Today dawned bright and sunny with blue skies all around, so we decided we'd make a trip to Salzburg, something I’ve always wanted to do.

The helpful man at the local tourist information here in Lofer gave us a map and showed us where to park, and it was actually really straight forward, thank goodness – Salzburg was very busy., but fortunately the car park wasn't. We walked into the old town via University Square, aiming approximately for the Tourist Info bureau, but kept getting side-tracked by beautiful buildings. The old part of the city is quite compact, and tiny alleys filled with shops and cafes thread their way between the streets, most of which are pedestrianised.

 
 Markt Square was filled with stalls and cafes, but most of all with visitors; we heard many different languages as we strolled around and headed for Domm Square with its cathedral. It is a beautiful building, but was so crowded that we contented ourselves with simply peering into the interior. Behind it is the looming presence of the castle, full of towers and very strong looking walls and perched on an almost impregnable hunk of rock.


 We left there and wandered through to the next square, named after Salzburg’s most famous son, WA Mozart. His houses are named with plaques and his statue stands in the centre of the square that bears his name. Even if you didn’t see any of these, the contents of many of the shops would let you know this was Mozart’s city: almost every kind of souvenir bears his name/his picture/his music/his initials and there are cafes and restaurants named after him etc etc.

 














In the square there were 2 types of transport: landaus with their horses waiting patiently for customers and rickshaw-type bikes for a cycle taxi tour. We decided to use neither, but to do the hop on/hop off bus like the ones we’ve used in other cities, so after finding a Spar to get some sandwiches, we walked down to the river to eat them before boarding the bus.


 The driver supplies you with headphones for a commentary in your language and in between the spoken words there is music by – yes, you’ve guessed it – Mozart. Its actually very nice and very fitting whilst gazing at ancient buildings, but there is also an alternative: the Sound of Music channel. Much of it was filmed in and around the city, and I briefly dipped into the commentary on channel 10, which told you all about the film settings but had music from the show instead of Mozart’s sonatas and symphonies; Lonely Goatherd or Minuet in C? I know which I preferred.....


 The old city is quite compact but there are several palaces and important buildings outside that area and across the river. The bus travels through quite a bit of residential Salzburg and doesn’t pause much for pictures; it is also a single-decker with windows that don’t open so the views are restricted or full of glare from the glass so we found it a bit frustrating in comparison to other tours we’ve done. Having said that, it gave us a good overview of the city and the recorded commentary was excellent.


 We got off across the river at the Schloss Mirabell, a palace now occupied by the city council but which has beautifully colourful and very extensive rose gardens. It also had a "dwarf park" in its grounds, with statues of dwarves connected with the folklore of the city, so we ambled our way through there and back across the river, over the bridge which has hundreds of “love locks” fastened to it, and eventually back to the car.


 The journey home made us glad we’d gone to Salzburg, as the views ahead were of dark grey skies and mist, but the rain had passed by the time we’d gone the 40 mins back to our site, where it was bright if not sunny. We spent the next hour in international relations –I was talking with the wife of our German neighbour who has very little English (but more than I have of German) with the help of HER Dutch neighbour who was again translating for both of us, while Hubby and the elderly German husband played with our satellite dish in sign language! The upshot of their “conversation”, after much waving, pointing and testing of wires was that it was sadly too small to get anything from the English satellite, and it once again got packed away in its bag, unused.

Tea was a take-away pizza from the camp restaurant, €8.80 worth of a very tasty vegetable one.