Salzburg optional tour

Day 6 Monday April 30th.
Sailing Linz to Passau.

Today after the ship arrived in Linz at 7.30 am we took the optional excursion to Salzburg, our ship continued on to Passau where we met up with it later in the afternoon.
Linz is Austria's third largest city and lies on both banks of the Danube.  Our optional excursion by bus to Salzburg would see us travel in a south westerly direction towards the Alps and northern Italy, I would estimate that today we have travelled in excess of 250 klms. The journey took us through some of the most beautiful country that I have ever seen. Although normally wet and chilly at this time of the year this area in the past week has experienced some of its hottest weather on record, clear blue skies, high twenties, low thirties, how lucky are we to have experienced this on our holiday.
The country between Linz and Salzburg consists mainly of farmland situated on low rolling foothills, inter mingled with small villages, lakes and Industrial areas all connected by excellent roads and rail lines. The houses and barns together with shedding etc. looked clean and in most cases freshly painted with bright colors, there is little fencing separating farms and villages, this gives a great sense of tidiness as every thing tends to combine together without separation. In mentioning tidiness the farms and their surrounds were not cluttered with old machinery or stacks of disused equipment, there wasn't a disused car body to be seen, grass seemed manicured, animals were scarce and those that we did see were contained by electric fencing. The area appeared to be a crop growing area of Canola (they call it Rape) grains and vegetables which also grew stock feed  ie. grass hay.

Not far from Salzburg we stopped at a small village called Mondsee it is situated on the banks of a large lake which is said to resemble the moon, thus it's name Mond for moon and see for lake, we stopped here to visit (I have to say another church) however after taking but one or two photo's the four of us retired to a local cafe for coffee.

On to Salzburg which enjoys a dramatic setting, located on the river salzach it is dominated by two hills, the Kapuzinerberg to the north and the Monchsberg topped by a large castle called Hohensalzburg. Salzburg is said to have the look of an Italian city as Italianate  architecture  is prominent and this city is the birthplace of its most famous musical son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Mozart's birth-house (Getreidegrasse 9) and home until 1773 is now a museum as is the family home from 1773 to 1787 (Makartplatz  8).
Salzburg is also well known for its part in the classic musical movie " The Sound of Music " starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer for much of this movie was filmed here.

This City is typical of many of the cities and villages throughout Europe, shops and  houses abutting one and other, streets not wide enough for two cars to pass, cobble stones with no lawns or trees. Hidden alley ways, arches and doorways that make strangers ponder and wonder what might lie up and beyond them, but alas we do not have the time to explore as much as we might wish on this fleeting visit to Europe but I for one will not be mildly ruffled if I do not visit another church for a while. Salzburg is said to be a shopping Mecca as it has many clothing boutiques and jewelry stores and is also known for exquisite fabrics, antique and bric-a-brac stores. Furniture arts and crafts are prominent while many of the shops specialize in local Trachten,  colorful traditional costumes that still have appeal today.

During our walk of the streets of Salzburg we took time to sample the local fair. We had a local savaloy with roll, mustard and grated fresh horse raddish. Very nice but no better than those you can buy in Aus.  We also had some of the local Beer which we all agree is splendid.

At 3.30 pm we were back on the bus for a long and interesting trip to Passau where we boarded our boat to continue our cruise. We did not walk the streets of Passau so please forgive me for the following which I have borrowed partly from our traveling documents.

Passau  is a city situated at the confluence of the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers and is picturesque and full of charm.  Napoleon  was said to have remarked that " in Germany I have not seen a town more beautiful." The old city was destroyed several times by fires in the 16th and 17th centuries and was rebuilt in a style much seen throughout our travels the " Baroque style." it is now nick named the "Venice of Bavaria."situated directly on the Austrian border it is a good place to directly sample this German state's cuisine and beers which are famous throughout the world.

Till next time Crackers the Eagle