Around The World Without Flying: Salzburg Austria Part 1 - early memories of Salzburg, exploring the town

I had visited Salzburg in Austria for just one day in 1980, and loved it, so I was very thrilled to be able to see it again as an extended excursion. It was a long trip from the river ship, but very worthwhile. In fact I am going back there in a couple of days on my own, and looking forward to that too.

Salzburg - the City of Salt. For thousands of years salt was a valuable commodity, because not only did it preserve food for soldiers on long marches, but also it helped heal wounds by preventing infections from setting in. It would not have been known then, but of course men on long marches wearing heavy armour would have perspired a great deal, and the salt in their diet would have kept their electrolyte levels up too, or they would have collapsed.

On my previous visit to Salzburg in 1980, the school group with which I was travelling went by train to a nearby station and then went to the top of a mountain by cable car in order to visit an ancient salt mine. We donned thick white clothes and boots so all you could see was our eyes. Then to our surprise, we were asked to straddle a low wooden train to take us into the mine. (It was like a long wooden pole on wheels.) What we were not prepared for, however, was what came next . . .

We had to slide down into pitch black hole to a spot way below us on an almost vertical wooden pole. I was terrified and yelled the whole way down. That was not all! There was second pole and a second hole. By then we were deep in the mine and then we walked along the dimly lit passages and saw the crystals of salt glimmering in the light. They were pink! This certainly brought home how hard it must have been for the miners and the small ponies they used to carry the salt.

But then I wondered - how on earth are we getting up again? That was going to be worse!

Would-you-believe - there were escalators! . . . So, as you can imagine, Salzburg has remained in my mind ever since, even as I have subsequently gone down deep under the earth in other mines in Australia - gold mines and a zinc and silver mine (which subsequently collapsed). I have also visited several open cut mines, but all that is a whole other story.

What was noticeable along the quite long drive to Salzburg from the river ship was all the little villages in which the houses had lovely cottage gardens. As we neared Salzburg, the mountains that we had seen in the distance loomed up before us. They were beautiful to see.

The first place we visited was some lovely gardens, in which there were fountains and many wonderful statues and sculptures, including a set of four around one square that represented the four ‘elements ‘ proposed by the early Greeks - earth, air, fire and water. We walked past them into an area with very attractive buildings - and saw the building where Mozart once lived as a child. That was very exciting.

I have so many photos just from this part of the tour, I will talk about the rest of our Salzburg experiences in the next two posts.

At Passau, from where we travelled to Salzburg.

A typical scene along the way to Salzburg. Huge areas are used for crops. This was taken from the coach.

The beautifully laid out garden we visited.

One of the lovely fountains.

More of the garden.

And more . . .

Another fountain.

This sculpture was so shiny and fluid-looking it reminded me of mercury - previously known as 'quicksilver'. But of course it couldn't be, because mercury is a liquid that slowly evaporates away. I do not know what the sculpture represents.