Snow and sun in Salzburgerland

I just realised that this is the first post for 2014, which is now in its 42nd day (already).  There is one good reason (actually more than one) for not writing earlier: extremely busy Monday-Fridays with no inclination to spend a few minutes in front of a monitor in the evening and equally packed weekends in a row.  Necessity is the mother of invention, though and thus now that the 1st escape from London for the new year took place, here I am with my bulletin on the trip to Salzburg.

It was a rather serendipitous trip courtesy of British Airways - well, partially - after they hassled us during our trip to Amsterdam and rewarded us with a welcome flight voucher (have not mentioned that one before, have I?) and which we redeemed to pay tribute to the Austrian city famed more than anything else for its son Mozart.  An obvious interest for me, although I admittedly admire Beethoven slightly more.  But not today...

The initial reaction after booking flights was: Austria?  Mountains?  Winter?  Given that I am not into skiing and such perilous activities.  But further reading made it obvious that the city had more to offer than copious mountains with skiing pistes and Mozart.  The latter inevitably had to feature on the trail and on the first day, after ascending* up the 1853m high Untersberg and down, visited his birthplace.  And the family's residence the next day.  And a magical concert of 2 of his piano sonatas and a fantasia in a beautiful Romanesque hall.

We did venture slightly out of the Salzburg city centre for half a day to visit the salt mines in Hallein and also the Stiegl brewery, where we left with a surplus of beer which was happily consumed on the Saturday night.  Oh yes, the beer.  Superb.  And the food - everything revolves around meat: sausages, schnitzels and goulash.

After my non-exhaustive travels around Europe, I guess I know what the recipe for a European city is: a river with a few bridges across, a cathedral or two, one main square, palaces, museums and the hill-top castle.  Indeed, all featured in Salzburg, but every time I go to a new city, there is some unique facet to the combination of these elements; truly the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  And the beauty of Salzburg undoubtedly played a key element to inspire the young Amadeus.  Plus some twist of fate and a good gene or two.

*In a cable car, needless to say