Losing your Christmas cheer as you try to find your car in the myriad of greyness in the mall parking lot? This is what Salzburg looks like in winter. It's alright for some, isn't it?
I had the pleasure to be in Salzburg in April of 2003 when it decided to snow 2 or 3 inches. I became a master at layering my clothes. Truly crisp and beautiful, we chose that day to visit the fortress (icy) and to wander around St. Sebastian's and St. Peter's graveyards looking for relatives of Mozart. It was a pleasure to find Leopold Mozart and Constanze and her second husband between the cedars under the big flat flakes.
Earlier, we had been to Mozart's Geburtshaus, his birthplace. I felt a true frisson (Iris Murdoch likes that word) of excitement looking out Mozart's window thinking that he had done the same 240 years earlier.
This chapel in nearby Oberndorf is known as the Silent Night Chapel. It stands on the foundations of St. Nickolas Church where on Christmas Eve 1818 Joseph Mohr was able to perform Silent Night for the first time.
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My memory of that fortress centres around a prank that my dad pulled on me and my sister as we blithely wandered around unhampered by parental supervision. Unbeknownst to us, my father stashed himself in an alcove, waiting for us to pass and then leapt out and scared us out of our wits. He was such a card!
That was the summer of '77. It's still one of my favourite places in the world (along with Vienna).
Did you ever see a bizarre little program on TVO about the life of Schubert? There was a silent figure on the streets throughout the narrated and acted out biography. It was a kind of docu-drama. I don't remember much else about it except that it was haunting and well done.
what a cool picture...love teh architecture and the scenery...almost magical...and some neat history to go along with it...
Hi Kat,
Everything at the fort was so interesting. We took the funicular up and walked down. I'm going to have to dig up the pictures. I remember wandering around looking for the WC for a long time because I was taking the advice of people who had no better idea than I and I was freezing. I was wearing every single thing I packed. 5 days later it was 80 F.
No to the Schubert thing although it sounds interesting.
George played some Schubert the other day and we both said, Hey that's the music from the Man on the Train. More about that later.
xh
Such a lovely moment from such a lovely Christmas Fairytale!
We have "Man on the Train" on dvd. Have only watched it once. Think I'll have to dig it out again though.
On my only visit to Salzburg it poured with rain and the clouds nearly touched the ground! So lucky you!
I wonder if living there, do you get sick of all the oooing and aaahing? Or do you just sort of get used to it.
Or do you join in!
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