City of Mozart, No Longer Prized for Salt

Ah, Salzburg! Where the sun was shining and the air was... bitterly cold and dry. There was snow on the ground with no inclination to melt; as such, all the feet passing over it at the outdoor Christmas Market had turned it to the color and texture of sand. Despite the temperature and the fact that you can see everything of interest there within 2 days, I really liked Salzburg.

The best view of the city came from high atop the Hohensalzburg Fortress's viewing platform, where I got a great 360 view of the whole city, thanks to the audio tour.



Salzburg also held some of my favorite cathedrals I've seen to date, with the detailed, pleasantly-colored ceilings of the Dom (Dome) and St. Peter's putting them into my top 2, in that order, and Franziskaner not working it's way into my favorites but still providing a huge, impressive (though somewhat gaudy and vaguely cultish) golden altar centerpiece... thing.

The whole town is packed with history, mainly regarding Mozart, which means lots of classical music concerts and impromptu street musicians. The royal Residenz, where Mozart gave many concerts in his all-too-short career, hosts some really amazing woodwork on it's floors; hundreds of years old and still looking great, and so detailed! (Stupidly, I didn't take any pictures of the really cool star artwork on the floors, though that might have been due to the museum workers constantly breathing down my neck.)
But really, the main reason to go to Austria is to eat excellent pastries. My new favorite is called Creme Schnitt, which is Austrian for "vanilla layer cake with sugary glaze on top that suits madam just fine." In addition to all kinds of cakes and strudels, Salzburg is known for a strange creation called Mozart Kuglen, or Mozart balls, which are chocolate-covered balls of marzipan (possibly with some pistachio added in). I lucked out in that both my Creme Schnitt and Mozart Kugeln came from Fuerst Cafe, which is supposedly one of the best in Salzburg. However, after just 2 days of exposure to all the delicious sweets, it took another 2 days to be able to touch chocolate again. Just in time for Christmas, thankfully.