Another day in the great city of Salzburg!

After waking up fro a wonderful night's rest we set out to get a good breakfast to prepare for the day. We found this great little coffee shop and we had some eggs. 

Once we finished out breakfast we headed to the Mozart Museum. Unfortunately, they do not allow pictures to be taken so I only have some of the outside but they had an awesome audio guide. The audio tour lead us throughout the house where Mozart and his family lived. I learned a lot of information about Mozart and found the museum really interesting. They also had some pianos that were his and some of his music. We also listened to a lot of his famous works on our audio tour. 

Then we made our way to the fortress where we took a funicular up the mountain. Once we got to the top we took a lot of pictures and wandered around a lot. There were magnificent views of the city and the mountains. Then we hit the first museum that is in the fortress and did not realize how extensive it was but it was really informative. The fortress was built by the Catholic church and Cardinals inhabited it. The Church built the fortress to protect the city and it did a very good job of it because no one attacked Salzburg because the fortress scared everyone. However, they surrendered to Napoleon without even putting up a fight. The fortress was built in 800 AD and the following Cardinals continued to make additions. In the first museum, the had a lot of items from wars and we got to see where the Cardinal's lived. They had very exquisite rooms! Everything was so ornate and just down right unbelievable. 

After the museum we got some "lunch" at a restaurant in the fortress. We had some of the best apple strudel ever! 

 "It is good to be King!"

Once we finished our amazing lunch we headed to the other museum area in the fortress. This is when Dad got shish kabobed by a turnstile as we were getting our other audio guides (I do not think I have done more audio guides on a vacation ever!). I am not entirely sure what happened but he got hit in the legs with the turnstile. What made this situation wonderful was the Austrian man working the audio guide station laughing at him. Dad asked him if it happened often and the man responded, "No! You are the first one!" Then everyone in the area starts laughing hysterically. By the time we got to the top of the stairs Mom and Dad pressed the wrong button and their tours started in German. Luckily, we got it changed to English and we eventually started the tour. The first room had photos of all the Cardinals that lived in the fortress and what additions they made to the fortress. We then headed upstairs to the torture chamber! Dad and I had a lot of fun taking photos in that room. 










Next we climbed a tower to the top and we had amazing views of the entire area and the mountains surrounding us. 
 

Once we climbed down the tower we then walked the narrow corridor where the guards kept watch. At the end of the corridor was an organ. This organ was very different than most organs because it was set up like a music box. I wish we could have gotten to hear it play but I am not sure if it works any more.
















Our tour of the fortress was over and we got back on the funicular and headed down the mountain. When we got to the bottom we headed to the famous cemetery in Salzburg. I have never seen a cemetery like this ever and it was so beautiful! Each spot is rented out and each person has a family member that comes and tends to the plot. The families plant beautiful garden's on top of where their love ones lay. Most of the headstones are wrought iron crosses which also makes it very unusual. The sides of the cemetery are basically large gated plots where richer people are buried. When the Von Trapp family is hiding in the cemetery in the monastery in the movie The Sound of Music, these walled areas were the inspiration for that scene. The Cemetery also is surrounded by three churches and a monastery up on the cliff side, which you can climb up to. 

We went into Saint Peter's Church which is one of the churches in the cemetery. It is also houses the tomb of Saint Rupert, which was really cool. The inside of the church is covered in huge paintings of detailed scenes from the Bible. It was absolutely amazing because these paintings covered almost every wall. 

After, we headed to the Cathedral. The Salzburg Cathedral is huge! It has been rebuilt due to many fires but was really amazing. The Madonna statue in the center of the Dom Platz is very different because her back is towards the Cathedral, which is very unusual. However, on the church is a statue of two angels holding a crown. If you stand back from the statue, you see that the angels are actually placing the crown on top of her head. Thanks Rick Steves for this tip!

We also made a quick trip to the Mozart platz where there is a statue of Mozart of course. There is also a glockenspiel with an upside down heart. 

After visiting all of the major sites we set out to do a little souvenir shopping. One of the stores had a big Sound of Music display in which they had statues of the whole Von Trapp family! Of course we got our pictures taken with the family!

After dinner we headed back in the rain to our hotel after an exhausting day. We had an amazing time in Salzburg and it was one of my favorite places we went to on our trip! The city is absolutely beautiful.