We decided to go to Hohensalzburg Fortress early in the morning so to avoid the tourist crowds. It was drizzling lightly when we left the hotel ;( but we stumbled onto a farmer's market so we cheered right up :). The market is in Universitätsplatz, and one of the stalls is a deli that sells traditional Austrian goodies ^.^ such as this pretzel with SPECK and Austrian smoked cheese.
It's 4.9 euros for this baby but it's twice the size of Angel's hand!:
SPECK is almost like a prosciutto and was all over Italy. We looked at it a bunch of times in the grocery stores but didn't know what it was, and since Italian prosciutto is already so good, we always opted for prosciutto. Today was the first day we tried speck, and it is DAMN GOOD. I'm so mad at myself that we didn't buy speck in Italy!!!
SPECK <-- Angel's contribution to this blog. :P
We had heard from online bloggers that the hike up to Hohensalzburg is really exhausting and long. They approximated a 1/2 hour hike up to the fortress, so we were bracing for a hard hike but thankfully, since it was raining, it was cold so we didn't sweat as much ~__^. It is a really steep hike, with pedestrians sharing the narrow one-lane road with cars, and much of it is cobblestone and gravel, so you really need to make sure you don't stumble. But it was more like a 10 minute hike... we have no idea where the 1/2 hour came from! And this is Jen hiking, too!
Austria's first guarded archway, built in 1642... but not part of the original fortress, which was built in the 11th century:
A view of the fortress from the walk up:
And a view of Salzburg:
The main entrance of the fortress is where the paying and non-paying people get cut-off... so we weren't able to go into the castle, as it costs 10.5 euros per person to go in:
All the hiking made us hungry. We had seen these large donuts (the size of one's hand) all over Salzburg, so we bought one and the owner heated it up for us.
It was soooo yummy on a cold day! Tasted much like a beignet.
Mozartsteg is the bridge that Maria and the children skip along on "their day of fun." Angel skipped too!
We walked by Mozart's main residence, but it is under renovation although you can still go in to see the museum:
Schloss Mirabell has the gardens where Maria and the children sang "Do Re Mi."
They jump up on the steps:
and walk along the horse fountain:
and skip along the vine-covered arch:
and ride a horse-drawn carriage passing the church:
These statues were featured in the backdrop:
These midget statues were used when the kids patted them on the head:
The famous Sound of Music tour:
They have had such illustrious guests on board as Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and his wife, the 7 kids as grown adults, and the real Maria Von Trapp.
We saw at least 5 wedding parties with brides in full bridal gowns during our visit to the Mirabell gardens. One wedding party had white doves in a box, ready to open and for them to fly out:
After our Sound of Music tour part deux, we were walking back to the Inner City when we found Linzergasse, which I guess is where all the locals shop (as written in a Salzburg local blog). We found a 1 euro store, and scored really pretty scarves for 1 euro each, as well as some headband-scarves for Angel :). We also found the first Spar supermarket that sells Trockenbeerenauslese for a reasonable price! So we had to buy some of those as well.
In the Inner City, there are many souvenir shops that are very very expensive (an ugly magnet costs 4-7 euros at least and keychains are about the same price!). There is a Christmas ornament shop that specializes in the art of eggshell painting and decorating. Angel got so excited when she saw it and said "let's go in!" I had a quick flash in my mind and wanted to say 'no' because I thought we might break something, but she looked so excited so we went in. The eggshells are really gorgeous and they sell hundreds, if not thousands, of different designs:
BUT... guess what? Angel picked one up that she liked, and promptly dropped it... on the floor! It broke and a sales clerk was immediately at our side, saying that since we broke it, we had to pay for it :(. Talk about jinxing it! But she was really nice about the whole thing and said we had to pay 1/2 price for it... which I guess is a discount as they had other eggshells on sale for 1.9 euros and we paid 1.75 euros for a 3.5 euro eggshell. The baby looked ready to cry! (She kept saying, "Where's my mommy? She would an-wei me." ...unfortunately, she had to make do with my yelling at her):
Thankfully, Angel dropped a pretty eggshell and there's only a small portion of the shell missing, so she's going to go back to CA and make it brand new and prettier than before!
Angel's brain hasn't been all here... today she tried to go up a downward escalator!
We bought Topfenstrudel, which is an Austrian pastry with curded cheese stuffed inside (basically) a croissant.
We also bought a braided brioche to pair with a HUNK of marzipan:
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