Friday, February 2, 2018

A Castle, a Composer and Covered Fountain.

Our final city before returning to Vienna was the Austrian city of Slazburg. One could say it's strait out of a postcard with it's 109 beautiful church and cathedrals while being sounded by the Alps on one side and the Slazach river on the other and to top it all off it's capped with one of the most magnificent castles I have ever had the pleasure of seeing.  We had a great view of not only the city of Slazburg but the surrounding area when we all climbed up to the castle, officially called Hohenslazburg Fortress which sits on top of the Festtungburg. It boasts the impressive stat of never being once being taken in it's entire 941 year history which has allowed it survive mostly intact for such a long time. Therefore making it the biggest fully preserved castle in Central Europe. We had a tour of the inside of the castle and as we walked it's long hallways and climbed it lengthy spiral staircases I began to grasp it's true size and get a sense of why it was so impenetrable.
The Hohenslazburg Fortress.
The view!
On our first full day our walking tour guide Gabriel Frost told us all about the fountain we couldn't see, made famous by the opening scenes of the Sound of Music. But beyond the sights (or in our case the hidden sights) Slazburg also has the pleasure of being the birth place and home of one of the most famous classical composers of all time: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Which our guide told us all about as we walked through the city pointing out the cafe Mozart hated but went to every day. And as she mentioned how extra special it was being in Slazburg arrived on Mozart's birthday as we walked by his birth house. She continued in saying as we walked inside of the Slazburg Cathedral how we had the pleasure of seeing the very fount he was baptized in, on his baptismal day. We later ended our tour by Mozart's apartment where he spent most of his days while he lived in Slazburg.
Mozart's Birth House.
Our guide also spoke about Slazburg more modern claim to fame: The Sound of Music. As I spoke on earlier by pointing out a covered up fountain, but also the real life abbey that Maria was from in the film. As well as other famous shots from the film by the main square in front of the old Archbishops residence. Which compelled me and some of my classmates enough to attempt to watch The Sound of Music that night to see places we say that day in the film. It was definitely worth it! For it was almost magical to realized that we walked by the same beautiful places in the film, that very day. I could finally see why they choose the city of Slazburg to set the film for as they say in the film the hills ( and the city),  were truly alive with the sound of music!
The Covered Fountain.


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