Austria: Oct. 16-20
Salzburg: Sunday, October 16, 2005
You often wonder how it is that when you are traveling the only trains, planes or automobiles that are going to your destination either leave late at night or at some ungodly hour in the morning. We had a 5 am alarm set and managed to get out the door by 5:25. Not too bad. Even Brian was impressed. Hiking through the empty streets of Venice at 5 something in the morning was a little eerie. Because it was a Sunday there were no market shops opening up. All we had was fog and silence.
We hopped onto our water bus at 5:50 and got to the train station around 30 minutes later. By this time there were at least a few more people around. We had to get reservations for our train to Austria which cost a couple of Euro each but at least this meant no chance of musical chairs.
The train ride was uneventful and beautiful. Things started to get more and more mountainous as we moved into northern Italy. As pretty as the vineyards were, and the seascapes, I think we had all been missing our mountains from back home. While the Alps resembled the Rockies they were also very different. With the inclining pitch of the rooftops, we could also tell we were entering snow country.
We had to change trains onto the Austrian system in the small mountain town of Villach. We stepped off the train loaded with our packs and took in a breath of very cold, very dry air. We were home! Out came the fleece. As we wandered through the station for the 45 minute lay-over the kids commented on how clean and very organized everything was. They had no idea….
The train to Salzburg left on time; exactly on time. It was certainly one of the prettiest rides we have had yet. Blue sky, lots of green pastures and chalets, and the mountains all changing colours. We were thankful for the great weather.
Arriving in Salzburg (exactly on time) we quickly got our bearings and a map of the city. The apartment we had rented was only around 15 minutes walk away so we marched on. We came to the first stop light along with the other pedestrians. No traffic coming so the kids were ready to head off across the street. Hold on. “You’re not in Italy any more Dorothy”. There are rules in Austria, and people follow those rules. If the little man in the light standard is not green, you don’t walk. Brian was appreciating the order and smiling during the walk to the apartment.
The apartment we had booked for the next 3 days was acceptable. Not great, but very, very cheap (60 Euro / night in Salzburg). Full kitchen and it was clean enough. We had certainly stayed in worse places on this trip. A quick unpack and we were off to tour the city. Nothing formal but we wanted to get our bearings. Old Town (another UNESCO world heritage site) was around 30 minutes walk down the river. By this time it was 2:00 and the kids hadn’t had lunch yet. We tromped past the McDonalds and the Burger Kings and straight up to the first sausage stand we could find. It was great.
We managed to identify all the key places we wanted to visit and had a good wander around. Debbie found some amazing hand painted egg shells that she wanted for Easter and Christmas. A very animated discussion ensued about the intelligence of purchasing egg shells and attempting to ship them back to Calgary. After the Murano discussion things were pretty much stacked against Brian and logic was not going to prevail this time. Brian ended up waiting outside in a huff looking longingly at very large steins of beer in the local shops. 45 minutes later out came the family, with no eggs in hand. Turns out it was going to cost more to ship the eggs than to buy them. Even Debbie had trouble justifying that one.
It was Sunday, outside of tourist season and everything was closed. We couldn’t even find a small corner store open. We actually ended up back at the Train station using their internet café which allowed us to hook up the laptop and download our emails. The only thing around to eat at that time was either Pizza (had enough of that), or Burger King. Fries won out although we weren’t overly hungry.
The plans for tomorrow were the Grossglockner Highway and Ice Caves via a rented car.
Salzburg : Monday, October 17, 2005
Sometimes you just have to draw a line in the sand and not cross it. We had gotten up early and were waiting at the car rental places to rent a small car. Brian was hoping to get one for 40 Euro and was not prepared to go above 75 Euro. Figuring gas and everything else it was hard to justify spending what would have been 180 Cdn to tour what were basically the Rocky Mountains; especially when we were going to be driving through them in another 4-5 weeks coming south.
After 3 car rental agencies we had had a good walk around town, some frustrated family members and a good sense of car rental prices in Salzburg. 78 Euro was the cheapest and it was 3 Euro over Brian’s 75 Euro limit. No driving today.
We figured instead we would use up one of our train days tomorrow for the ice caves and other stuff and spend the day doing the town of Salzburg. It was now 9:30 ish and we set off to purchase our “Salzburg Card” which for 19 Euro gets you access to just about everything in Salzburg and the surrounding areas (and all transportation as well).
In all we hit some 6 or 8 stops today, and walked almost 23 km, packing it in around 6:00 with a trip to a grocery store for some much needed food supplies.
Our first stop was Mirabell Schloss which was the summer home for the Archbishops and its accompanying gardens complete with large Gnomes. (The castle was originally built for a prince’s mistress in the wilds outside of Salzburg.) The flowers were still blooming which was amazing given the temperature. From there it was a trip to the house of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the musical prodigy that Salzburg is so famous for. The audio guides helped and the museum was actually much better than any of us expected, providing a lot of insight into the life of the musician. The funny thing is that as much as Salzburg shows off its pride as the home of Mozart, other sources state that he really didn’t like his hometown.
Next it was across the river to old town where we checked out the shopping on the famous Getreidegasse. This small walking street is loaded with overhanging wrought iron sign poles that look pretty neat. As a slight peace offering for the car rental and the egg incident Brian treated the crew to extra large pretzels (Chocolate, Pizza and Poppy Seed). Then it was into the second Mozart museum (the apartment where he was born). The rooms here focused more on the operas and the stage equipment used in putting on large productions back in the 1600 and 1700’s.
As we continued up the street to the “Residenz”, we saw the old weather station with its barometer and chronometer. This is where all the horse and buggy rides originate and end. At 65 Euro / half hour we passed and opted for our “free” tour instead. The Residenz housed the various Prince-Archbishops that governed the city and the region since 1120. Lots of ornate rooms, all very different from the palaces we saw in Italy and Greece. Mozart played several concerts here, from the age of 6 onwards. The old stoves were very cool but the highlight was the marble staircase with its hollow brass spindles. Each spindle had been engineered to produce a specific note if you tapped it. Turns out you could play the stair case the same way you could play the piano. It’s the world’s biggest glockenspiel.
Next up was St. Peter’s Cathedral, and the Cathedral square. The kids were getting a bit saturated of Cathedrals by now so it was pretty brief. Earlier the previous day we had scoped out the location of the funicular that took us up the steep hill to the large Hohensalzburg fortress that oversees all of Salzburg. Brian’s plan had been to hike up especially since the funicular ride was like 8 Euro apiece. His plan however was rejected when it was determined that the ride was “free” with our Salzburg Cards. Up we went, where we spent the next several hours touring some great museums and doing guided tours of the walls. The Marionette museum was very cool (much better than you would think) as was the tour of the walls with their torture chambers and its view from the tower. Construction of the fortress started in the mid 11 th century and had grown over the years until the 17 th century. At one point a large wind organ was built to tell the residents of the town when it was time to get up and start or end work.
By this time the kids were getting hungry again so we walked down the big hill into town, fed the kids (more sausage) and headed off to the Hellbrunn gardens and palace. It’s about 10 km south of town and was the home of prince-archbishop Markus Sitticus. Hellbrunn is famous for its trick fountains, but before we could catch our tour we had to visit the castle itself. At the time it was a big thing to collect “oddities” from the animal kingdom and the kids were fascinated with the odd pictures of the animals kept around the palace, ranging from giant sturgeon to horses with 6 hoofs. A brief walk through the garden brought us to the glass gazebo that was used in one of the scenes in the Sound of Music which was based in Salzburg. Sierra was pleased as this was one of her favorite movies.
The trick fountains were really what we had come to see and they didn’t disappoint. Using nothing but gravity fed water pressure, the archbishop Markus Sitticus had constructed several large fountains that with a signal from him would squirt water over unsuspecting guests. One was a large dinner table where he held his banquets. All the seats were rigged to get wet (from top and bottom) except his. As rising from one’s seat before the archbishop was punishable, the guests got completely soaked by the frigid water. The second was a grotto that was triggered to “rain” on visitors complete with statues of elk that shot out water from horns and noses. You get the picture. The kids were having a blast. The highlight was a large model of the city of Salzburg with over 200 small figurines that all moved and worked and danced around. Kind of like a very large and very elaborate music box all driven by water pressure.
It was almost time to call it a day but we had an hour left before things started to close up, and the zoo was just at the end of the gardens. It was a pretty decent zoo for a European zoo, and the animals especially the big cats were all out in force. We had certainly gotten our money’s worth from the card and everybody was pretty bagged. Not a bad turn around for a day that had started out looking like it was going to be a bust. We caught the bus back to town and found a store for groceries for the night’s dinner. Brian was thrilled with the fact that .5L of beer could be purchased for all of 0.5 Euro a can. Not a bad deal.( NEXT PAGE )