Salzburg Singing and Sightseeing (Day 3)

June 30: It's Friday, which will begin with a morning rehearsal. But first, another fine traditional breakfast at the hotel.

Cindy and I would normally be readying ourselves for another train ride to another new place, but this is where our ever-moving adventure is slowing. Another huge difference in our adventure is that from this point on, we will not be alone. From Salzburg, we will travel with Edie Copley to Prague, then to Vienna for a week-long stay.

From Vienna, Edie will leave for her home in Arizona and Cindy and I will fly to Florence to then travel to a farmhouse in Pistoia, where Cindy's sister Terrie will join us. So the duo has become a trio as of Salzburg, and it feels different. Not bad, just a different dynamic.

So...on this morning in Salzburg, we trek across the Salzach once again, down Linzer Gasse where prep for the weekend festival, called very cleverly ARTmosFLAIR, is ramping up. Every store has wares outside; every restaurant and bar has a huge bar set up on the street. Large street umbrellas are everywhere--to protect from the sun or, heavens forbid, from the rain. We're anticipating challenges of navigating this walk through crowds over the next couple of days, but it looks like fun--and, indeed, quite atmospheric.

Recovering from Covid, but masked for safety of others.

We gather. We stretch, warm up. We sing. We sing more. We take a break. We sing. It was a grand morning.

And we take off for the afternoon.

More Stolpersteine. We saw more of these oh-so-personal remembrances here than anywhere else we went.

Cindy and I stopped for lunch near the Kollegienkirche, then went back to our hotel to reconnoiter for our afternoon activity. We wanted to visit the Hohensalzburg Fortress, and the best way to do that was to take the funicular tram up the hill.

It was beginning to look as if it might rain, so we grabbed our rain jackets and took off--back acrosss the river again, past the Dom and around to the square behind it, where an afternoon festival celebrating the finish of a "walk for life" (I think that's what it was) was happening.

Old Salzburg has more squares you can count, seemingly around every bend. So many places to sit, have a coffee, and watch people.

And every one has a statue, or a fountain, or something that stands in the center as a focal point.

The square on one side of the Dom...

...and on the other...

...and in between, this...allowing a great view of the Fortress.

Here was one of the most interesting "art" pieces:

My father would have loved this weather station.

Back to that square with the gold ball in its center, and another interesting building.

We passed through this square to the Fortress Railway, the funicular train that would take us to the fortress, purchased our tickets, and in a few moments were on our way up that high hill. The view was spectacular--apparently we were so overwhelmed that we never took a single photo on the ride up.

Arriving at the fortress, the site of which dates back to Celtic times, we purchased tickets for certain sections of the sprawling place. We had plenty to explore, but for some reason did not get to the showy Golden Chamber or the Bedchamber. We were most taken by the view anyway (which began to change before our eyes):

There was definitely a storm coming in, so we decided to return to town.

The one photo taken from the funicular.

By the time we reached the bottom, it was pouring! That end-of-the-walk festival was very wet, and we were grateful that we had dug out our rain jackets from the bottoms of our suitcases. We slogged back to Linzer Gasse, where the ARTmosFLAIR was still drawing people despite the rain. Those huge cafe umbrellas did their job, and folks were having a merry time drinking in their shelter.

Back at the hotel, we fought our way through the outside bar to get in the front door. We hadn't been in our room for very long before we heard a band in the distance. It took a while, but it finally made its way down the street to right in front of the hotel, where it stopped for some time.

They finally moved on down the street. But about half an hour later, here they came again! Playing the same sort of tuneless piece...

I only include this second clip so we can see the awesome moves of the sousaphone player. Fortunately, just a couple of minutes later, these guys took a break to have some beers at the bar downstairs. Too bad they didn't know a little more music--but the crowd seemed pretty jazzed despite the limited repertoire.

At around 6:30, we headed to the Dom for our dress rehearsal with the orchestra and soloists. On the way we encountered Herr Mozart and the splendid topping of a dome:

Here's one of the things I loved about going into the Dom: In order to get into the church in the evening, we had to go in the back door. I'm a backstage sort of person, so that just really appealed to me--it always feels like a privilege. 🤩

Following is the piece that ended the concert the next night--really an exciting piece to sing ("Gloria" by Randol Alan Bass):

The rain had cleared out that evening, so when we returned to the hotel, the street party was going full tilt. But here's a remarkable thing: People were consuming huge quantities of alcohol, but we didn't see even one out-of-control drunk. Impressive.

Because the rain had cooled the air, we were able to close our double windows and close out the street noise for a quiet night (and early morning) of sleep.

Next: Concert day, but first a visit to the Eagle's Nest. What, you might ask, is that??

You'll find out in the next exciting chapter. 🤔