Considering my last post was a bit truncated (in words, not pictures, obviously!) I figure I owe my audience a bit more concerning Salzburg.
We arrived by train at around 10:30 (having left at 8am from Amstetten). There were a few over-indulgers from the night before - Russian students taking advantage of the low drinking age in Austria - who nursed hangovers (asleep, passed out or otherwise) on the train ride. I sat with the teachers, Gabi and Elisabeth from the HAK, and the Russian administrator who accompanied the group, Masha.
Once we arrived, we took a trip around the grounds of Schloss Mirabell (first photos), and then walked to the town square where we toured Mozart's birth house (yellow house in photos - hard to miss). We took a tour of the house. I went with the Russians, because Gabi suggested I take the "easy German" tour.
It was interesting, but rather pared down - the tour guide wanted to make sure we understood everything. There is no furniture from when the Mozarts lived there (he brought it with him when he went to Vienna - didn't much care for Salzburg in the end), and no Mozarts are still living in Salzburg (W.A. Mozart's sons never had children) but there is a branch of the family living in Germany - cousins of Papa Mozart - somewhere in Bavaria, I forget.
The one original large piece they have at the house is a harpsichord Mozart bought off of a relative of his wife. They also have the violin he first learned on (it's a mini -for a 5-year-old!) and it is still playable - used for special occasions! We were not allowed to take pictures in the house. Thus, I have pictures of everything else, but not the harpsichord or the violin...After the Mozart house, we wandered around Salzburg looking at the churches and cathedrals. There are lots, and the bulk of my photos have each of the three we saw. Since it was a Sunday, church was in session, so I had to be sneaky!
(NB: I have so many pictures, I thought I would spread them up over several posts...after realizing just how many I took...)
Then, the Russians and the Austrians met up and split off into preordained pairs (they are supposed to be getting language instruction/practice out of these weeks abroad, after all) and the teachers and I went to lunch at a great little restaurant (very typical Austrian - I had a salad with fried goat cheese and a beer for lunch). For dessert we went to the Fürst cafe, which boasts the original Mozart Kugel handmade in the back. They were quite tasty. I had one with a Verlängerter (a large espresso with milk on the side) - quickly becoming my signature coffee order in Austria.
From lunch, we went to the Hohensalzburg castle - high above the city on Festungsberg, built by the archbishop of Salzburg starting in 1077. [the photos in this post!] It's been used for centuries as a fortress, an abbey, a barracks, storage for military supplies - among other things - from the Thirty Years' War through World War II. It remains one of the best preserved medieval castles in Europe. There is also a cable car that goes up to the top, but we walked.
A working well ----->
After the castle it was time to go home - and I was seriously ready. Not that the kids aren't great, but, you know. Taking care of 50 teenagers is a chore. Especially when you'd like to assume they can take care of themselves. ;)
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