The 11th-century Festung Hohensalzburg (Hohensalzburg Fortress) is the high point (literally and metaphorically) of a visit to Salzburg, offering a stupendous northern city view from its 120m (400ft) elevation. The view to the south is of Alpine peaks, including the 1853m (6080ft) Untersberg.

One of Europe's largest castles, it has never been captured by enemy forces. Many archbishops extended the fortress over the centuries but the greatest influence on its present structure was Leonhard von Keutschach, Archbishop of Salzburg from 1495-1519. His symbol was the turnip, which accounts for the fact that this strange motif appears 58 times around the castle.

It takes about 15 minutes to walk up the hill from the old town or you can use the funicular adjacent to St. Peter's Cemetery. The funicular fare includes entry to the castle grounds from where you can enjoy the views, but it is worth paying an extra fee for the complete tour of the interior. Be sure to make your way around gruesome torture chambers, the lookout tower and impressive State Rooms, as well as two small museums. Below the castle on the eastern side, you can see the 1300 year-old Benedictine convent, Stift Nonnberg, the oldest convent in German-speaking lands. The real Maria, of The Sound of Music fame, was a teacher in the convent school. She was married to Captain von Trapp in its ancient church.

Of the two Mozart museums in town, both of which are popular and pricey, this is the better one. The Mozart family lived in this house from 1773 to 1787, although Mozart himself was only resident from 1773 to 1780. Tours include commentary and musical excerpts from handheld devices activated by infrared signals.

There's also a slide show that tends to concentrate on the composer's early years, neatly skimming over most of his later Vienna-based years. As you'd expect, the house also contains musical instruments, sheet music and other memorabilia of the musical genius. Downstairs is the Mozart Ton-und Filmmuseum, which will mainly interest research students or mega-Mozart fans. The building has been restored to its original appearance after extensive bomb damage in 1944.

You could spend hours roaming around the diverse and well displayed exhibits at the Haus Der Natur (Museum of Natural History), located in the centre of the old city. There are flora, fauna and mineral displays, exhibits on physics and astronomy, a 42-tank aquarium, a reptile house and plenty of live creepy crawlies.

The 36-tank aquarium is considered one of the most beautiful in Central Europe and contains a vast collection of brightly coloured tropical fish. Another highlight is the excellent reptile house featuring, among other cold-blooded critters, fresh water crocodiles and deadly snakes. If you need some sustenance to stave off possible museum fatigue there's an inexpensive outdoor terrace cafe.