Altstadt

Sunday was a gorgeous day. I planned to into the Old City of Salzburg and take some pictures and tour some of the churches. But first! My friends and I had planned a Big Ol' American Brunch. We had pancakes (ok, they were really crepes because the Austrians don't do regular pancakes apparently) with peanut butter and/or jelly, hash browns, and eggs with ham. SO GOOD.


After eating ourselves silly, we figured it was a good time to visit the old city and walk off that breakfast.

The old city is about a 10 minute walk from where I live. Once you pass the apartments and banks and kebab stands, you climb a set of steps and it's like you are transported to another time! The old city is so beautiful, complete with the narrow streets and cobble stones that you would imagine.

First up was Mozart square. As my friend Amber says, Mozart is Salzburg's Jesus Christ. He's everywhere and they are more than happy to claim him as their 'son'. Amber and I chillin' with Wolfie:



The highlight of our trip was to visit the Salzburg Cathedral (Dom). It's gone through a few re-buildings due to fires. It was most 'recently' rebuilt in 1629. The magnificent dome of the cathedral was destroyed by a bomb during WWII and was rebuilt in the 1950s. The inside and outside are masterpieces of baroque architecture. The inside is incredibly ornate, with paintings of Bible scenes all over the ceiling and walls. You could sit in the cathedral forever and still not see everything.

From the inside:


The inside of the dome:


Next we visited St. Peter's church and cemetery. The cemetery has very unique graves and markers. It also served as the inspiration for the cemetery in which the Von Trapps hide out in in The Sound of Music (it was a set in the movie!).

A few famous people are buried here, including Mozart's sister, Haydn's brother, and the US General of the last occupying forces in Salzburg. (see Flickr site for pics of their graves). After spending some time in the cemetery, we paid 60 cents to enter the 'catacombs'. They aren't catacombs in the sense that there are no bodies. Rather, it's places of worship built right into the mountain by the early Christians. You can still see the altars and paintings inside.


Next, it was to the inside of St. Peter's. It was gorgeously decorated in Rokoko style and houses the body of St. Rupert. This church was first built around 700. It's another church where it's hard to see everything at one time. Guess I'll just have to go back!


After that, we took a walk down Getreidegasse, the oldest and most famous street in Salzburg. It's also the street where Mozart was born. His house is now a museum, but I haven't been inside yet (there are pics of the outside at Flickr). We treated ourself to some Eis (ice cream) that is a bit Italian in style and taste and so good. And only 1 Euro!

We ended our day feeling accomplished and happy. But there's still so much I have to see. There's several places we haven't been to, as well as more churches. Churches to Austria are like Wal-Marts to the mid-west. So, hopefully we'll have some gorgeous weekends and I can go on more adventures in the old city.

PLEASE visit here to see all the pictures from the Altstadt. It's well worth it; it's so beautiful! You can also leave comments there on the pics.

This Friday Walter and I are going to Berchtesgaden! AKA, Hitler's mountain playground!