Ruben G.
Yelp
Okay, before this dismal rating of a reasonably nice museum rattles your chains, hear me out:
First of all, it was delightful to stroll up to the ticket counter, present our "Salzburg Cards" and get passed right on in. Following the signage to the first landing, we found a QR code to download their app. It is a good size, so if your download speed is slow, good luck with that. Even with 5G, it took four tries and about 8-9 minutes to finally get it. My wife (whose phone is only 4G) never was able to, at least in the time we were willing to give it.
So, about those 8-9 minutes... that's when a school group (high school, judging by their ages - but who am I to judge?) came blabbering in. Whoever was in charge of these 30+ students must have ducked out for a smoke, because they were pretty doggone loud with no one "shush-ing" them. SIDE NOTE: I am a retired middle school teacher. I know when to put the "Shhhh!" light on. I can only assume they were told to wait there, despite it being a modestly-sized space. Eventually, a docent came and let them upstairs to the beginning of the tour. I allowed my jangled nerves to chill for just a few. In my mind, I thought I'd give them about an 8-10 minute head start, so my wife and I could enjoy the facility without the 80 dB background noise. My idea seemed "sound," if you'll pardon the pun, for about 4 minutes - when the next, even taller group of young'uns came clambering up the stairs. They, unlike their predecessors, were escorted by their chaperone/teacher. He seemed to be the kind of guy that controls his classes by merely being LOUDER than they. ...and he was. As he started his introductory diatribe, my wife and I decided to scamper upstairs and just HOPE that the first group was proceeding more quickly than I'd guessed. Nope. We walked into a very chatty adolescent group totally ignoring their docent, and focusing more on selfies, insta-moments and whatever non-Mozart topics crossed their minds. That's when the second group reached the landing.
Okay, I get it. I used to LOVE going on field trips (as a student, mainly) for the freedom that was part and parcel of it. These kids weren't doing anything wrong, per se, they were just rambunctious adolescents. Which turns out to be the point of this rant. The ticket vendor knew the scheduled tours, yet didn't mention a thing to us. We would gladly have come at a different time or even a different day, but... grrr.
Just to let ya know... I got to glimpse at a few of the displays (which seemed pretty interesting, truth be told) whilst jostling between field-trippers. I *did* make a point to snap photos of the descriptors on the walls, so later I'd be able to read about whatever it was that was behind the 60-70 students in the room. No, there was no place to sit and wait them out. The few times we tried to get ahead of them they seemed to follow us as if WE were their teachers. So... that's it. I guess this rant is much more about the lack of control than the museum itself. I think it would have been only proper to inform the patrons that it was "school day." Is that too much to ask?
...and to think we're visiting Salzburg NOW, in order to avoid "tourist season." Sigh...