Salzburg - Mozarts Home and Augustiner Brau

I woke on July 2nd to my birthday. It was going to be a great day. We didn't have too much on the agenda, as we'd seen most of the main attractions the day before. We went to the breakfast room and had a lovely breakfast before heading out to see the main Saturday Farmers Market.




Most of the food is organic and absolutely beautiful. If we lived in Salzburg, we would definitely be regulars at this market.






There was a wonderful Lavender stand, and I would have loved to bring some of it back to London as it smelled absolutely wonderful.




We did however pickup a vial of Salzburg Salt and some of the most amazing Cherries I've ever seen. They were huge, and boy were they good.

Amazingly, we avoided buying any of those touristy Mozart Chocolates.

After the market, we wandered across the river to the "newer" section of Salzburg. This is definitely where more of the local people live.

We made our way over to the home where Mozart lived with his family for a good part of his time in Salzburg. It was damaged in WWII, but was recently restored to its appearance before the war. It was a nice museum, not necessarily filled with actual Mozart artifacts, but it had lots of similar instruments to ones that he would have used, and it was a pleasant space to absorb some of that Mozart energy of Salzburg's favorite son.




We also visited the former site of the local brothel used by troops in WWII. Right nearby is a huge gouge in the road wall where an American GI tried to drive a tank down a narrow road. He didn't make it.

There was a street music fair going on over in the new town, so we paused to have a Steigl beer(the largest local brewer), a pretzel, and take in some of the music. It was a fun time. I even got to practice speaking some of my German on a drunk local.

We didn't have a whole lot else on the agenda that day other than to relax and enjoy the city and to wander the streets.





And that is a wonderful way to spend a day in Salzburg.





We discovered the original location of the Stiegl Brewhaus. it is built into the hillside below the castle. It isn't their current location any longer, but as they were brewing beer there before the new world was discovered, their signage is still in place.






For my birthday cake, we stopped for a slice of Sacher Torte at Furst Chocolatiers. It was moist rich chocolatey goodness. I'll have to try making this myself when I get home.




We discovered that they were going to be performing one of Mozart's original Masses at the Salzburg Cathedral for which he wrote the Mass. A large choir comprised of several choirs from the US was going to be performing. We decided to go and listen to it. It was a beautiful concert.



For dinner that evening, we went to the local monastery that also happens to make some of the best beer in Salzburg, Augustiner Brau. It is a bit of a walk from the center of town, but it was a pleasant evening, so it made for a lovely walk.








I was really impressed with the scale of the operation. The Augustiner monks are doing very well for themselves with the brewery. They have a cavernous indoor beer hall as well as a sizable beer garden outdoors.




Obtaining your beer is kind of a do it yourself operation. We purchased our beers and grabbed the appropriate sized mug from the shelf.











Then we rinsed it in the water fountain (I'm sure it is Holy Water). . .






Finally, it is then filled from the barrel on tap. And it really was an old fashioned barrel.








For food, there are different food stalls all selling Austrian food dishes. We got a ham plate with sauerkraut and a roasted pork belly with potato salad. Both were delicious.





Tony wasn't particularly thrilled with the sauerkraut, but as we sort of split the food between us so we could try both, it worked out okay. I think I ended up eating most of the sauerkraut. It was a very memorable 46th Birthday Dinner.