European Tour: Day Four

June 19:

Since we are changing hotels, we had to have our suitcases outside our doors by 7:45 a.m. so the porters could take them down to the bus. After that we went down to breakfast. At 8:30 a.m. we were on the bus heading to Salzburg. We drove on the Autobahn - busses must go a certain speed limit while everyone else can go as fast as they want; although, there is a "general speed limit" of 80 mph.. Cars were really zipping by us!

Our first stop was the Melk Abbey, an Austrian Benedictine Abbey. The abbey was originally founded in 1089. The structure that stands now was built between 1702 and 1736. The abbey church has frescoes by Johann Michael Rottmayr and the impressive library has countless medieval manuscripts. It is now a school for about 900 pupils of both sexes.

As we continued onto Salzburg, you could tell we were gaining altitude - it was getting cooler. We started seeing some beautiful mountains but the clouds were so low they were obscuring most of our view.

After reaching Salzburg, we met our local guide for a walking tour of the area. Salzburg does not like the tour busses - they are only allowed on a select few roads. It lightly rained throughout our walking tour.

Mirabell Gardens- famous baroque gardens built in 1606 at the Mirabell Palace. They have been remodeled many times. The palace was built by Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau in 1606 as a token of his love for Salome Alt- they had 15 children here. Today Mirabell Palace houses the offices of Salzburg's mayor and the municipal council. The Marble Hall, formerly the prince-archbishops' ballroom and concert venue for Leopold Mozart and his children Wolfgang and Nannerl, is considered to be one of the "most beautiful wedding halls in the world." Meetings, awards ceremonies and romantic concerts (Salzburg Palace Concerts) are held here regularly.

We walked by the house Mozart lived in from 1773-1780:

Christian Doppler's home (undergoing restoration)- The Salzburgian physicist discovered in 1842 a shift in the frequency of waves if source and receptor changed their position to each other. The so-called "Doppler effect" is the principle for velocity measurements and a number of other applications, including radar technology, distance estimates in astrophysics or automatic doors.

We saw, from a distance, Hohensalzburg Castle or Fortress- it is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe. Construction began in 1066.

We walked around "Old Strazburg". Each shopowner has a sign hanging outside that has an image that shows what type of shop it is. Most also have the date they were founded.

St. Peter's Cathedral - St. Rupert originally founded St. Peter's Abbey in 696 AD. The present building was constructed in the Romanesque period, then completely renovated in the 17th and 18th centuries in the Baroque style. Here Mozart's famed Mass in C Minor premiered in 1783, with his wife, Constanze, singing the lead soprano role. Mozart often directed orchestra and choir here and played its organ.

Stiftskeller St. Peter -this tavern was established by Benedictine monks in A.D. 803. In fact, it's the oldest restaurant in Europe, housed in the abbey of the church that supposedly brought Christianity to Austria.

Dom zu Salzburg Cathedral - Salzburg's Cathedral is probably the city's most significant piece of church architecture and its ecclesiastical center. With its magnificent façade and mighty dome it represents the most impressive early Baroque edifice north of the Alps. The first cathedral was built on this site by Bishop Virgil who came to Salzburg in 767. The city was set on fire in 1167 also destroying the cathedral. The cathedral was rebuilt ten years later under the rule of Archbishop Conrad III of Wittelsbach and became more beautiful, more magnificent and more impressive than ever, making it the mightiest Romaneque cathedral north of the Alps, its size even surpassing the emperor's cathedral in Speyer. 400 years later another fire raged and destroyed large sections of the cathedral on December 11, 1598. This afforded Archbishop Wolf Dietrich the opportunity to tear down the damaged cathedral and to make plans for its reconstruction. Not only were valuable sculptures and gravestones of the archbishops destroyed but the cathedral cemetery plowed under and the bones of the dead dumped on the debris. After Wolf Dietrich's death the architect Santino Solari was commissioned by Archbishop Markus Sittikus to rebuild the Cathedral, which became the first early Baroque church north of the Alps. In 1944 the dome and part of the chancel were destroyed during a bomb attack. The necessary renovations were carried out and the Cathedral consecrated in its former magnificence in 1959. The three years found in the gates to the Cathedral are in memory of the three consecrations: "774", "1628" and "1959".

Among the precious objects to be found in Salzburg's Cathedral is the baptismal font in which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was baptised.

Cafe Tomaselli - Founded in 1703, the Tomaselli on Alter Markt Square is the T-Rex in the Jurassic Park of Caffeine. The man himself, Mozart, had coffee there.

Cafe Furst- Just around the corner of the Tomaselli , the Fürst headquarter is the site where Mozart′s balls were immortalised in chocolate for the first time in 1890. (I know, I know... keep reading) Today, a small exhibition underlines that here and only here you can buy the ORIGINAL Mozartballs. The “Original Salzburg Mozartkugeln” are still produced manually by the confectionery Fürst according to the original recipe and using the original technique: First, a ball of green pistachio marzipan covered in a layer of nougat is produced. This ball is then placed on a small wooden stick and dunked in a dark chocolate coating. Next, the stick is placed vertically, with the ball at the top, on a platform to allow the chocolate to cool off and harden. Finally, the stick is removed; the hole that it leaves behind is filled with chocolate coating, and the ball is wrapped in blue-silver tin foil by hand. According to the Fürst company, their employees produce approximately 1.4 million Mozartkugeln by hand using this technique every year. In the firm’s air-conditioned salerooms, the balls remain fresh for about eight weeks.Other buildings along the walking tour:

After the walking tour, we headed to our hotel to check in. We met for dinner at 7:45 p.m. Dinners in Europe are typically later in the evening. It is not like here, where you eat and then spend the evening at some "main event". In Europe, dinner IS the main event. Most people spend hours at dinner. It is actually kind of neat to just sit and relax while you eat, chatting and laughing together. After dinner, 9:15 p.m., we headed to our rooms.