Saltzburg In A Day

Day trips don`t usually involve getting on a plane or boarding a cable car 1,972 metres (6,469 feet) to the summit of an alp.

3am and I’ve got a 50 euros in my wallet (travel money) and return tickets on a Ryan Air plane to the Austrian city of Salzburg birthplace of Mozart and known to many as the place where a nun named Maria sang about some lonely goats and hills that where alive with the sound of music, Soon those very same hills (or more correctly mountains) would be towering before me as I stepped from the plane I had boarded at 6am at Stanstead Airport. We collect the hire car from Hertz (nectar points), and set off into town W.A Mozart airport is on the outskirts of the city and although everything in Salzburg is in easy walking distance we had plans to explore the alpine villages surrounding the city.
Once in the city we park the car in a car park (situated inside a mountain!) and climb to the Salzburg Fortress (Festung Hohensalzburg). The fortress was used in the Sound of Music and dominates the city skyline. Its state rooms are a must see, completely furnished in gold and with spectacular views over the city and surrounding Alps. We make our way down into the main squares of the city and explore the streets, sights and sounds of Salzburg. We decide to visit the Getreidegasse, a street famous for its wrought iron shop signs and the birthplace of Salzburg’s most famous resident Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart who’s bright yellow house dominates the street and is now a museum dedicated to his work.
We buy a sandwich from the fish bar next door and sit in the small busy square to eat it.
Back in the car we leave Salzburg and head for the Untersberg, A legendary mountain only 16km (10mi) from the city and take a very bumpy cable car to the summit where we are plunged into total whiteness as the clouds obscured any chance of a view. Then as if sensing our disappointment, the clouds parted and words can not do justice to the view before me, I was completely unprepared for the sheer beauty of the Alps light sparkling on mounds of waist high snow and deep blue sky above. Although my camera was virtually frozen to my hands I did my best to capture the awesome scene, before the clouds returned and the scene was gone a fleeting moment captured in my memory and in pixels forever.
The rest of the day was spent exploring the many smaller Alpine villages surrounding the city each with picture postcard houses and later returning to Salzburg to get some evening photos. As the sun fell behind the surrounding mountains we boarded the plane to Stansted and my time in Salzburg came to an end.
At the time of writing Ryan air fly’s regularly between London and Salzburg and as long as you only travel with carry on luggage a return flight can cost as little as £14 .
To see the Images and video taken during my trip please visit my You Tube and Flickr pages