Today was a fantastically sunny day in the city of Salzburg. Salzburg may be one of the oldest cities in Austria, but it is one of the newest additions to the Austrian state. For most of its history Salzburg has been an independent city ruled by its prince-archbishop. While Austrians love to claim Mozart as one of their own, he was never actually an Austrian citizen. He was a Salzburger. After our walking tour of Salzburg, we visited the birth house of W. A. Mozart, which has been turned into a fine museum of the composer's life. Then it was off to the funicular to the fortress above the city. Old Salzburg is nestled into a crescent shaped bay in the side of a giant, rocky berg. On top of the mountain, the Festung Hohensalzburg (Fortress Above Salzburg) overlooks the old town, which is bounded on the other side by the Salzach River. This made Salzburg the most easily defended city.
After our free time in Salzburg, we boarded the bus to discover the source of the city's wealth and its name. Salzburg means the "Salt Fortress." Salt, worth its weight in silver, was the source of Salzburg's tremendous wealth. Salt had been mined in the mountains surrounding Salzburg since the days of the Celtic tribes. It wasn't until the late middle ages that Salzburgers learned how to draw the salt out of the mountains efficiently enough to make it hugely profitable. At Hallein, we donned salt miner's coveralls, boarded a working mine car, and descended over 200 meters under the ground to see how the miners extracted this "white gold" from the earth. The best part of the tour was sliding down two miners' slides to reach the lower levels of the mine.
After our underground adventure we returned to Salzburg for dinner and one more trip to the Augustiner Stübe. Tomorrow is another travel day. We leave in the morning for a trip to Innsbruck, Vaduz, and beautiful Engelberg, Switzerland.
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