Salzburg: Still in the city 2
8:41 PM
After lunch, I continued my exploration of the city. It was a rainy weekend, so thank god for the umbrella, but not so good for pictures, though the sky did clear up considerably afterwards.
I always find these shop signs like the one below quite fascinating. Almost every shop sign is unique and have different designs... and some of them can be quite eye catching!
I also like walking around these street markets and the produce they sell always looks sooo fresh I wish that I was living in the city itself and could buy it back home fresh to cook! I guess that I should say that packaging does make a big difference too!
Cute bread shop, check out the elephant shaped bread
I took a walk to Mirabell gardens which was built by one of the Salzburg bishops for his mistresses.... yeah... expect no fidelity from religious leaders at all. How ironic. Anyhow, the gardens were reported to be very beautiful and one of the top venues for couples to get married at.... so here I was checking it out. So it's true, the gardens are very well taken care of... obviously when you first walk in, you can tell that alot of effort has been put into taken care of the plants and flowers and planting flowers to perfectly contrast with each other (e.g. colour). I especially liked the contrast of the red flowers with the green lawn... christmas colours but I didn't really make the connection till I was writing this post :). So picture overload here basically.
I also had the chance to visit the Bishop's state apartments. I guess that I've been typing the word Bishop in my posts too many times for people to guess that Salzburg was a place where Bishops were very influential. The city of Salzburg was a very prosperous city in the middle ages because of the nearby Salt mines. And in fact Salz = salt, and burg = castle. So Salzburg = salt castle. So basically, very important and influential city that was under the jurisdiction of the religious heads.
You would think that religious people are often taught to live modestly and humbly... haha... in your dreams really. And funny that it is quite true today. I daresay that most religious heads do lead a rather luxurious life and so did their fore fathers (if i may call them that) as one can tell from the decorations of the state apartments. The apartments were so similar to the royal apartments that I have seen in Versailles and in Vienna that you would think that Bishops were blue blooded as well... but then... maybe they were....
Checking out this ceiling painting on the left. Interesting that it portrays someone from the Ottoman empire showing the map of the Ottoman empire. Note that Austria and Turkey were like two big empires in the middle ages, often fighting among one another for territories. Recap of Turkish trivia: the croissant is modelled after the Turkish crescent to symbolize the defeat of the Turks by the Austrians somewhere in the 18th C.
Time for a tea time snack! This time a Balkan hot dog!!! Love how they use curry powder with the sausages over here in Austria...
Still more sightseeing to come up! Hint: Turkish march...... sound familiar to anyone?
I always find these shop signs like the one below quite fascinating. Almost every shop sign is unique and have different designs... and some of them can be quite eye catching!
I also like walking around these street markets and the produce they sell always looks sooo fresh I wish that I was living in the city itself and could buy it back home fresh to cook! I guess that I should say that packaging does make a big difference too!
Cute bread shop, check out the elephant shaped bread
I took a walk to Mirabell gardens which was built by one of the Salzburg bishops for his mistresses.... yeah... expect no fidelity from religious leaders at all. How ironic. Anyhow, the gardens were reported to be very beautiful and one of the top venues for couples to get married at.... so here I was checking it out. So it's true, the gardens are very well taken care of... obviously when you first walk in, you can tell that alot of effort has been put into taken care of the plants and flowers and planting flowers to perfectly contrast with each other (e.g. colour). I especially liked the contrast of the red flowers with the green lawn... christmas colours but I didn't really make the connection till I was writing this post :). So picture overload here basically.
I also had the chance to visit the Bishop's state apartments. I guess that I've been typing the word Bishop in my posts too many times for people to guess that Salzburg was a place where Bishops were very influential. The city of Salzburg was a very prosperous city in the middle ages because of the nearby Salt mines. And in fact Salz = salt, and burg = castle. So Salzburg = salt castle. So basically, very important and influential city that was under the jurisdiction of the religious heads.
You would think that religious people are often taught to live modestly and humbly... haha... in your dreams really. And funny that it is quite true today. I daresay that most religious heads do lead a rather luxurious life and so did their fore fathers (if i may call them that) as one can tell from the decorations of the state apartments. The apartments were so similar to the royal apartments that I have seen in Versailles and in Vienna that you would think that Bishops were blue blooded as well... but then... maybe they were....
Checking out this ceiling painting on the left. Interesting that it portrays someone from the Ottoman empire showing the map of the Ottoman empire. Note that Austria and Turkey were like two big empires in the middle ages, often fighting among one another for territories. Recap of Turkish trivia: the croissant is modelled after the Turkish crescent to symbolize the defeat of the Turks by the Austrians somewhere in the 18th C.
Time for a tea time snack! This time a Balkan hot dog!!! Love how they use curry powder with the sausages over here in Austria...
Still more sightseeing to come up! Hint: Turkish march...... sound familiar to anyone?
