Day 3 - Salzburg: The Old Towne

WARNING ... There are lots of photos in this post - so it may take a while to load ... I guess that is why it is taking me so long to get these up - I just can't choose which of the 1800 photos I want to share!

If you are just joining us - this is a continuation of a trip to Europe (Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic) that my son and I participated in with the American Music Abroad Empire Tour in July 2011. This post is the middle part of our 'day 3' in Europe (we were there about 16 days). To see our journey from the beginning - you can click on the words "OLDER POSTS" at the bottom of this page on the right hand side. Our Journey began at the East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania on July 13, 2011 where we met our directors and joined forces with the other musicians who soon became our extended family.

Today's post is the afternoon of Day 3 (Tuesday, July 19).

We had just left the Mirabell Palace and Gardens - and now arrived in the Old Town of Salzburg.

Some of the students were able to make it up to the Castle Fortress that overlooks the Old Town. In a photo taken from the Fortress we see the Salzach River (Salt River) and the Salzburger Dom (Salzburg Cathedral) - a 17th century baroque cathedral. As with many of the buildings that we were introduced to during our tour - we learned that the Dome of this cathedral was damaged by a single bomb during WWII. Reconstruction was completed 1959.

The Choir sang in the Cathedral. We approached it from this side, and next is a photo of our first view of it. It is in a central square area - that we used as our meeting place - where we also found the huge fountain from the "I Have Confidence" song, Maria sang in the Sound of Music. (more on the fountain later).

The Cathedral was too big to fit in one photo - so here is the middle part of it.

after we sang - we exited on the other side and were treated to a view of the other side of the Cathedral.

This was another massive building - as you can see as you look at the size of the people in the photo above - compared to the building.

But before I go any further with the outside area - I want to go back in the cathedral and see some of the amazing paintings and sculptures we experienced.

Back inside - we entered thru a back door and the choir went immediately onto the risers. We sang a couple of songs and our band members sat and took photos. The next couple of photos were from Jakes camera. Everyone commented on how - as we sang - the sun radiated thru the windows and shone down right on the choir. Neat to see in the photos.

There were so many altar areas inside the cathedral. Each very similar to the others and yet so very different as well. I tried to capture as many as I could.

As we left the cathedral, our local guides took us thru the Old City and showed us so many places and shared so much information with us. I wish that I had with me a tape recorder to have been able to capture their sweet voices and accents as they shared a wealth of information about the area. I did capture several of the steeples through out the town. So many and so very different.

At the end of our guided tour we found ourselves in another square, this one filled with a market place, yet surrounded by building that were built (as the writing below says) in the 1300's. Many also had a second date on them, telling the dates the buildings were last restored. We were now on our own to eat and explore.

The market place was pretty interesting and the selections of food and goods was vast. Below Emmanuel was purchasing some watermelon for lunch.

But as I said the variety was vast. Here we have a pastry shop

Huge wheels of cheese

Pretzels and breads

and sausages of every kind!

As we finished eating and looked up we remembered from our tour guide that the building below was the actual house that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in. The open window on the 3rd floor - was the actual room.

So we walked thru to the other side of the buildings and paid to go in what was now a museum, of the place Mozart was born.

We paid 9.50 Euros to get inside.

We were not allowed to take photos inside, but we did walk the floors of the room he was born in, saw his little violin, his keyboards and even a lock of his hair. At one point there was a walkway in the building - so I did take a photo of Jake in one of the doorways - to show - how small the buildings and doorways were. My poor Zach (6'5") would have had a hard time in this place.

It was getting close to the time we needed to meet back with the group, so we decided to go back thru the cemetery near the Cathedral. In the movie "The Sound of Music" they used a sound stage for the set of the cemetery, but we were told that this cemetery was what they created it after. The European Cemeteries we were in, we so beautiful. The flowers were just amazing. The photos below aren't of any specific 'famous' graves - just of the beauty and serenity that surrounded us as we walked thru.

The stone wall at the back of the photo below - was where we were told the cave 'theater' where the music competition took place near the end of the "Sound of Music" movie was filmed. We didn't have time to go in and take a look.

Below is a shot of the same area - just pulled back a bit.

We headed back to the meeting place, which was the huge "I Have Confidence" fountain that I mentioned before. In the second photo below, you can see some steps that are at the base of the fountain. We were told Julie Andrew's couldn't reach the water, so they built the stairs so she could reach the water.

As we walked away with the group, I mentally said goodbye to the area as we passed by many of the shops, and musicians that were set up for the tourists.

It was surely a trick to keep a group of 100 people together as we crossed streets to get back to our buses,

but the view we experienced was amazing.