Salzburg Day 2: The Fortress

So Day 2 in Salzburg started as all the days did, early. I think that morning we woke up around 8am, so later than usual, but still. Monica and I got breakfast at the hostel, and then we went exploring. We had really seen Salzburg during the day, so this was exciting. Cait said that she would join us whenever she got up, she said around like 10. So in our exploration, we went all over,but didn't cross the river for a little bit. We went down some old side streets, which is always fun. There you see all the old stuff, there was some doors that I'm not really sure where they went to, but I took a picture of it. I almost think the doors led into the mountain, it basically right there. But when we did cross the river, it was very exciting because we picked the bridge carefully. We cross the Sound of Music bridge. I took a picture of the bridge, and then going over it. It was so much fun, and of course I sang Do-Re-Mi while crossing. Fun times.

So we then just walked around the historical part of the city, went by different churches, and old buildings. We saw the outdoor hockey rink, and all the little stores and stuff. Salzburg is a beautiful city, I really, really enjoyed just walking around. In Salzburg there are like 4 or 5 bridges that cross over the river, and we walked from the end to the other. It was so awesome.

As time got close to 10, we went closer to Mirabell Gardens where we were meeting Cate. I suggested that we go to a cafe, and rest before walking around Mirabell Gardens and up to the fortress. We found this cool cafe, it's actually on the way to our hostel, but right off the main road, so we didn't go far. I got an delicious cup of hot chocolate.... it was so good. I could live in cafes! I go between hot chocolate and tea usually, and it's always so good.

We met up with Cate at lie 10:45, she had actually been up since 8am, but couldn't check out of her room and stuff until around 10, and her hair was wet, so whatever, it was cool when we met up with her. We walked through Mirabell Gardens, another area they used in the Sound of Music, especially in the Do-Re-Mi song. Basically all of Salzburg was used for this song. The fountain is here, and the little dwarves that they run by, so of course we took pictures of ourselves with the dwarfs. Cait and I just posed with them, Monica got much closer. Two of them carried her. It was pretty funny.

We then walked up to the fortress. Now the tour guide from the Sound of Music really scared us about this walk, he said it was 20 minutes up, and really tough. There is a train like thing that goes up there, but who wants that... with all the coffee shops we had been visiting, we needed the walk. We joked on the way up that we should have brought our climbing equipment, it might just be easier to scale the walls. But really the walk wasn't that bad. It would have been better if I was in better shape, but it was fine.

Cait didn't come into the fortress with us, she really doesn't like museums, which is what the fortress is these days, and she said she would rather explore Salzburg. So Monica and I walked around. We went into the torture museum.. yeah whatever. There was one room, and no one got tortured in it, they just held prisoners in there. I was so disappointed. It's only called a torture museum because there is one room where they had torture devices. It was more of a tour of the history of the fortress, the first room had pictures of the all the Archbishops who had a part in building and expanding the fortress. Work started in like 1000 A.D... sweet. We did go to the top, to the watchtower. Um beautiful. I mean this whole trip was seeing Salzburg at different high points, and this was one of the best. It was a little cloudy, but I think I got my best picture here, the sun rays came through the clouds and hit the Alps... and it was just beautiful. Worth coming up to see. We saw everything, and by now we knew what a lot of it was, which was awesome!

We also went into the Arms museum, saw a lot of swords, the stick figure army attacking, and a few torture devices... these were cool. They were more to humiliate, they were masks, but really cool. I was happy. The last museum we just walked through was the marionette museum. It was just like two rooms but they were interesting to look at.

After that we left, we didn't want to leave Cait by herself for too long. I really liked the fortress, it was just amazing that it was built a 1000 years ago, but still in really good condition. Everything was labeled, like this gate was built in 1450, or this bridge added in 1320... stuff like that. It really was amazing. And the views were unbelievable... I think this is why I fell in love with Salzburg so much, I saw so much of it from above, eye to eye with some of the mountains. Everything is so much more beautiful from up high.

We walked around a little bit more, went into a church or two, and then got some food. It was fast approaching evening by now, and that night we were going to Vienna. I hated to leave behind Salzburg, I thought it was an amazing place, I'd love to go back, and see more of it. The Sound of Music tour was probably the smartest thing we did, we saw Mondsee, which we didn't even know existed, we saw more of the city than we would have, and I love when things are pointed out to me. It's not just some bridge, but a bridge used in the Sound of Music, or that's just not another mountain, but Julie Andrews ran down that mountain in 3 minutes. It was really cool, I still believe I left my heart in Salzburg, it was just so amazing.

But onto Vienna... or Vindobona... the Roman fortress where the Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote Mediations, and later died. Or a Gladiator reference... "Has anyone ever been in the army?" "Yes, I served with you at Vindobona." OH where Maximus lived! But that's next time.