We woke up this morning to find ourselves in the beautiful little town of Salzburg, Austria!  What a lovely surprise!

It was going to be a very quick visit; we had a flight out of Munich back to Italy later tonight.  We made ourselves get a reasonably early start, had a fantastic breakfast that was included with the room at our hotel, and set out to reacquaint ourselves with Salzburg!





If you haven't ever visited Salzburg, the only way I can think to describe it as is one of the most quaint, charming, little town you will ever visit.  Set against the backdrop of the majestic Alps, Salzburg is the birthplace of Mozart and just an easy, enjoyable place to visit.



Salzburg is split by the Salzach river running between the older and newer parts of town. The name of the town literally means "salt castle" and dates back to when barges used to carry salt on the river and had to stop and pay a toll.  There are actual salt mines not too far away that you can visit, which we did on our last trip.  They are quite interesting and the walls in the salt mine really do taste like salt!  ;-)

We walked down on the path beside the river, enjoying the views before crossing over to the old part of town.





Salzburg was not heavily bombed during the war and remains a well preserved city and a great example of Baroque architecture.



I have always enjoyed just wandering through the little streets and losing myself in the "old world" feel of Salzburg.  Every time I have wandered through during previous visits I have come upon this open market in one of the little squares that is very enjoyable to peruse.





Today I was feeling artistc so I allowed my creative eye and the Canon camera become one and set them free in the market...













Apparently patterns were my thing, but who am I to question my "creative eye"?















There certainly was no shortage of vibrant subjects to photograph!  If I had more room in my suitcase I would be taking a lot of this stuff home with me, not only were there beautiful fresh flowers and produce but there were also a lot of fresh baked breads and other tasty products.  The flowers were definitely my favorite.





Keith couldn't resist the urge to buy some cheese, big surprise!



Salzburg is just so incredibly charming, everywhere you look.



We walked into another large courtyard where it seemed that all of the horse carriages in town were lining up, returning from their tours throughout the city.





It is hard NOT to feel in the spirit of the romantic old world charm when it is set to the soundtrack of horses’ feet clipping the cobblestones.





In another large courtyard there is always a life-size game of chess being played...



I caught this colorful guy taking a moment's rest from his entertaining...



Both Keith and I love to visit St. Peter's Cemetery in Salzburg, it is like visiting a living art museum.





Many people, important to Salzburg's history are buried here; it also was used during the filming of the Sound of Music.  I really like intricacy of the graves.









We continued on, wanting to head up to the castle and catch the view of both Salzburg and the snow covered Alps on the other side.  There is a funicular that can take you up directly into the castle but the price was expensive as it included admission into the castle.  We just didn't have enough time to do all of it so we took the steep walk up and did some VERY important burning of calories.

Once up, and after catching my breath, we continued along the top of the hillside, away from the castle hoping to find the "perfect" vista.





Even this area was beautiful and still made you feel part of the "old world" of the city below.  As cold as it was out there were many people out strolling, probably taking advantage of the dry break in weather!







We finally were rewarded by our quest for the perfect view; it doesn't get much better than this!



What an absolutely majestic sight to experience!  There aren't many words you can even use to describe this view.



The castle that overlooks Salzburg is yet another gorgeous vista from this perspective.



The castle, also known as Festung Hohensalzburg, is considered to have been one of the mightiest in central Europe.  It definitely looks like it must have been pretty impregnable!



I found a little friend lying in the leaves nearby, a sweet kitty who was content to lie in the same spot and let me pet him for a while.



We knew it was time to start finding a place for lunch, our last Austrian meal before going back to Italy, so we walked back down to the old part of Salzburg using an even more scenic path than the one we had used to go up.





What a beautiful setting, this is the view of the city from near the castle...





We found a restaurant with all our requirements, handwritten, no English translation menu, and tasty local specialties so we popped in and grabbed a table.



The food was delicious and so was the beer!



There was a feisty table of locals near us with one very special guest; a bulldog who lazed at their feet.



I don't do dessert often but in Austria I can't help but have an apple strudel once in a while.  This one was fantastic!



We were sad to have so little time in Salzburg, but glad we made the trip.  We caught our train back to Munich and made it in plenty time to the airport, where it was snowing!  Before we knew it, it was really coming down and our plane was delayed a few hours.  We ended up getting back too late to Rome to be able to catch a train so we stayed in Rome overnight before heading back to Cortona the next day.

What a fun whirlwind trip!

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