Postcards From An Italian Adventure – Salzburg, Austria

Author: scott, August 8th, 2010

Gay Friendly Austria Bed and Breakfasts, Hotels, and Vacation Rentals

Our dear friend, Bella (Dolly Goolsby) is on an extended adventure in Italy. She has graciously agreed to let us republish her travel logs. Enjoy!

Monday, August 2nd

Hello, everyone,

I left Vienna the morning of July 26. Of course, it was raining. After a two hour train trip, I arrived in Salzburg – the sky was overcast, but not raining. I was happy, as the weather report had indicated that Salzburg would have nice sunny skies.

I caught a bus into the old town of Salzburg, found my hotel, tucked in a narrow, winding street. I love this area. My hotel is in a building that is 650 years old. Can you imagine?

It is called the Goldenen Ente, which means the Golden Duck. I thought that was appropriate for a Mamma Duck. Actually, I have stayed at this hotel on three other visits, and was happy to be staying there again.

After checking in, I walked around the central part of the old city for a bit, to re-orient myself. I stopped at the tourist information center, and bought a ticket for a Mozart dinner show for that evening. I found an outdoor cafe, and settled in for a lovely lunch.

About half way through my lunch, the rain came down in torrents. Thank goodness I was under an umbrella. I finished my lunch, popped out my ever-present umbrella, and did some more exploring.

After about an hour of rain, the sun popped out again, and stayed out this time.

Then the streets and the piazzas filled up with people again. The sidewalk cafes dried off the tables and chairs, and life resumed in Old Salzburg. I could continue my walk.

I watched some men play chess outdoors on a giant chessboard, stopped and listened to a young people’s group playing Mozart, walked through the Market Platz, where fresh vegetables, fruit were being sold, as well as pretzel stands, wurstel stands, beer stands, fresh flower stands – cheeses of all sorts, sausages, fresh fish and meat – all making me wish I had a kitchen.

The old town of Salzburg is very neat, clean, with buildings painted white, yellow, pink, and contrasting trim, very pretty. There is a new concert theater for the music festival, built right into the mountain at the west side of the old town, near St. Peters cemetery. The Summer Music Festival had started here on Sunday, but tickets to those performances were impossible to get, as they are sold out months in advance. There was still plenty of non-festival concerts to choose from.

That night I attended a concert in St. PetersStiftskeller, a restaurant next to the church. Charlemagne ate here in A.D. 803, but of course, he did not attend a Best of Mozart dinner concert. I enjoyed the concert and the dinner, then headed back to my hotel, and called it a day.

The following day, I started on my exploration walk, and got thoroughly drenched in the rain. I finally slogged my way into the Cathedral, and as luck would have it, there was a concert scheduled, a Korean music professor playing the gigantic pipe organ.

It was lovely, and gave me a chance to dry out a bit. I learned then that Mozart had been baptized in this church, and also was the organist here for two years.

I had wanted to do a scenic boat tour, but due to the weather, had to cancel that plan. I looked up a Rick Steves’ recommended restaurant, and had a great bratwurst lunch, complete with beer.

The food really was good, and the restaurant resembled a Munich beer hall with tables that seat 6 to 8 people, and you join whoever is already there. Fun, if you can communicate, which I could not do, but I enjoyed myself anyway.

In the afternoon, the rain had stopped, so I went up to the fortress, taking the funicular (view pic at top of this post, station at left – remember this word: it will come up again and again as I travel through the mountain regions). The funicular is like a train, but runs on a track straight up the mountain side. Pretty cool way to get to the top.

The fortress had one room that was a Marionette Museum. There is a theater in town that has marionette performances of several Mozart operas, and I learned that they were also performing “The Sound of Music”, with a performance scheduled for early evening that day. There are two things that are constant in Salzburg: Mozart and “The Sound of Music”.

I was trying to do things this trip that I had never done before, and thought that a puppet show did indeed fit into that category. The show was very good… some great singers, as well as talented Marionette handlers. I was glad I went. Oh, it was in English, also.

I finished my evening with a good dinner at the Goldenen Ente restaurant, and was sad to have to leave Salzburg the following morning, as there were still things I wanted so see, but alas, they will have to wait for my next visit. I need to go to Innsbruck in the morning.

So, auf weidersehen for now…

Dolly

Want to Follow Bella’s Adventure Directly? Check Out Dolly Travels

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: bella, dolly, gay austria, gay travel, lesbian travel, salzburg, Uncategorized