Salzburg means Salt Castle. It is a city in Austria. The city lies on the Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Alps mountains. In ancient time its main source of income was salt extraction. Salzburg's historic center (German: Altstadt) is renowned for its Baroque architecture and is one of the best-preserved city centers north of the Alps. It is also the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the shooting location of the US movie the Sound of Music. The historic center was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
Salzburg is about 140km southeast from Munich. We visited the city at the tail end of our trip to Munich, Germany, on July 25th, Saturday, with a guided tour.
Our shuttle parked across the river Salzach from Altstadt. We did not follow the tour guide but tried to cover more places on our own.
The first stop was Mirabell Garden. We got in from a side entrance.
It is a city garden, with a fountain and many sculptures. The four main sculptures depict some sort of abductions. It must be Greek mythology related I thought at the time.
It turned out that they were sculpted by Italian artist Ottavio Mosto around 1690. Each group depicts a mythological story symbolizing one of the four classical elements:
Earth (Pluto & Proserpina): Depicts Pluto, god of the Underworld, abducting Proserpina to the underworld, symbolizing the earth and the underground.
Water (Paris & Helen): Shows Paris abducting Helen of Troy and carrying her across the sea, starting the Trojan War.
Fire (Aeneas & Anchises): Represents Aeneas fleeing the burning city of Troy while carrying his father Anchises on his back and leading his young son Ascanius.
Air (Hercules & Antaeus): Depicts Hercules lifting the giant Antaeus off the ground to defeat him, depriving Antaeus of his power source (his mother, Gaia, the Earth) by holding him in the air.
Passing the sculptures, we saw locals were dancing on the shaded area by the side of the garden
Air - Hercules lifting the Giant Antaeus
Water - Trojan Prince Paris abducting Helen across sea
Earth - Pluto abducting Proserpina to the underground
Fire - Aeneas fleeing the burning city of Troy while carrying his father Anchises
entrance to the garden from the main street
Crossing river Salzach over a pedestrian bridge, we entered Altstadt, the historical old town of Salzburg. Narrow streets, old market square, Salzburg Cathedral. When we lingered at the front of the Cathedral, the bell tolled, and a cloud-formed cross appeared in the sky.
Salzach River
a narrow street of Altstadt
old market square
Redienzplaz, a tower of Salzburg Cathedral
Salzburg Cathedral
A cross in the sky facing the Cathedral
Instead of walking in the busy streets at Altstadt, we walked uphill to take a better views of the old town area. It was well worth it.
With short hiking uphill, we reached Viewpoint of Old Town (Altstadtblick). We had a good look of the cathedral from above, an unblocked view of the Fortress Hohensalzburg. Continued on a trail on the hill side, am Monchsburg, all the way to Aussichtspunkt am Mönchsberg (observatin deck) and birds' eye view of the Salzach river.
church towers
Fortress Hohensalzburg
Salzach River
Due to time constraint form the tour, we traced back to the trailhead, and continued to finish the loop around the Altstadt. We had a quick lunch at a restaurant near the pedestrian bridge and rejoined the whole tour group afterwards (by chance) on the way back to the shuttle. We continued the Austria Excursion to Wolfgansee for a lake cruise.
The Isar is a river that flows through Munich. Its source is in the Karwendel mountain range of the Alps in Austria. It starts flowing in north or west direction, flows into Germany, where it flows predominantly in northeast direction. The river is 295km long, and 32km of it are inside Austria, the rest entirely within the state of Bavaria, Germany. The river merges with Danube near Deggendorf, Germany.
It caught our attention when we saw many people rest on the dry river bed, or beach as they call it locally.
Dry river bed of Isar river, Munich
We walked along the river in Munich only for a short section a couple of times. The section is near Fischtreppe. This section of the river has an island in it, which splits the river into two streams, the side with exposed river bed is wide, the other side is narrow, the flow is fast, see the screen capture of the map at this section.
Maximillian Bridge passes over the island and is upstream to Fischtrppe (note - the river flows to northeast). One can walk down from the Bridge to the island - which has a park, and a walking trail.
On the bridge there is a sculpture - it represents Pallas Athenne, the Greek goddess of wisdom, stretgic warfare and craft. Below the bridge at the time of our visit, there was a family of ducks - a mother duck with six ducklings - one duckling was the odd one out - it was yellow, totally different from other ducklings, and no resembling to the mother duck either.
an island in the river Isar
A trail near the river level
A park on the island
A sculpture on the bridge with a sculpture
A duck family with one odd duckling
Fischtreppe, which means fish ladder or fish pass, is a structure in rivers, built near dams or waterfalls to help fish swim upstream past high walls. There is also a structure, Wehrsteg, weir bridge, which is a combination of a pedestrian bridge and weir (aka low dam) to regulate the water level in Isar.
Fischtreppe
Wehrssteg
The surrounding is beautiful, especially around Sunset time.
Along the river there are apartment buildings, community parks, and numerous restaurants. Local residents enjoyed themselves in various ways - sitting on the beach, listening to concert at community park, skipping stones over the river, wadding the water at the shallow side.
Wednesday evening concert in a community park by the river
two guys climbed over the rail of Wehrsteg to have a private time
Schloss Nymphenburg (German), i.e. Nymphenburg Palace, is a Baroque palace situated in Munich's western district Neuhausen-Nymphenburg, in Bavaria, southern Germany. It served as the main summer residence for the former rulers of Bavaria of the House of Wittelsbach. Combined with the adjacent Nymphenburg Palace Park it constitutes one of the premier royal palaces of Europe.
There is a channel to the front of the Palace, connecting it to Munich city center in ancient time. The primary builder of the palace was Maximilian Emanuel, the heir to Bavaria, a sovereign electorate of the Holy Roman Empire.
The channel is perpendicular to the front of the palace, which connects to the large pool close to the palace. It was a bright sunny day when we got there in the morning - cloudless, windless, the water was flat as mirror, reflecting its surroundings.
schloss Nymphenburg
In the back of the palace - there is a rectangular shaped garden with sculptures and flowers. Beyond the garden there is a channel/pool which ends at a manmade small water fall.
Back of the main palace building
The garden behind the palace
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Water falls
Looking at the palace from the water falls
The inside of the palace was ordinary, just rooms with paintings, furniture, except the main hall - which looks more like a church.
The main hall for the palace
Surrounding Park is more interesting - ponds, trees, flowers, water fowls, birds, and sculptures. We also encountered two deer. The other interesting observation is that there are quite a few Chinese themed decorations in the palace and some castles.
