I arrived in the Central Station of Salzburg (yes, it's also called Hauptbahnhof. Austrian speaks German too) around 2:30pm. The ride from Munich was about 2 hours (there's a train or two leaving Munich for Salzburg every hour.) This station is not as busy as the one in Munich and seemed further away (North) from the actions too. I found one major street near the station (Rainerstrasse) and headed South. The famous Mirabell (think Do-re-mi from the movie "Sound of Music." Chamber concerts of Mozart's music was often performed here too) was on this street. I turn left into Franz-Josef from there and walked all the way 'til the end. The entrance to my hotel (AllYouNeed Hotel Salzburg), which was right next to a hill, was hidden behind another building (basically I needed to go through a passage in this other building!)
After I checked in, my mission was to picked up concert ticket from Salzburg Festival's ticket office before it was supposed to close at 4:30pm. Fortunately, everything was pretty much concentrated in one small area in Salzburg so it took me 10 minutes of walking (including crossing the Salzach river on a bridge) from hotel to the ticket office on Herbert Von Karajan Plaz (named after the late great conductor who was also a Salzburg native like Mozart)
Now I got 4 hours to spend before the concert so I grabbed a super late lunch (a bratwurst. I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food and tend to stick with what I'm familiar with when I travel) and walked around the Old Town area (Altstadt) to follow Mozart's footsteps so to speak. I visited the Dom (hugh church) where Mozart's parents were married, the Kollegienkirche (another church) where Mozart's D minor Mass premiered, the Residenz palace where Mozart gave his first court concert at 6 year old. Another great church in the Old Town was St Peter. I wasn't planning to enter the church but I saw a bunch of people going in continuously (few came out) so I just followed the crowd. Turns out there's a free choral performance of Thomas Tallis' motet by the Salzburg Bachchoir. The atmosphere inside this greatly decorated church was awesome for hearing religious music like this. The sound of music was indeed everywhere in Salzburg, literally. There were many street musicians in the Old Town. I saw a classical guitarist performing there (and an acoustic guitarist playing "Tears in Heaven" in fingerstyle at the same spot the next day! Not sure if it's the same guy)
Finally it's concert time at 8:30pm. The concertgoers were really well dressed. I tried my best with a long sleeve shirt and even worn a tie but still way underdressed. Oh well, cut some slacks for the tourists! I read up a bit on the history of the festival. It seems that even though it's the premiere classical music festival, it was criticized for its commercialism (high priced ticket and mass appealing program?) for a while. The 2012 season certainly won't have this problem 'coz it is part of the multi-year program "Spiritual Overture." This year the religion was Judaism and the religious piece of the concert I attended was Ernest Bloch's "Sacred Service", sung in Hebrew, performed by the Israel Philharmonic and conducted by Zubin Mehta (of the Three Tenor fame :P) IMO, the vocal was very emotional and powerful as if it would reach heaven and the Man up there. It was certainly moving. The concert was opened with a secular piece: Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5 with Rudolf Buchbinder (who appeared in the award-winning German-Austrian documentary Pianomania which I gotta watch) on piano. To be honest this was the piece I wanted to hear originally but I ended up impressed by Bloch's piece even more. Please read this NYTimes article for a professional review.
Starting with the Christian-themed paintings at Alte Pinakothek in Munich in the morning, then the Motet at St. Peter and finally the "Sacred Service" piece at night, I had a very religious experience on 7/25.
It's after 10:30pm when the concert was ended. I walked around a bit more (to see the house when Mozart was born) and went back to hotel and slept so that I had enough energy for the "Sound of Music" bike tour the next day! Basically Salzburg tourism was all about Mozart and "Sound of Music." Who would imagine back in the day a movie could become a golden egg nest that generate revenue years after years, generations after generations? The Fraulein Maria's Bicycle Tours' meeting place was much easier to find than Mike's in Munich. It's near the entrance to the Mirabell palace and opposite to the St Andrew's church. For some unknown reason the tour guide asked me whether I'd prefer a mountain bike to the cruiser bikes that she gave to every other customers and of course I accept it: it's a Merida (famous Taiwan brand. It's the first time I rode a Merida. They had 2. The first one I tried couldn't shift at all but the 2nd one I was given was very smooth.) As I mentioned before, parts of "Do-Re-Mi" was filmed on the stairs at Mirabell so it's the perfect place to start and end the tour. We rode across the Salzach river to the Riding School where Edelweiss was sung. Went through Old Town to see catacomb (cemetery) and Residenzplatz where Maria splashed water from the water fountain and sung "I have confidence" Then rode up a slightly steep cobblestone road to the bottom of Hohensalzburg Castle and then the Nonnberg Abbey (Maria waltzed her way to mass. That's also where the kids went looked for her) From there we rode away from the city center to Schloss Leopoldskron (the house next to it was in the film) and finally stopped at Hellbrunn palace (the Summer residence of the archbishop.)
Basically the following video summed up what I saw during the ride:
Here is the link to pictures taken by me.
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