Fun at the Fountains – Schloss Hellbrunn and a Fürst Stop for an Original Salzburger Mozartkugel

My Fürst recommendation for when you go to the Salzburg region is to go to Cafe Fürst and try some original Mozartkugel. 125 years after their creation, Paul Fürst’s original Mozartkugel (a delicious chocolate orb with a pistachio marzipan core) is still famous today. A true Cafe Fürst Mozartkugel is wrapped in an only blue and silver wrapper, however the imitation brand’s wrapper is red with a color image of Mozart’s head instead of the silver silhouette on a true Cafe Fürst Mozartkugel. When my mom went into a store and got a package of the non-original ones, she took one bite and threw the whole thing in the trash, and said “the ones at Cafe Fürst are much better.” The Mozartkugel that I got were bought by my family at the original Cafe Fürst. The Cafe Fürst Mozartkugel may be more expensive, but they are the perfect symphony of flavors and textures. Overall, Cafe Fürst’s Mozartkugel may have been the best treat on my trip to Austria and the Czech Republic.

Schloss Hellbrunn is a summer palace from 1615, meant for Prince-Archbishop Markus Sittikus. He used this palace for the entertainment of the people in his kingdom. The coolest thing about this palace is its trick fountains, marvels of ancient engineering that blast water out of strange positions at unexpected times. One of the fountains is actually a table and chairs. When activated, this fountain sprays water up the pants of unexpecting guests. The only chair that doesn’t spray water is the one that Markus Sittikus ate at located at the head of the table, which meant that all of his guests were left soaked after a meal, but he remained dry. Another extremely cool fountain is not so much of a trick, but it really puts on a show. This fountain launches a golden cap into the air before bringing it back down gently. This fountain was actually made to represent the rise and fall of the monarchy. Another extremely cool fountain is in a very unexpected position. Two deer head statues located on the walls of a palace building shot water from every point on their antlers as well as blasting water in all directions from their mouths. The palace was originally used to entertain Markus Sittikus’ subjects and the systems that he used to entertain them still work on people today. Overall, while not the most grand of palaces, this one has quite a few tricks up its sleeve and this makes it awesome in a different way than other palaces. I recommend that you go on a warm day because the fountains will probably spray you from all sorts of odd positions (I had an unassuming gargoyle head shoot me in the butt).