Sunday, 9 July 2006
The 6:40 train arrived in Salzburg at about 9:00. Having bought a bus day-ticket and clarified certain things, I took line 6 to Parsch, where the trailhead to Gaisberg is located. Gaisberg is graced the "Balcony of Salzburg". Indeed, rising to a height of 1288 metres above sea level, it is at a commanding position next to Salzburg, about 900 metres below it at its feet.
The trail at first followed a small but paved driveway, going up steeply. Then it passed by some farms with lush, green meadows, cows, and electrified fences, threading in and out of the woods. The morning weather at Salzburg was gorgeous, though looking up at Gaisberg, one could already see hints that wisps of clouds were gathering at about 10:00. After about 25 minutes of climb, the small alleyway converged with the main road heading up towards Gaisberg. According to the guidemap, I should continue up another alleyway in the direction of the Gersberg Hotel. Before reaching the hotel, a small trail with a marking appeared on the left side of the road. From here onwards, the road condition worsened considerably: for the trail was covered by loose stones and fallen leaves. With the recent rain, it was quite wet and treacherous, made even more so because I did not pack my hiking boots with me to Germany.
Midway up, I saw a trail marking, and was tempted to take a shortcut. This trail was even steeper and in worse shape than the one before, and before long, it started splitting off occasionally. When I started to become more and more uncertain, in front of me, an old couple appeared. Confirming with them the directions greatly heartened me, and soon I began to meet people coming down from above (the typical greeting is Grüss dich). After about 40 minutes, the narrow trail converged upon a larger gravel road. A sign instructed me to turn right onto another small trail that wound in S-shape up the final stretch of the slope. By about 11:15 a huge TV tower suddenly appeared in front of me, and I was at the top of Gaisberg.
The view en route and at the top was indeed as expected--the whole valley of Salzburg lay peacefully beneath--but perhaps a bit too far to identify the details such as the important landmarks. At this time, the view, unfortunately, was already somewhat clouded. Soon I walked along the main driveway, coming down the Gaisberg from the other side. For a while I was somewhat confused, not knowing exactly where I was. But eventually I ended up at the Zistel Hotel. The slippery downward stretch was already hurting my knees a bit, and I got a bit lazy. I hopped onto a godsend bus (imagine-- running on an hourly basis but about 20 minutes late so that I caught it just as I was coming down!) and went back to the train station to repack.
In the afternoon I started the main sightseeing in Salzburg at Mirabellplatz. First on the list was the Mirabell Palace. I did not actually go in, but went around the back-garden, which was lavish enough for me. Salzburg is really a city of music, and there was actually a performance of a string quartet in the garden.
Coming to the southern end, I encountered the Mozart-Wohnhaus, and across from it to the left, a church, gracefully shaped. Heading north again and turning right, St. Sebastian's church and its interesting graveyard came into view. The street, Linzergasse, opened up on the left and a road led upwards to the Kapuziner Kloster and the Kapuzinerberg, which offered a closer but not-so-commanding view of Salzburg.
Across from the River Salzach, along the west bank, there was a long stretch of tents-- some type of fair was going on, where colourful and sometimes exotic things>A? were sold. I started touring the crux of Salzburg from the north side, where houses were built along, and sometimes into, a cliff. The Spielzeugmeuseum, displaying toys, possessed an exterior look that brought joy to the eye.
Next, south of it was the Festspielhaus (right), and the University library (left), two monolithic structures about to eat up the street and its visitors.Turning left, I came to the Kollegienkirche, and further south the Universitatsplatz, together with the Mozarts Geburtshaus, where Mozart spent his formative years. Inside the house various items dating from that period were on display.
Coming out of the house from the front side, I met the busy, bustling street of Getridegasse, filled mostly with shops selling food, musical instruments, watches, and some other high-end goods.
A little bit to the south-east stood the Residenz, which was quite unrecognisable because (1) it was under renovation, and (2) a large screen was set up beside it, together with many seats, in earnest of tonight's final World Cup match. It was already closed. Instead, I came to the Franziskanerkirche, the Dom Church, and Peter's Church. Behind the Dom Church lay the Mozartplatz and another less assuming residenz (Neugebäude). The square was highly recommended by my guidebook but as far as I could tell was just an open space, cobble-paved, smelly of horses that stood nearby.
The final stop was the Hohensalzburg Fortress. To reach it, I climbed uphill (as though the morning hike were not enough) and was unpleasantly surprised when I came to a ticket office--apparently I needed to pay 6.90 Euros in order to enter-- even just for savouring the view from the top (though, the ticket also included two tours, whether you like it or not). The fortress was probably started in the late medieval time, and was expanded gradually overtime by the generations of archbishops overseeing Salzburg. Its upper parts had a nearly 360-degree view of the old Salzburg--close enough that I could easily identify structures such as the churches. Beside Salzburg stood Gaisberg, where I was this morning that now seemed so far away.
I visited an uninteresting marionette theatre, and then proceeded for tour number one, which covered the storage room for salt (whence Salzburg came), the torture chamber (never used for that purpose), the tower (it started raining quite hard as we got up there, but the view was nonetheless undefeatable), and the long battlement walkway, together with an interesting organ at its end.
It was about 18:00, and Salzburg was covered in thunderstorm. Therefore I decided to take an earlier train back to Munich.