Today – my last in Salzburg – I visited places I had not found time to see earlier. I started with the Schloss Mirabell which I actually had quickly visited with Edwin, the photographer, on my first day. It had blown me away but there wasn’t enough time to spend photographing it. So after enjoying the Salzach River from the Mozartsteg (pedestrian bridge), I continued on to the Schloss Mirabell.

These pictures (other than the first two) are of the Raphael Donner staircase. The palace is open to everyone and free of charge so you could just go and sit there and marvel the entire day long.

My next two stops were Mozart’s birthplace and his residence. They were interesting and the audio guide interpreted a lot of of what I was looking at but there wasn’t a lot that cried out to be photographed. These photos are of the birthplace.

The second Mozart home was his residence as an adult. He didn’t live in it much because he was touring, but he did move his parents there. Interestingly, the birth place was on the left bank of the river, which is the less affluent side. His residence was in a much tonier area on the right side of the river.

Edwin, the photographer, recommended a visit to the Museum of Modern Art, which is on one of Salzburg’s many hills. Fortunately, there is an elevator to take you to the Museum though there are the inevitable staircases to the exhibition levels. I was intrigued by some of Rob Voerman’s work that drew heavily on the use of cardboard. Even the explanatory signs on the walls looked like they were made of cardboard. I thought – think of what we could do with all those Amazon boxes! 😉

Three times a day the Salzburg Carillon plays something composed by Mozart. Have a little listen. My hands are not as still as they could be and there’s chatter from passing tourists, but it’s still quite lovely.

While planning my four days in Salzburg, I purchased a wine tasting through TripAdvisor expecting other people to be part of the group. Nope. I was the only person. The owner of the shop would pour a glass of wine for me, tell me a little bit about the wine and then disappear. I hadn’t planned to finish the first glass of wine, but I soon realized that he would not return with the second tasting until I completely finished the first. Since the owner used the same glass for all three pours, I found drinking the wine pretty quickly was the way to survive this experience. Probably not advisable, but oh well. In the end, the wines were quite good.

That’s it for Saltzberg. Next stop is Zürich and my Road Scholar tour by train around Switzerland. I hope you’ll stay with me. See you then.