Wow, we really love Salzburg. As a matter of fact, we really love Austria. This has been a wonderful trip and we found something to love about everywhere we went, but with Austria, it wasn’t difficult at all. Vienna and Innsbruck were both fabulous and now Salzburg, which seems to combine the best of both.

We stayed in the very center of town in a wonderful, family-owned hotel. The Elefant Hotel , affiliated with the Best Western consortium, is walking distance to everything and is a true jewel. Our room was spotless and the service above par. We highly recommend this 4-star hotel for your visit to Salzburg.

Salzburg, A UNESCO world heritage site, is a town of about 144,000 set on the river Salzach. We used the Salzburg Card to visit as many sights as we could in the two days we had there. The Salzburg Card includes:

• Free single admission to all the city’s attractions
• Free use of public transport throughout the city, including the fortress funicular, panorama boat & cable car Untersberg
• Attractive discounts for cultural events
• Discounts for various tours and excursions.

We visited the Salzburg Museum, which opened in a magnificent 400-year-old palazzo, the New Residence on Mozart Square, on June 1, 2007. Here, cultural history is presented in an exciting, informative and entertaining format. Using multimedia in clever new ways, you can discover the history, culture and personalities of Salzburg, past and present. I found this museum to be very interesting and loved the new format and fortunately for me, all the exhibit descriptions and information was written in German and English. We also visited the Panorama Museum that has panoramic paintings from around the world; it also has a few multimedia panoramas of Salzburg that are fun to play with.

The Salzburg Residenz Gallery was closed for a special function while we were there, so we were unable to see the collections. The gallery focuses on 17th-century Dutch paintings (Rembrandt, Rubens, Brueghel), 17th and 18th-century Italian, French and Austrian paintings as well as works by 19th-century Austrian masters (Waldmüller, Amerling, Makart, Ender).

There are many beautiful churches in Salzburg that are worth visiting to see the Baroque interiors. You wouldn’t believe how much gold and filigree can be included in one building! The Salzburg Cathedral was constructed in the middle of the Old City at the beginning of the 17th century and is without a doubt the city’s most impressive sacred edifice. The Franciscan Church adjoining the Cathedral and St. Peter’s district appears to be a purely Gothic structure, but part of its interior reveals an ornate and interesting Baroque decor.

We visited the city’s Mirabellgarten, just a short walk from our hotel. The gardens were designed by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. They were redesigned around 1730 by Franz Anton Danreiter. In 1854 Emperor Franz Joseph opened the Mirabell Gardens to the public and it has remained a jewel of horticultural architecture to this day.

Then it was on to the Hellbrunn Palace and its famous Trick Fountains. Located just 6 k from the city center, we traveled there by city bus. The Palace is an early baroque pleasure palace built by Santino Solari (1612-1615) under Prince Archbishop Markus Sittikus set in the center of a baroque ornamental garden. The Trick Fountains can be seen by a guided tour and are called “Trick” for good reason…bring your rain gear!

We had a great time at the Mozart Dinner Concert one evening. We had a three-course dinner interspersed by music and song by the Amadeus Consort, an ensemble of two opera singers and five musicians, all in period costume. To get the best seats, get there early. We sat with some fellow Americans from Boston and had a fascinating evening.

Salzburg is the birthplace and home of Mozart and the city celebrates its famous son with a museum and a festival. This gorgeous city is worthy of its illustrious son and makes us long to return.