Salzburg, the Fortress on the Hill

On Sunday 19 April we boarded the train from Westbanhof Station in Vienna at 9.33 am going to Salzburg. We hopped on the nearest coach at the platform only to be told by the ticket inspector that we have to move forward by five coaches since the one we were in would be disengaged and we made the move at the next stop. This time the train ride is pleasant and comfortable, unlike the one which I had to sit by the door when we came back from Antwerp which was right in front with the engineer compartment.

My attire for the Salzburg trip was complete, in the sense that I would not want to shiver should the weather is unoredictable, after all it's supposed to be near the Austrian Alps. But what a bright and sunny day it turned out to be, Alhamdulillah! When we were on top of the 900 year old fortress called " Festung Hohensalzburg" I had to put on my hat and take off my pullover because it was hot. The view from the fortress to the city and the river Salzach the was just superb. I could well imagine how the Alps look like in Winter! The fortress is the biggest and one of the best preserved in Europe. The exhibits inside tell a lot of stories of the power once held by Prince-Archbishops and the splendour of their wealth.Rumour has it that Leonard von Keutschach, the Archbishop of Salzburg from 1495 to 1519 used to squander money and his uncle threw a turnip at his head to knock some sense into him. Ironically the turnip became a symbol for Leonard's new found wisdom.

As time was short we had only a few hours to spend in Salzburg and to make the trip worthwhile for Nurul, she went into Mozart's house which has been turned into a museum while we waited on the small park opposite it. We managed to catch the train after an hour of Nurul's tour of the museum and arrived back in Wien at 8.45 pm. Tomorrow we plan to go to Semmering which is a world heritage site and it's one of the most beautiful scenic route in Europe.