady approached me and a couple of teenage backpackers, a girl and her brother, if I recall, saying: come with me I have accommodation. She didn't look sinister and anyway I was too poor to be worth kidnapping. She bundled us into a chauffered Mercedes-Benz. It turned out that she ran an upmarket B&B and was happy to take in backpackers at a reduced rate rather than let the rooms go empty at the end of the day. I had a room to myself and it was one of the most comfortable places I stayed at, and there was a sumptuous breakfast the next morning. There were many English speaking guests at breakfast. Some had come to see places used by The Sound of Music. Salzburgers don't like the kitschy association but this B&B wasn't embarrassed to show a video tape highlighting the places that featured in the movie.

I also took a trip down a salt mine, after all that's what the Salz in the name means. There were the usual explanations and demonstrations of how the salt used to be extracted.

I also visited Mirabell Palace, with its geometric gardens.

And these dwarf statues.

A closer view.

Finally, Salzburg is associated with Mozart and they haven't shied away from taking advantage of the connection. The house where he was born is a landmark, the shops sell Mozartkugel (chocolate balls), and all kinds of Mozart branded merchandise.