Salzburg

Salzburg was interesting. Here is this absolutely gorgeous town with views of the alps and other impressive mountains, with a wide, glacier-fed river flowing through it, with a quaint old town filled with baroque architecture, with an interesting history (was actually an independent state run by cardinals or bishops or some such until the late 1800's) and an impressive fortress...in other words, with a lot going for it as a tourist attraction just based on location, architecture and history...but the tourism industry seems to be based on Mozart (who was born in Salzburg but who spent very little of his life there) and The Sound of Music movie (which Germans and Austrians tend to despise*) rather than any of those other things.

Salzburg has TV stations in German (of course), French, Italian, Spanish and English. In addition, there are three TV stations that cater solely to tourists. Channel 30 plays The Sound of Music movie in English on a continuous loop with no commercials. A channel or two above that, you have a classical music concert that was held and filmed in Salzburg God knows how many years ago. And a channel or two above that you have a documentary on Mozart (in English) which has interesting & well-written narration and some very scary modern dance interpretations of a few of his key works.

Unfortunately I can't comment on Salzburg's restaurants or its cuisine because I was feeling very broke and opted to eat at the restaurant attached to my hotel and the cheapest thing on their menu was pasta, so that's what I ate. However, I have heard from a few other people (Kiwi Craig and a couple of my students) that the food in Salzburg is fabulous. Will have to make that a priority if I ever go back.

*Note: it was explained to us on the Sound of Music Tour that the reason Germans and Austrians hate the movie is because there was another movie made first, in German, called The von Trapp Family Singers (or similar), that was actually an accurate history of the family. When Hollywood moved in with The Sound of Music they traded accuracy for the Hollywood aesthetic (surprise!) and the Germans and Austrians were offended. Maria von Trapp, then living in Stowe Vermont, was also offended until they paid her $90,000 in exchange for a few endorsements of the movie and the tours, and then she was much more content. (Did you know that Maria von Trapp died at the age of 82 from kidney failure because she pretty much only ate cheese and never ate fruit or vegetables? When I got back to Madrid I bought two apples and a bag of carrots.)

To see the rest of my Salzburg photos, click on the title of this post or copy and paste this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33730&l=651c2&id=595126014