Salzburg, Austria

Friday 2nd July

We’ve had a great day but are all very tired so this will be brief.

Mark and I went for a walk around the Altstadt this morning and noted a few points of comparison to Prague: This Old Town is even more beautiful than Prague and much more prosperous. Thus, leggings and joggers are a complete ‘no go’! I spent most of the early walk wondering what I’d put on for the day to try and look like I was worthy of walking the cobblestones!

Our day started with one complete lap of the ‘Hop On Hop Off’ bus tour to get our bearings. This finished over near Mirabell Gardens and Palace (1689) so we had a quick look in at the gardens. We will visit here again as part of the Sound of Music tour so we didn’t dwell here for too long. We then hopped back on the bus to travel to the outskirts of the city to Hellbrunn Castle. The Castle was built in 1615 under the instruction of the ruling Archbishop of the time for his own benefit as a place of retreat and pleasure. His sense of humour extended to a myriad of amazing and elaborate water fountains where he would douse his unsuspecting guests!

From Hellbrunn Palace we ventured back to the Alt Stadt and visited the Cathedral, St Peter’s Abbey and cemetery and, the amazing church, Fraziskaner Kirche, where we were fortunate enough to be treated to a rather haunting and moving organ performance by someone up in the cloisters…we couldn’t see them. By then it was 5 pm so we headed on home to enjoy the balmy evening by way of a rest and a beer out in our garden before a dinner night in.

PS: I’m sooooo tired each night so please forgive any poor grammar and typos!