Salzburg

When I first stepped into Salzburg, the hills were indeed alive with the sound of music. The pleasant tunes of Mozart’s symphony played somewhere in the distance and I knew that I was surrounded by inspiring art on all sides. My eyes often tend to wander and wherever they went, fortresses, vaults and spires were all-pervading. After a point, they were so beguiled by the beauty that they became transfixed. This is what the fabled city of Salzburg does to people. It is ethereal, almost otherworldly.
The coffee continued to flow and the sacher-tortes were consumed in copious amounts, yet, I wanted some more. With perfectly manicured parks and meandering streets, this Austrian city has made the most prosaic of humans go weak in the knees. With its Altstadt (the Old Town) being a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Salzburg only keeps adding more feathers to its cap with every passing day. You can almost imagine Julie Andrews twirling around churches and majestic squares. I thought I had momentarily come into the possession of a Pensieve from the Harry Potter series, the images were so lucid.

The birthplace of Mozart and the setting for Hollywood’s most popular musical ‘The Sound of Music’, Salzburg makes it to every traveller’s bucket list. With three major universities, the brilliantly preserved city is also home to a large number of students. Visit the Mirabell Palace and the von Trapp’s mansion, Hellbrunn Palace, Salzburg Museum, Salzburg Cathedral, Hohensalzburg Castle, Museum der Moderne and Mozart’s Geburtshaus. As insane as this idea sounds, make sure you get lost in the Old Town in order to discover real joy, especially at night with the delightfully bright lights. Salzburg is indeed magical. So long, farewell, I was however not ready to say goodbye.