We started off our day with a walk down the river from our apartment to the city center. Our apartment is close enough that if we decide to walk, it is only about a 15-20 minute walk versus a 10 minute bus ride. It was really cold this morning but we knew it was our last chance to do so. This walk was probably faster than 20 minutes since it was so cold. Here is the view of our walk.
Below is a picture of a local schnapps producer Sporer who has been making schnapps for four generations. This little shop/bar is always packed with locals even early in the morning. During Christmas, they also produce a hot orange punch that has a pretty potent kick. This place had people spilling outside and also in the hallway next to the shop. We sampled a few varieties and brought a couple of things home with us. The great great grandson of the founder can be seen facing the camera in the lower right hand corner.
This man below in traditional Austrian clothes we saw walking around town just about every day we were in Salzburg. We tried to get a good picture of him but he was always camera shy. He just kept popping up through our trip. In fact as we were wheeling our luggage out leaving our apartment to come home we ran in to him walking towards us.
We took the bus to see Kelly’s old school building where she studied during the summer. Unfortunately it looks like it has been abandoned with all the contents removed. The university is building new buildings throughout the area. We can only imagine it will be torn down for a new building.
Building where Kelly’s class was located.
Below are pictures of the updated buildings.
While we were sightseeing the cold air that moved in last night started to make the rain turn to snow.
By the time the snow really started to come down we were in St. Peter’s cemetery. It was New Year’s eve and almost all of the grave sites had red candles burning or were being lit by someone. On top of this great setting, above us from the castle locals were starting a traditional ceremony where they shoot VERY loud hand held cannons to scare away any bad spirits. We never did see them but we couldn’t miss how loud they were. As soon as they were done with the shooting the bells from all the churches including the one we were standing next to rang their bells for what seemed like 15 minutes.
Above the cemetery we learned there were some old catacombs carved into the cliff where early Christians would gather secretly. We had try several days to get in but they were closed because of the holidays. This day as we were walking up to the gate it was being shut on us and the person said they were closed. Kelly explained that we had been trying to come but has been closed and today was our last chance before we went back home to Texas. The lady responded “Bitte” which means Please and opened the gates for us. The great thing was we were able to go in all alone, the bad part was we only had a couple of minutes. The pictures aren’t so great but you can get an idea of what was there.
The stairs up to the catacombs carved out of the cliff.
The alter in the main space.
There is a cliff wall on one side and the other side has been built out of stone. There are occasional windows that over look the church and cemetery.
The weather made for a nice evening along Getreidegasse the main shopping street.
We had a nice bowl of goulash soup for lunch to finally warm up from being out in the cold all day.
Here he is again!
We wandered around the city the rest of the day. The snow eventually turned into a fairly heavy rain and we went to the Italian restaurant we went to when we first arrived as it was one of the only places open offering a meal without a pre fixed menu. Ferdinand, the owner, greeted us like old friends and sat us back at our favorite table and remembered what we like to drink. After a long dinner, the rain just kept getting heavier. The idea of standing out in cold heavy rain for a few hours to wait for fireworks didn’t sound like such a good idea. Ferdinand provided us with a big bottle of wine for 15 euros and we were off to watch New Year’s celebrations on German/Austrian TV. We spent the rest of the night watching fireworks from all around us and celebrations from all over the German speaking region on TV.
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