Where To Travel To Enjoy Culture, Pleasant Walks And Haute Cuisine?

My husband and I are busy workers, and it is not easy to keep us away from our desks and to convince us to take a vacation. Sometimes we know that it is time for a holiday. We look at each other and are giving us nods – it is time to go to SALZBURG (the city). So did we last week and had a precious time there. Has anybody got an idea from which mountain the photo above was taken? A hint: it has something to do with a monk but you will find no clergyman there.

And the next riddle: whenever we go to Salzburg (for meetings etc) we are taking our lunch in the same restaurant (haute cuisine, you get the best dessert ever there, according to my husband, it is called Rigo Jancsi). You don´t indulge yourself in anything else. – The restaurant is in the light pink building on the far right. There is a hint on the photo to get the riddle solved. What is the name of the restaurant?

One of the most fascinating cultural experience in Salzburg is going through the Domquartier. Three museums – the former Prince Archbishops´ Residence, the Cathedral Museum and St Peter´s Museum – can be visited under one roof. I took some photos with my cell phone to keep some details in mind, such as the column shaped stove and the putti (male toddlers) sitting and playing above the cornice.

Most amazing are the fresco paintings on the ceilings of the residence. Johann Michael Rottmayr (1654-1730) did most of them. This one is very special for its design. Usually there are wide sceneries with landscapes, architecture, clouds and crowds of people and/or angels. But here it is as if you were looking through an opening in the roof and secretly watching a most private scene.

Not forgetting to mention two of the most attractive cultural institutions – the Salzburg Festival (promised a nephew to go there with him next year) and the medieval fortress (in the background on the photo above), one of the hugest in Europe. It looks like a small city on top of the Festungsberg. There was an arsenal, a food stock and room enough to serve as a shelter for the inhabitants of the city. To get an impression of its size, please watch this video.

This (s. photo above) was something very special I got as amuse gueule in a Michelin starred restaurant – home-baked bread with lemon butter and lemon pearls. This was the very last pearl as I had too late realized to take a photo from. As I am addicted to lemons I enjoyed this as a culinary delight. It is one of many reasons to go to Salzburg as soon as possible.