Salzburg- Day 2

Started out today with breakfast at the hotel.  Then we decided to take a tour of Salzburg.  We decided on the Hop On, Hop Off tour.  I love those things.  It's a great way to see the city you are in and it allows you to either stay on the whole way or get off and see those things that grab your interest.  There were a total of five people that started the tour.  I can imagine that in summer it is PACKED.  This tour played pieces of Mozart when they weren't talking about what you were seeing.

Things I learned about Salzburg:
1.  It is the birthplace of Mozart.
2.  It got its' name from the fact that salt was mined in the mountains around and then shipped up the river from there.
3.  Most of the "Sound Of Music" was filmed there.
4.  There are two or three concerts a night put on there throughout the year.

On the tour, we decided to "hop off" at two places.  The first was just a stopover that the bus driver had to make:

All of you "Sound of Music" fans out there can tell me what scenes were filmed here.  We opted out of the "Sound of Music" tour, although it followed the same route.

The second place we stopped at was Hellbrunn Castle.  The Archbishop at the time built it as a place to drink and embarrass his guests with trick water fountains.  The grounds were fantastic.  The only way to see them is with a guided tour and 30 of your closest friends, so off we went.  The guide showed us where the trick fountains were and explained that the Archbishop would turn them on after all of guests were drunk enough.  It was usually done during the summer, and of course all the guests had to laugh at their humiliation.

You can tell that a lot of time was spent designing and creating the fountains.  The water features still work after 400 years.  Can't get craftsmanship like that anymore, can you?

The creepy little figure in the bottom middle that looks like it has Dumbo ears actually dumped water out of hist mouth every so often.  His eyes would roll back into his head, the mouth would open and the tongue would stick out.  Something that basically translate as a big "F. U." back then.

Finally, there was my favorite piece, which was a miniature scene carved out of lime wood.  The figures moved around to the sounds from an opera.  It was run by water and has survived for 250 years.

Ok, ok.  On to the food.  After Hellbrunn, we stayed on the bus until we reached the beginning again.  Then we got off and walked to see where Mozart grew up, not his birthplace.  We were pretty hungry after all this, so decided to eat in the old town.  For the life of us, we couldn't find a place that was still serving lunch. Granted, it was close to 3pm and every place we passed was on to serving coffee and snacks, not a full meal.  A nice gentleman working at one of the cafes told us about St. Peters.  After another 10 minutes of trying to find it, we were there and starving.  A little bit about the restaurant before I go on to the food.  The restaurant is said to be the oldest in the world.  It was started in 803 A.D.  It is located by St. Peter's Church in Old Town Salzburg.  As you enter, there is a courtyard that I am sure gets packed in the summer by people enjoying a nice beer.  Not today though.  It was somewhat chilly.  The menu wasn't that big, which can always see as a blessing when you are starving.  No one wants to spend 15 minutes looking at a menu when you want to saw off your own arm and eat it.  Hungarian Goulash it was for lunch.  I almost got the roast pork with sauerkraut, but changed my mind at the last minute.

The verdict...well, at least I wasn't hungry when I left.  It was just alright.  The beef was tender, but some of it wasn't trimmed well.  The sausage cut up to look like an octopus made me feel like a kid (in a good way).  The dumpling on the left was good for soaking up the sauce that came with it.  The highlight may have been the handmade bread and cheese that was served before the meal.  The bread was made just a few hundred feet away in the abbey.  So good.

We ended the day with a concert at the old fortress.  I think I burned off the meal walking up all the steps to get to the top.  But, I would say that it was worth it.