Salzburg

So we caught a shuttle from Ceske Krumlov to Salzburg. Great deal. It costs the same as the bus/train combo and you don’t have to change trains and buses to get here. They pick you up at your hotel and drop you at the train station. It takes just over two hours instead of five hours. Great deal.

We dropped our bags and headed out to see the town. It was fairly underwhelming after the beauty of Prague and charm of Ceske Krumlov. We ate lunch at a sausage stand in one of the squares in the Old Town. One of the things about Austria/Germany is that they embrace their winter weather whole heartedly. The café tables on the square put out blankets and they actually ADD tables and food stands during Advent. They have fire pits and heaters out to help warm you but basically everyone just dresses for the weather. This is great as a tourist.

After a bite, we took the funicular up to the fortress that overlooks the city and prowled around. Salzburg means “Salt Fortress” although the fortress at the top of the hill is called, “Hohenburg”. This is the land of rock salt and there are salt mines surrounding the city to prove it. The torture chamber at the fortress was the most interesting. They had these metal masks of shame to humiliate people in the middle ages. See picture. I felt kind of drawn towards them, actually. It looked suspiciously like masks I had made the primary teachers wear in some of our performances in the library. I wore the masks too, of course. How times change.

When we came down the sun had set and the Christkindl market was in full swing. It was Day One of Advent this past Sunday and it looked like everyone was out to celebrate. The market is a bit like Granville Island only with a Christmas theme. They have lots of meat, cheese, bread, candy, wine, aperitifs, and then a wide variety of Christmas ornaments as well. There was more of everything than I expected but the atmosphere was just as had hoped. I am looking forward to more of the same in the coming weeks.