Savvy Sightseer - tips and insights for seasoned travelers!
Local woman stops with her dogs to enjoy a view of Salzburg.
Busy pedestrian Karntner street
Salzburg and Vienna
Austria, once the ruling center of Europe from Spain to Hungary, today may be smaller greatly in size, but not in stature. The cultural and geographical center of Austria, Salzburg is a compact hub of culture, music, churches, shopping, surprises and beauty, while on the country's eastern border, its capital Vienna is a city that exudes a sense of timeless elegance.
Click on the picture above to start a slideshow and view a gallery of scenes from all the places discussed.
Click on the New Residence bell tower below to hear the Glockenspiel in action.
Salzburg
There's no simple way to describe or categorize Salzburg. It's historic and modern, musical and artistic, a pleasant blend of fact and fancy.
Strains of violins echo off Baroque buildings - constant reminders of Salzburg's most famous and favorite son: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Music is just one of this enchanting city's many offerings. Scenes from the Sound of Music, the fictionalized story of the musical von Trapp family who escaped Nazi capture during a concert at the Festival Hall, are found throughout the town. In addition to the Hall, there's the Nonnberg Abbey, where a young Maria is reported to have spent time, and St. Peter's cemetery where the family hid from soldiers in the wrought iron grilled arcade. According to the Hollywood story, the family escaped by climbing the nearby Alps - but if they had, they would have walked into Hitler's Eagle's Nest, so fortunately they took a train to Italy instead. The Eagle's Nest, high in the Bavarian Alps, is an interesting study in irony - with its magnificent views, it was a gift to the Nazi leader for his 50th birthday, but his fear of heights and close spaces (the elevator walls needed to be covered in brass to simulate more space) made it impossible for him to spend even one night there.
Strings are not the only source of melody that dominate this town. High above the former palace New Residenz (not so new - it was built in 16th century) the tower's 35 bells chime three times daily. Songs are picked seasonally by the descendants of one of the clockmakers who worked on the Glockenspiel's intricate movement mechanisms.
Imposing Hohensalzburg Fortress, a stark white-faced castle dominating the Salzburg skyline easily reached by the oldest funicular in Austria, houses a carefully crafted marionette display and ornately decorated rooms. From Hohensalzburg a mile-long paved path stretches across to the Monchsberg Museum of Modern Art, providing excellent views of the Altstadt and locals out for a walk.
On ground level, tiny Salzburg is brimming over with colorful meat, produce and flower markets, stalls for the ever-present sausage snack, elaborate ancient fountains (and a horse bath!), oddly modernistic sculptures, and on the Getreidegasse, Salzburg's famously old world pedestrian shopping street, vintage storefronts are topped by intricate wrought iron signs - a throwback to the times when pictures spelled out the type of business represented.
Vienna
So many intriguing stories and sights make Vienna an outstanding travel destination. Several wide boulevards are given over predominantly to pedestrians (though there are delivery vans and such that work their way among the walkers). One of the largest is the Graben, which stretches from the classical Gothic St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom) to chic Kohlmarkt steet, lined with impossibly expensive stores with doormen, and home to the deliciously pricey Demel, a chocoholic's Nirvana.
St. Stephen's is an architectural study in contrasts. The soaring 450' Gothic southern spire seems a juxtaposition with the varigated tile pattern of its roof, but the zigzag design was by intent, not by chance, and strictly for decoration. Inside the cathedral is just as dramatic, with a graceful curved staircase to the pulpit and an elaborate large reliquary.
Midway down the Graben, between the outdoor cafes and shops dating back to the 17th century, is the distinctive Plague Column, the Pestsäule. Towering over 60' tall, the column commemorates the end of the Bubonic Plague, which claimed up to 75,000 Viennese. A complex sculpture of marble and gilded symbols, including cherubs, clouds, the Holy Trinity, Lady Faith tossing the embodiment of the plague into an abyss, and with King Leopold I thrown in for good measure, since he commissioned it, the column is close to a more modern monument - the public water fountain. Proud of its Alps-fed pure water, Vienna has watering stations that on hot days draw longer lines than some of its more famous sights.
At the corner of Stephansplatz, branching off from the Graben is Kartnerstrasse, another popular pedestrian street of shops from an elaborate Swarovski Crystal to the fashionable Forever 21, that stretches all the way to the State Opera House and the Ringstrasse.
Once the barrier wall of the city, the Ringstrasse is now a wide boulevard ringing the old city.
Without a doubt, among the most popular sights is the one-time home of the famous Habsburg family. For more on all things royal, check out the Austrian Royal Residences page. A less expected sight is in front of the Habsburg Palace, and just below ground level at Michaelerplatz - ruins of an ancient Roman outpost discovered in the early 1900s.
Aside from some of the typical must-see sights is Vienna, there's so much more. Just beyond the Ringstrasse and Opera House is a fun collection of over 100 stalls of crafts, foods and herbs from all corners of the earth, eateries and everything in between, called the Naschmarkt. On the north side of the Graben still within the Inner Stadt before reaching the Danube Canal, is the Anker Clock on Hoher Markt. An ornate timepiece, the clock sports a noon-time parade of 12 of Vienna's historical figures. Nearby at Morzinplatz is an eerie monument to commemorate Austria's darker side during WWII. It marks the site of a Gestapo headquarters with a commanding headline of Niemals Vergessen - Never Forget. Similar-themed memorials are found throughout the city; several at Albertinplaz are especially compelling.
Click on the set of images for an expanded slide-show view and additional information.
A loose translation of the inscription is: Never Forget. Here stands the House of the Gestapo. For the confessor, it was hell. For many of them, it was the antechamber to death. It is buried in the ruins like the Thousand Year Reich. Austria, however, is resurrected and with it our dead, The immortal sacrifice. (Provided by A. Goldmacher)
Continue your trip through Austria with a visit to the Royal Residences or Sights Nearby pages, or go back to the Austria home page.
