Amid the flickering candles and ornate ceiling of the Baroque Corridor at St Peter’s Abbey, the programme implores us to ‘be a visitor of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’.
A excessive be aware in kitsch? Completely – however once you’re being poured a glass of riesling earlier than a three-course dinner interspersed with hits from Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute and The Marriage Of Figaro, all sung by up-and-coming opera stars, it is laborious to not be seduced.
Particularly once you’ve spent many of the day on the Mozart path: listening to about his youth in an house above Salzburg’s essential procuring road and visiting his residence on the opposite facet of the River Salzach.
Wolf pack: Salzburg is likely one of the prettiest cities in Austria – and the entire of Europe
It is honest to say that when you do not look after Mozart, the Austrian metropolis of Salzburg is perhaps of little curiosity. He’s in all places — outdoors retailers as a cardboard cut-out, on posters promoting piano recitals and, in fact, staring imperiously out of the large statue erected in his honour in Mozart Sq..
The large ticket right here is the annual summer time pageant that reaches a crescendo on the finish of August.
We arrive shortly after this jamboree, which suggests we virtually have St Peter’s to ourselves and do not should queue for the funicular that whisks vacationers as much as the fort above town.
We may stroll, however our excuse is that my 87-year-old father-in-law is with us and he may discover it a stretch. However this metropolis is fantastic for somebody of his age. One sq. leads into the subsequent, and every thing however the fort is on the flat.
Salzburg is organised, clear and much more manageable than I would thought.
Solely 150,000 folks stay right here, however greater than 7 million look in for a couple of days, lots of them (my spouse Joanna included) as a result of The Sound Of Music, shot right here, is their favorite movie.
As we attain Mirabell Palace, Joanna breaks into Do-Re-Mi; once we cross Residenz Sq., she hums I Have Confidence; outdoors the driving college from the place the von Trapp household escape, she sings Edelweiss.
Hear the music: Salzburg was the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1756
It will get difficult when we now have dinner at Gasthof Goldgasse, a minute’s stroll from the cathedral and Joanna sees a person in lederhosen and a kind of jackets with trimmed lapels that look pretentious worn anyplace outdoors Austria or Germany.
‘Christopher Plummer was my excellent man,’ she says. ‘I want you’ll costume extra like that.’ Fortunately, our menus arrive and the topic is dropped.
This can be a charming restaurant, filled with locals.
Austrian delicacies isn’t over elaborate. My wienerschnitzel comes with simply boiled potatoes and creamy cucumber, however I wolf it down with gusto.
We decide to remain simply out of city, at a lodge referred to as Schloss Fuschl, perched above Lake Fuschl. The fort dates again to the fifteenth century and the view from the restaurant, throughout the lake, is so enchanting that I anticipate Joanna to interrupt into Climb Each Mountain at breakfast.
The lodge has a deck with steps right down to the lake. And my father in legislation has his first expertise of a whirlpool tub within the spa however does not fairly see the purpose of simmering in bubbles.
However we do all agree that Salzburg is right for a brief break and, for these with even the slightest ear for music, it is near excellent.
