'Tis the Season

 Gorgeous doorway garland

     Are you feeling the Christmas spirit? I've taken a break in blogging to enjoy some of the holiday activities here and also to concentrate on a major endeavor in baking. Last week, I baked over 14 dozen cookies - for my annual cookies and cocoa party, for neighbors, for chapel caroling, for Matt's work and for two guys in our house that just love gingerbread!

      I'll resume the final posts from our trip next week, but for now, I thought I might post some pictures of the beautiful Christmas decorations we found in Salzburg and Munich. It seemed that every nook and cranny held some holiday cheer. Enjoy!

 

 Pretzels!

 Wooden ornaments at the Salzburg Christkindlmarkt

 

 Nativity at Festung Hohensalzburg

 Tree and garlands in the stairwell of Stiegl-keller

 

 Chandelier garland at Schneider in Munich

 Froliche Weinachten from Schneider :)

 Handcarved wooden nativity at Munich Christkindlmarkt (would not fit budget or in suitcase)

 

 Gluhwein stand in Munich. The best way to keep warm while Christmas shopping!

 

Christopher with a festive roadster at the BMW Welt, Munich.

Salzburg: Festung Hohensalzburg

View of the fortress from Old Town

     A visit to Salzburg would not have been complete without a trip up the Festungberg to visit the Hohensalzburg Fortress. The fortress can be reached by a funicular railway or a long, steep staircase that leads up the mountain. We took the funicular, which has been operating for hundreds of years in various forms (horse to hi-tech), since the cobblestone was a little slippery from recent snowfall and I think we were all excited by the idea of just zipping up the mountainside and enjoying the view. And the views are amazing! On one side, you are able to overlook Salzburg from the domes and spires of the Old Town churches, across to Schloss Mirabell and the gardens and further to the train station. On the other side of the fortress, the outskirts of Salzburg stretch across a long flatland until they reach the magnificent mountains that border Austria and Germany. 

      After we took in these sweeping views, we headed inside for an audio-guided tour of the fortress interior. The fortress was built in 1077 as a stronghold for the archbishops of Salzburg. It was originally a small structure, but each archbishop added onto the fortress for the next several centuries. One of our favorite stories from the audio guide was about an archbishop whose uncle did not think he would amount to much when he was a child. The uncle threw a turnip at his head to "knock some sense into him" and once he became archbishop he adopted the turnip as his official symbol and incorporated it into his coat of arms. Throughout the rest of the tour, we hunted for the turnip symbol in doorways and on shields throughout the fortress.

A view of Old Town from the fortress walls

On the other side of the fortress, countryside gives way to the Alps. Coincidentally, I used to have views of this mountain from my bedroom window at the pension where I stayed during my semester abroad.

Within the fortress walls

Wood paneled interior room where the archibishops ruled over Salzburg.

 

Listening intently to his special children's audioguide.

Salzburg: That Mozart Guy

Statue of Mozart in Mozartplatz, Old Town

 

 

Mozart's Birthplace on Getriedgasse

 

Mozart's family also lived in this home on Markartplatz in New Town

 

Christopher's favorite Mozart. He wanted to see the "moving statue" every day.

 

Monument for Mozart's wife, Constanze, and other family members in St. Sebastian's Cemetery. Mozart was buried, as was custom, in a common grave in Vienna.

 

Memorial arcade at St. Sebastian's Cemetery. It was recreated at a soundstage for the escape scene in Sound of Music.

Salzburg: Essen und Trinken

 Augustinerbrau

     I noticed that when several of my friends were sharing their favorite things in Salzburg, different foods were often at the top of the list. I know that when we were planning our trip, I kept saying to Matt "and we can do this and then go here to eat this." Austrian cuisine is pretty fantastic. It has many similarities to German food and in Salzburg, the nearby Bavarian influence is strong. There is a lot of meat, potatoes and dumplings of various shapes and consistencies. I consider it comfort food for its savoury flavors, warmth and ability to keep your tummy full and happy for a long time. And if you still have room, Austrian desserts are confections straight from heaven.

      Early on in our visit, I gave Matt a quick rundown of what to expect and how to pick something from the extensive menus. My advice to Matt was that you can never go wrong with Austrian soups or gravy. Some of our favorite dishes that we tried were wienerschnitzel (veal) with a mushroom gravy and curried rice, venison stew with potatoes and wild boar schnitzel (melted in our mouths without the least bit of gaminess). Our favorite soups were a creamy pumpkin and a clear broth with dumplings. At our frequent cafe stops to warm up and take a break between activities, we savored fruit and cheese strudels, layered cakes and strong, dark, Austrian coffee.

Christopher gets his first taste of Apfelstrudel from Cafe Tomaselli.

Coffee and pastry at Cafe Tomaselli

Known as a "new-fangled, Viennese-style cafe" when it opened, Cafe Tomaselli was a favorite of Mozart's wife, Constanze.

Food vendor's hall at Augustinerbrau

Pretzels, kasekrainer (cheese filled sausage) and pommes frites at Augustiner.

Prost! Toasting our Augustiner mugs of apple juice and beer.

Stiegl - home of a Salzburg beer and a great place to warm up after a chilly morning touring the fortress.

Plate of meats, cheeses and relishes at Stiegl-Keller.

Salzburg Scenes

 Festung Hohensalzburg

 

 Goldgasse

 Hotels in New Town along the Salzach

 

 Signs along Getriedgasse

 Man atop a Mozart ball - new to me!

 

 Looking down Linzergasse at the spire of St. Sebatian's church

 

 Salzburger Dom

Pferdeschwemme fountain

Salzburg: The Dom

 Side of the two bell towers of the Dom (and entrance to the Christmas market)

     I've been inside of a lot of churches. Some of them marvelously gilt, filled top to bottom with treasures, paintings, sculptures and materials of the finest quality. Others humble and bare with worn wooden benches, faded carpets, and a simple cross on the altar. Although I can appreciate all of them for their individual beauty as a place of worship, very few of them have the ability to take my breath away like the Salzburg Cathedral. There is something incredible about its interior that makes my breath catch and release in a peaceful sigh as soon as I enter its cool darkness. The pews are dark, heavy wood and from there, the walls and ceiling loft upward in arches covered in the curlicues of Baroque design. 

     A cathedral has stood on the site of the Dom since 774, but the current structure dates to 1628. During World War 2, an Allied bomb dropped through the dome causing extensive damage. The dome was rebuilt and finished in 1959. An interesting bit of trivia is that after my 1997 semester in Salzburg, I found a photograph of the cathedral while looking through an antique book shop in Elkins. Though I don't have an exact date on the photograph, it is evident that it is from pre-World War II and gives a hint of how the Dom appeared before the bombing. On the back is an inscription from a photographer's studio on the square adjacent to the cathedral. It's always made me wonder if someone else from my hometown also felt a special connection to the Dom. 

 

 Interior from the nave

 

 Top of the dome

 Putti in the arcade arches

 Vibrant portraits from scripture fill the walls and ceilings of the arcades.

 

 The contrast from the ivory and beige Baroque walls lends impressive visual impact.

 

Poignant and one of the most crowded areas during the first week of Advent.

Salzburg: Mirabell Gardens

 Mirabell Gardens with a view of Festung Hohensalzburg

     Our first morning in Salzburg, we awoke to fresh snowfall floating down from the sky between the pastel colored buildings on Wolf-Dietrich Strasse and onto the cobblestone street. Christopher had been asking to play in the snow since we had whisked past snow-covered fields on the train from Munich, so after breakfast, we headed to Mirabell Gardens so he could frolic in the white powder. 

      Mirabell Gardens is probably one of the most iconic and scenic spots in Salzburg. It was the setting of the famous "Do-Re-Mi" scene in The Sound of Music and provides beautiful views of the Festung Hohensalzburg in the distance. Historically, it is the site of a palace built by Archbishop Wolf-Dietrich Raitenau for his mistress and mother of his 15 children, Salome Alt. Archbishops were not allowed to marry, but his relationship with Alt was lifelong. The palace was later rebuilt into a larger home for subsequent archbishops. Now, it serves as public offices as well as a concert and wedding venue. The surrounding gardens are seasonal and feature both marble and bronze statues of mythological people and creatures.

     One of my favorite parts of the garden, which hold the stone statues of numerous dwarves of different occupations, was closed. I was disappointed that Matt and Christopher couldn't see it, but in looking for another entrance, we found a playground that had been constructed since my last visit in 2003. After some play time and a brisk hike back into the gardens, we warmed up in the adjacent orangerie, a tropical hothouse and turtle fountain located on the side of Schloss Mirabell.

The famous Pegasus fountain

I was ambushed! The Von Trapp family was inspired to sing and dance in the gardens, but the Langford family shared many laughs tossing the new-fallen snow.

Christopher uses a bucket and pulley in the small playground we found behind the gardens.

Time to warm up and visit the turtles in the Orangerie of Schloss Mirabell.

The morning snowfall didn't put a damper on these pretty pansies.

The gardens with a view of Schloss Mirabell in the background.