Salzburg Beyond The Sound Of Music

Ice Caves, Azure Lakes, And Mozart: There’S More In The Austrian City’S Treasure Chest Than The Iconic Hollywood Musical

- Nidhi Dhingra

Think Salzburg, and the mind paints a picture of wide open greens, of hills and vales “alive with the sound of music.” That is, for the thousands of us swayed by the 1965 musical in which a train of kids merrily follow Julie Andrews singing “Do re me.” It was that image that enticed me to visit Salzburg as part of the road trip my husband and I took in central Europe last summer. Flying in and out of Munich, we distributed two weeks between Salzburg, Prague and Seiser Alm, a pristine Alpine village in Italy.

Driving 150 kilometres from Munich the scene changed from the wide laned Autobahn to narrow lanes, meandering through meadows with majestic peaks looming in the backdrop. These rolling greens were punctuated with small towns that had the prettiest flower decked balconies. We had reached Austria, and the magic had begun.

I made sure to get my fill of all things Sound of Music—from a guided themed tour to cycling through the countryside singing like one of the von Trapps (and masterfully ignoring the almost annoyed look of some locals, perhaps tired of movie fans interrupting the birdsong every so often). However, it was only when I stopped chasing the movie’s experiences that Salzburg opened up its treasure chest.

The first charmer is right in the heart of the city—Altstadt or the old town of Salzburg, a UNESCO site peppered with striking 17th- and 18th-century baroque towers, domed museums and church spires. Strolling on Getreidegasse, its bustling centre, I found my muses in the beautiful doorways and ornately carved gild signs high above the pedestrians’ heads. Some of the old houses are decorated with names of former owners and significant dates in their history.