A view from the top

This morning we walked back into the Old Town to visit the fortress however on the way we walked through the gardens of the Schloss Mirabell and enjoyed a few












tunes from an ensemble playing in the gardens.

To get up to the fortress one can either walk or take the funicular (Festungsbahn) which first came into operation in 1892 and has a gradient of 62% - we choose the fat man's track!

From the very top of the fortress there is a quite superb 360 view around Salzburg, with large mountains to the south and the city nestling between hills to the north with the river running through the middle












The tour through the fortress was interesting enough without being a must do.

Today I was wearing a Warriors polo, why after their dismal performance earlier in the day beats me, and this invited some smart Alec at the lookout to make
a comment about today's game.



He (a Broncos supporter) and his wife are on a trip which included Scandinavia and they were telling us about some of the costs particularly in Sweden - a kilometre and a half taxi ride $A55, a meal for 4 in a nice restaurant including two bottles of wine $A900 - much as we would like to go to that part of the world at those prices it is doubtful unless Mr Lotto treats us kindly.

After lunch we set off to walk to Franziskischlossl which is set on top of a hill across from the Fortress and is 636m ASL whereas the Fortress is at 543m.

On the way up we passed a Capuchin monastery and church and while the walk








through the wooded area was nice after taking the wrong pathway and following the



old city walls we finally stumbled & I don't use that word lightly, in front of the


Franziskischlössl which was a defence tower that was part of the 17th century city walls

The Franziskischlössl owes its existence to Prince Archbishop Paris Lodron, who realised during the 30-Years-War that Salzburg was badly fortified and therefore "accessible like a village", as he phrased it. In response he increased taxes dramatically and used the tax revenue to vamp out the most extensive array of walls, gates and towers of any city in Central Europe.

Whether the effort getting there was worth it we had some doubt as it was very hot and by the time we hit the top we were exhausted having had to climb steps too numerous to count and walk over some pretty rough tracks though on the descent


there was an excellent view of the fortress to be had.

So ends our visit to Salzburg, a city that the locals can be very proud of.

Tomorrow it is Munich's turn to host us.