We could have spent an entire day here, discovering beautiful details.
These beautiful statues were tucked away throughout the garden.
This view shows the horse fountain, the Salzburg Cathedral and the Fortress. Although there were a fair number of tourists in Salzburg, it never felt crowded.
We leave the Mirabell Gardens and continue our walking tour through Salzburg. This statue was in the garden behind the Mozarteum or Music Conservatory.
Saint Peter’s Abby is a Benedictine Monastery which originated in the late 600s. It is one of oldest monasteries in Europe. We walked through the cemetery and saw markers from 900.
After our morning walk through Salzburg, we went up to Hallein (about 30 minutes outside of Salzburg in the hills) and toured the salt mines. We were given coveralls and walked, rode a small train and at times slid down metal chutes through over a mile of tunnels. Deep into the mountain, we actually crossed the border into Germany and then looped back around into Austria. We learned all about the history of salt mining and the wealth it brought to the area.
We are on an evening walk through Salzburg with instruments in tow, to the first of 7 concerts to be performed during the tour! As much of Salzburg is closed to motor vehicles, we walked with the smaller instruments and had a taxi-van deliver the larger instruments.
I loved the narrow, cobblestone streets. Salzburg was quite small and we learned our way around quickly. The kids and I liked Salzburg the best of the cities we visited; it felt safe, comfortable and friendly.
We arrive at the Stiegl-Keller Restaurant for the dinner and concert. This concert was scheduled to be a collaboration between 3 musical groups in addition to ourselves: a Swedish Choir, an African Percussion Ensemble and an Indonesian Youth Choir. Unfortunately, only the Swedes made it to this first gathering. The African drummers were delayed in their arrival and the Indonesians had to cancel their entire trip the week before when their visas did not process in time.
Here are some of our wonderful parents and musicians. In the background you can see the Swedish Choir and the concert stage.