Hell of a day.....and it ain't over yet!

Originally published 13 June 2013

Hanger 7

Putting the blog together early today. It's around 5 local time. Laurie, David, and Sheree spent the day doing Mozart stuff. I took the bus to the airport. Yes.....this does sound odd. But only at the Salzburg airport can you find HANGER 7!

Amazing "rolling stock"

Hanger 7 is owned by the guy who owns Red Bull. Salzburg is the hometown of Red Bull, and Hanger 7 is basically where he keeps his toys. F1 cars, and planes and rotor wing stuff to boggle the mind. His collection includes a DC-6, a 47 Series Bell helecopter converted to turbine power, and everything else you can think of from a Piper Cub to a Bell Hueycobra. A huge amount of the hardware he has came from someplace called "The United States". When you want cool aircraft.....we're the place to shop. The building itself is an amazing structure. The long and short of it? This place is awesome!

Hanger 7 exterior

​I was not totally devoid of culture here in Salzburg. I had read in the states about a photo exposition now touring Europe.....granted, I stumbled upon it (Hanger 7 is the exposition space when in Salzburg), but I wound up spending half an hour in this photo exposition. The subject? World famous actor and all American badass....Steve McQueen! These were photos taken the last year of his life by his wife. I really liked the show.....I thought it was very well done. If it tours the states, do see it. It's a must for anyone that ever liked Steve McQueen.

A fantastic  photography show

​I took the bus back to the area of our hotel, passing a sign for a place of interest to me. Laurie, David, and Sheree are going to a classical music concert tonight.....I'm sure they'll all enjoy it immensely. The sign I passed? A directional sign for Casino Salzburg! I think some hold 'em might be a cool thing to do.

Austrian Home depot!!

It's off to the showers, then the bus to the casino. Cya tomorrow! ​  Now something from Laurie!

Detroit Iron....all the way in Austria

And then there are  McLarens........

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​So Bill and I had different days. David, Sheree and I went to the Mozart Birth House and the Mozart residence today, The Birth House, literally where he was born, was actually pretty interesting and had a lot of information about him, his parents and sister and his wife and children. Mozart wrote over 600 compositions in the 35 years he was alive. He was a prodigy both as a performer and composer and actually his father, sister and one son were also talented musicians but of course, nobody really focuses on them.

Electric buses

​Like the Beethoven birth house it was a little awe inspiring to be in the same location as these genius' inception. The residence was a disappointment. I thought it would be more about his life and artifacts but it was all a special exhibit about portraits of him and his family, were they real or fakes, were they accurate representations of how he looked, etc. Kind of interesting but not what I expected.

A car I could carry in my bag

After that we went to the Hohenberg Fortress which overlooks Salzburg sitting up on a hill. A funicular took us up the steep mountainside and the fortress itself is quite well preserved. It had an interesting timeline of Salzburg from the Romans to 1989. Interestingly enough the information was a little sparser after 1940 than before. They were quite clever back then and in the 1600's (I think) started a canal system to bring running water into the city through a series of canals. The canal system also took waste away. So Salzburg was the only city that did not get the plague because they were clean. ​

​The Fortress offered beautiful panoramic views of the city and the churches. We also went to St. Peter's church, and the cemetary there. The graves are beautifully tended with living plants all over them. Each grave is its own little garden practically. Apparently because space is limited if the families don't keep up the payments for their loved ones, the headstones and all are removed. We haven't figured out the system yet since once head stone can have up to 8 names listed on it spanning over 100 years. Mozart's sister is apparently buried there. There is an area they call catacombs but nobody is buried in them and they are above ground carved out of a hill where the hermit monks lived. Pictures of all this will be posted later.

​The evening culminated in a fantastic concert given by a Russian pianist of 2 Mozart sonatas and a minuet as an encore. It was wonderful and reminded my of how much I do like Mozart. His piano music was so joyful and lovely, and the performance was excellent.

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