Salzburg is known internationally for its renowned barque architecture and one of the best preserved cities located north of the Alps. Until the past 100 years Salzburg gained it wealth from salt mines in the area. Through this wealth they were able to build multiple large churches and landmarks throughout the city. Another interesting fact about Salzburg it was the birthplace of Mozart. During World War 2 the city was bombed several times by the allied powers and damaged. However, the damage from the war didn't completely destroy the city.
The first major site we saw in Salzburg was Salzburg Cathedral. This cathedral is baroque in architecture and has a large dome built over the altar of the church that reaches around 200 feet. Also, the church has enormous baroque paintings as well as sculptures. It was really interesting to compare and contrast this cathedral in Salzburg to St. Stephens in Vienna (which is a gothic cathedral). It reminded me of Art History class in high school. After visiting the cathedral we walked through Old Town Salzburg and saw a variety of different large fountains as well as baroque inspired buildings. Next, we climbed the large hill in town and walked up a steep hill to get to the Hohensalzburg Castle which is the center piece of the entire city of Salzburg. It was originally built in 1047 AD and further expanded in the 1519 AD. There are several cool sights inside but I didn't feel like paying the 8 Euro entry fee to get into the castle. A few of my friends did so but it costed even more to get a tour of the inside of the castle. Luckily, there are a pictures before you pay of what's inside. Once I was at the top of the hill I walked with one of my friends and saw a few modern homes which were renovations of smaller castles/manner houses. It was super interesting to see modern people living in castle like structures with modern features.
Once we got off the top of the hill in town we went into a few other churches in the Old Town area of Salzburg. These churches were baroque and had an entabulature surrounding the altar depicting a story from the New Testament using paintings and sculptures. I forgot the mention, each churches altar is completely made out of gold!
After walking around a bit more we rested for a bit in our hostel room which was situated in a newer part of an older church. Every hour we could hear the church bells ringing which got very annoying after awhile. At around 7pm we all went to dinner as group and enjoyed steaks for dinner!
The following day we got up very early and took a trip up into the Alps to go white water rafting down the Salzach River. We first were dressed in dry suits since the water temperature was about 50 degrees and all looked like characters out of Star Trek. ( I will be getting pictures soon, the company that we took our tour with will be emailing us them soon). During this time a German tour bus full of Germans came to accompany us on the raft trip. It was a fairly older crowd but they were hilarious throughout the trip. After a quick 15 minute drive up the side of the river we finally disembarked on our rafting trip. While the river was tame in terms of rapids, our tour guides made it a fun experience by introducing us to various games. One of these games included joining all 3 rafts together and one person from each raft would get up and run around all 3 rafts. Whoever was the first to encircle all 3 rafts won! I participated in the first race and even after falling in twice I was able to get up and round each raft winning the event. Next, we dragged our rafts onto shore and played a game where 3 individuals took a paddle and had to look up at the handle of the paddle while being spun around in circles by a tour guide. Each person got very dizzy and fell to the ground while being laughed at by the entire tour. There were 3 groups who did this activity, I was part of the last group who was spun around 15 times. I became very dizzy and fell to the ground, it took me at least 20 seconds to regain my balance and get up. Following this activity we continued down the river for an hour or so before the trip ended. At the end the Germans we were with offered us a victory shot of homemade Vodka. Everyone agreed it was one of the strongest shots they've ever taken.
After rafting we hung out for awhile in our hostel room and went to the streets again exploring more of the city. It was cut short by dinner and subsequently a bar run to the Shamrock pub in Old Town Salzburg. During our time at the bar I talked to 2 German students who were finishing up their internship in Salzburg before being hired by a German manufacturing firm. They asked me questions about American Football and the NCAA since it was on at the bar. After we talked a band came in and played various American/English rock songs ranging from Green Day to the Beatles. I retreated back to the hostel early since we had another long day ahead of us since we were going to tour the largest ice cave in the world up in the Alps close to Salzburg.
On Sunday we all got up early once again since we had to meet a bus that would take us to the town of Werfen where the ice cave is located. After getting to a base camp half way up the mountain we walked about 20 minutes until we got up to a tram that would take us up near the ice cave. The tram ride was the steepest I've ever been on in my life. We went up the mountain at about 65 degrees or so during the 5 minute tram ride. Once arriving at the top of the tram it was another 20 minute walk until we reached the ice cave entrance. During the walk up we were treated with a beautiful day and spectacular views of the Alps and castle/town below. It reminded me of the Kings Canyon area in central California with castles and towns below. Once we arrived at the ice cave one of my friends let me borrow one of their jackets since I didn't bring a jacket or sweatshirt along due to the fact we didn't know until the day before we'd be heading the the ice cave. Before entering the ice cave I put on my jacket and was the only one to enter wearing shorts. The tour was a 1km walk throughout a small section of the ice cave. According to our tour guide the cave spans 14k into the mountain. Throughout the tour we saw various ice formations and ice walls. Many of these ice formations looked like animals or castles. Overall, it was a very cool experience seeing a cave full of ice!
We descended from the mountain and went to lunch at a small restaurant in the town below the ice cave. Lunch was very good, I had onions and beef. After lunch we took the train back to Salzburg and picked up our stuff at the hostel and caught a train back to Vienna. Everyone was very tired after returning to our dorm in Vienna, however, for four of us we quickly had to repack and get ready for our train ride to Rome after class the next day at 7:30pm.
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