Nightglow Window

Vacation Day In Salzburg

Turns out that the cherubs over the bed of my theme room don't help my sleeping patterns one bit, and I'm up again at 5 a.m., fidgety and ready for sunrise.

I don't waste time, get out of bed, and start the morning by transcribing the Sean L interview. Then I head downstairs to find out how far I'm going to have to trudge through the early morning streets to find a wireless connection. Fortunately, the lounge off the lobby is hooked up. So I check e-mail. Cullen and Leah have a bunch of questions, so it's time well spent. After a quick breakfast (and too much coffee), I head up to work on the DC story and I'm ready to e-mail it off by 10 a.m., so it's a productive five hours.

Josh is up and having breakfast and we head out soon after. The rain has dried and it looks like the sun is trying to poke its way out. We explore the cliffside catacombs of St. Peters, hewn into the sheer rock face. The chapel, high on the cliff, is dark and has a small altar, six niches, and the smell of something very old. The site was consecrated in 1178.

We then head down a the narrow streets of the Altstadt and up the many, many stairs leading to the Hohensalzburg Castle. We unzip our jackets as we climb and the sky is now blue. The castle was constructed in 1077 by Archbishop Gebhard and was significantly enlarged by Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach between 1495 and1519 and has become one of the largest, fully preserved fortresses in central Europe.

It was never captured and it's easy to see why, the road to the top is steep and defenders would be able to rain down fire on any advancing enemy. Murder holes are above each of the four or five gates you'd have to pass to get to the top. Have fun storming the castle? I think not.

It takes a while to walk the halls and parapets of the well-preserved fortress. There's a museum full of creepy Nazi guns and uniforms and medals if that's your sort of thing. I'm far more interested in the views south, where the Austrian Alps have poked through the clouds and shine in the winter sunlight.

We head off the high hill of the castle and back into the labyrinth old town street. We stop for Chinese food and then head down river to a park Josh visited when he was on his Hemingway travel grant trip. It's nice and the weather has turned sunny and warm--it's probably near 50 degrees by now. We climb back up the hill near our hotel, but we're both dragging. The exhaustion of the last week (and before) has caught up to us, and soon after I head back to the hotel to sack out.

Three really hard hours of sleep later, and I'm down here in the lounge, checking e-mail and trying to figure out where Josh is. Our flight tomorrow is at 6:10 a.m., so it's going to be an early one. The next few hours will most likely be our farewell to Europe.

Sorry this is rushed, but I'm still groggy and the battery power level is red on my computer. I'll be home soon.



We're heading to the castle on the hill and there are a lot of steps between us and it.


Pick your favorite steeple, the Altstadt is full of them.


The Austrian Alps poke out as the sun begins to shine. This was taken from the Castle museum, where I opened a window and hung outside of it to get the shot. Lots of creepy Nazi stuff in the museum. We are very close to the Eagle's Nest here.


Looking down on the Salzburg Zoo from the top of the castle.


Somewhere up there, in the hills east of town, is Julie Andrews country where they say the actual hills are alive with the sound of music. Someday I'll figure out just where that is and what that sounds like.


Altstadt from the footbridge down river. It's a beautiful day at this point--sunny and nearly 50 degrees.


Back on the hill we explored yesterday, we can't really get a clear view of the castle and the Alps behind it. This is about the clearest the view gets.