Salzburg, Austria, by Lorelei, Salzburg, Austria

Just across the border from Bavaria, Germany is the charming town of Salzburg which lies along the Salzach River. The tow is the birth place of one of the world’s most influential classical composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as one of the most famous Academy Award winning classic films, the Sound of Music, mostly beloved by English speakers.

Due to its compact size, Salzburg takes for an easy weekend trip loaded with sightseeing in town as well as finding filming locations used in the film the Sound of Music.

To begin a city trip to Salzburg, a great place to start is along the Salzach River. The city straddles both sides of the river, but for one of the most beautiful views of the entire town is from the northern side of the river, facing the Hohensalzburg Fortress. The Makartsteg bridge is a simple pedestrian bridge but is a place for lovers to continue the tradition of permanently locking their love on the bridge and throwing the key into the river below. If you’re not familiar with this tradition, lovers engrave a lock with their initials, lock it on to a bridge and throw the key away, forever preserving their love for one another.

The history of love locks dates back over 100 years to the First World World and the tale of a melancholic Serbian in the spa town of Vrnjačka Banja in Serbia. A young woman named Nada fell in love with a Serbian officer, Relja, before he left for the war. He was shipped off to Greece where he would eventually fall in love with a local woman from Corfu. The two broke off their engagement, but Nada never recovered from the heartbreak. Young women in the city began to write their names of loved ones on padlocks and locking them on the Most Ljubavi (lit. the Bridge of Love) where Nada and Relja used to meet to protect their own love stories from having the same terrible fate. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).