Botanischer Garten Salzburgs

The Botanischer Garten Salzburgs (Salzburg Botanical Garden) is hidden behind a crop of trees about a ten minutes' walk from our apartment.  On a day when the sun and wind mixed to create the perfect weather, we spent a couple hours in the garden, admiring the plants and learning along the way.   

Above is a model of what is called a "historical farmer's house garden."  The trellis and wooden fence are traditional (and very charming), as is the vegetation.  Vegetables (Gemüse), spice plants (Gewürzpflanzen), healing plants (Heilpflanzen), perennials (Stauden), and bushes (Sträucher) fill the garden and serve their individual purposes.  It's difficult to imagine that, at one time, everyday people grew their own produce, or they at least grew some of it to supplement what they bought at market.  It makes so much sense to utilize the land we have to grow food, but it seems like most people ignore this in favor of green grass and flower beds.  Plant some seeds!  Eat (extremely) locally!  Have all of your vegetables and herbs at your fingertips! 

Soapbox dismounted.      

Near the house garden and the heirloom vegetable garden, we found these interesting structures, which happen to be insect nesting-aides (Nisthilfen), or insect hotels, if we want to be creative.  Each hotel is intended for a certain type of insect, and like the plants in the the house garden, each insect serves a purpose in the garden.  And, because we saw a humongous wasp emerge from the stone structure on the bottom right, we knew that, in these hotels, there were zero vacancies.  (So funny.)
Also, I was going to leave this out on account of my dear mother on Mother's Day Eve, but the iron hotel has swooping, aimless, fanged guests.  I believe in blogging integrity, so I had to mention it.  Sorry, Mom.   

Could this man be any deeper into his safari? 

Now, on to more flowery subjects.

I want to garden.  May I have a bit of earth?

Maypole Rising in Salzburg, oder Maibaum Aufstellen Salzburgs

In Small Town USA, May Day passes by like any other day.  In other parts of the world, however, May Day is celebrated as International Workers' Day, and generally, a day to do something besides work.  This year, a peaceful protest in Seattle turned violent, and in Bangladesh, thousands of workers took the the streets to protest against factory owners who they believe are responsible for the deaths of 400 garment workers in a factory collapse last week.  In Hong Kong and other places in Asia, workers protested for safer working conditions, better wages, and access to breaks during the work day.  In some European countries, the protests centered on high unemployment rates and low living standards. 

While workers protested around the world, my May Day was completely different.  Austrians didn't have to work, yes, but the free time didn't seem to encourage them to participate in protests or parades about their rights as workers.  Instead, they celebrated May Day with the rising of maypoles, and music, dancing, food, and beer.  Again, as a perpetual resident of small towns in the United States, May Day was a foreign concept to me, and in the case of protesting, it remains so.  

But, let's recount the day the Austrian way, shall we?  

As we traversed the city to the fest in Maxglan, we stopped at Mirabell Gardens for some choice background.  An Italian tour group stopped us and took our pictures.  I heard "bellissima" whispered through the crowd, and it pretty much made my day.

The fest was held at the Gasthof Heimathaus Maxglan in Salzburg.  We enjoyed some delicious chicken barbeque, some local beverages, and some traditional music mixed in with Elvis and German-English hybrid songs.  After that,we walked around and saw the Maibaum for the first time.  A group of people were connecting pretzels to the tree as decorations. 

Finally, it was time for the lifting to begin!

This picture of the director, amidst the pretzels and carrying a tree umbrella, is my favorite of the day.   How could you not love this?

And it's up! The lead singer of the band said it was 100% 90 degrees in the air. 

All in all, it was a pretty wonderful May Day.  We even won some Manner chocolate that we had every intention of saving for our trip home, but... you know.

Mirabell Gardens - Flowers, Swirls, and Dwarfs

Mirabell Gardens is part of the larger Mirabell Schloss, or Mirabell Palace.  We find ourselves walking through the gardens a couple of times a week because of the location, the flowers, and the ever-entertaining tourists taking pictures.  We, however, are not "above" taking photos, as this post will document.  You will not see us dancing around the Pegasus fountain or using the stairs for different musical notes.

These first photos were from a visit in September.  As you can see in the photo with Ben, they had dug up the flowers in the swirls (I have great vocabulary for gardening) and were about to plant a fresh, new batch of blooms.

On a visit in October, the light made everything look and feel surreal.  I didn't do anything to these photos.  Ben looks like he could be standing in front of a backdrop in a movie.  Ben and I have talked about how you can't take a bad photo in Salzburg, and we might just be right.

Also, note that the "swirls" have been filled in with yellow flowers. Wikipedia didn't really help me find the word, but trust me that I tried.

Oh, wait?  What is that dwarf doing amidst all of the flowers?  Well, our favorite part of Mirabell Gardens is the Zwerglgarten or Dwarf's Garden.  Tourists don't come there nearly as often as the large square with the fountains and Roman statues.  When we visited, there were maybe three other people there.  It was nice to have some peace and quiet in the middle of Salzburg, although some of the statues were quite alarming!

Is that really a goiter?