Salzburg is like a town out of a storybook. It has a river flowing through the middle, Alps in the background, and a fortress on top of a hill overlooking the city. What more could you ask for in a city? The scenery and skyline is just beautiful, with buildings built into the rock faces and spires dominating the skyline.
Here is our overview of all of the best sites of Salzburg:
Getreidegasse street is a busy tourist street full of expensive boutiques and cafes. Salzburg is a musical city, home to Mozart as well as to the Sound of Music. Mozart’s birth house is along this street, but I never have quite understood the fascination with seeing someone else’s home, so other than smiling at the yellow building as we passed, we continued on our merry way.
The most notable landmark of the city is Festung Hohensalzburg, a fortress parked atop a steep hill offering views of the surrounding mountainous landscape. Thankfully we fuelled ourselves appropriately for this climb with a filling European breakfast: full of fresh buns, meats, cheeses, and fruits. We spent a couple of hours exploring the fortress grounds, mostly taking in the skyline view.
As if that wasn’t scenic enough, Mirabell gardens offers one of Europe’s prettiest grounds, surrounding Mirabell Palace.
Since that wasn’t quite enough palaces/castles/fortresses for a day, we left the core of Salzburg and headed to Schloss Hellbrunn. However, it being a palace wasn’t why we came all this way. What brought us here were the trick gardens: unique and at times bizarre fountains that spurt water out at unexpected intervals.
The palace and grounds were built by an archbishop with a silly sense of humor, and one who loved to play practical jokes on his guests. Thus, expect to get doused with water here, whether it be from the bench you unexpectedly sit upon or from the sculpture you unassumingly walk by while viewing the gardens. Definitely a fun place to visit!
