Day 8 – Austria at 220 kph
We left Switzerland in the morning, headed for Salzburg, Austria. At Zurich we changed trains for a 4.5 hour ride to Salzburg. The train we were on was finishing in Budapest and was called ‘Rail-Jet’. They weren’t kidding. The train car looked more like airplane seating, and the top speed is 220 kph (137 mph). It was also a quiet car, which was really nice.
The countryside changed from high mountainous terrain to rolling green hills as we moved across the countryside. We arrived in Salzburg at about 4pm or so and made it to the hotel is absolute pouring rain.
We are staying at the Crown Plaza – The Pitter. It was built and run by the Pitter family in 1864. In 2013 it was closed for a year and completely renovated, reopening in May of 2014. It’s a great mix of the old with new convinces. Although we don’t have a deck looking out over the river, it’s very nice and suits us just fine!
We also had probably the best meal we’ve had so far in the Sky Bar and Restaurant. Of course, the top floor is only the 6th floor, but nothing is much higher around Old Town. Lesley and Sharon both had the veal, and it was amazing. I had seared jumbo prawns on truffle pasta with seared mushrooms and spring onions. It was really amazing. (Pat, this was just for you, since you wanted to know about the food!).
Day 9 – Mozart anyone?
It rained the first part of today. Heavy, drenching rain. So much that even the horses were wearing Gore-tex.
We started with a simple breakfast at a coffee shop. Lesley and Sharon absolutely love all the coffee that they’ve had, and I had hot chocolate. It’s wonderful here. Not over sweet like we tend to get in the US, but like good dark chocolate, nearly bitter. It was a great way to start a rainy morning.
We crossed the river and checked out Old Town. Tiny, narrow streets opened onto large, cobblestone squares. The buildings are about 4-6 stories tall, with a stucco finish in pastel colors. They are really beautiful and interesting to look at.
Old Town is surrounded by high cliffs. It’s like it’s in a bowl. The stores were interspersed with designer labels, souvenirs and candy, and everything had Mozart (or the Sound of Music) on it. We walked past Mozart’s birthplace as well.
After wandering around for a bit, we headed up the funicular (62% grade!!!) to the Castle Fortress.
The is an actual castle, started in 500 AD, and made a church in 696 AD. It was added to from then on. We spent most of the morning wandering around the battlements, State Rooms, and workrooms. The views were incredible! We ate lunch in one of the original workrooms.
We then walked down. The grade was amazingly steep. I can really believe it was 62%. We got some great pictures, and then wandered through the stores.
There were some really interesting shops. One was a store for traditional fabrics and needlework fabrics. There were some very unusual linens and damasks. Another store had high quality traditional clothing, dirndls, lederhosen, and beautiful Tyrolian jackets. The final store that really struck us was a store called ‘Christmas in Salzburg’. They had tables piled high with egg cartons filled with decorated eggshells. They were everything from tiny cross stitch, to decoupage, to rosemaling, to wax relief. The store just went on and on, and there were so many to see! In the back, they even had supplies to do your own. I’ve attached some pictures.
Today was a great picture taking days. I’m coming back with lots and lots of pictures!
Day 10 – In Search of the Glockenspeil
Today it rained, rained, rained harder, cleared, hailed, rained, then rained all night. I have also decided that I need to put together a book of all the pictures I have of Sharon’s back, wearing her blue Gortex coat, because that’s all I seem to get of her. And that includes the Paris trip! It could be titled ‘Find Sharon!’.
We headed out in the middle of a drenching rain to visit the museums of the dome quarter. Trying to get there, it rained hard even for us, so we ducked into a shop that sold swimwear (yes, we understand the irony), but it was the gloves and hats that got our attention. It was a great shop, that like many of the others in this quarter, went back into several more rooms on at least one more story. I could have happily brought back several of the hats and sets of gloves. Good thing baggage space is limited.
Once the rain backed off to normal Seattle standards, we headed out again. We wanted to see the Carillon – a tower that includes 35 bells and dominates it’s corner of the Dome Square. It sounds amazing when it rings. We knew it was part of a museum, but not which one. So, we went through the Residence Museum, the Cathedral Arcades, the Organ Gallery, the Cabinet of Curiosities, the Long Gallery, and the Museum of St. Peter’s Abbey – all part of the Dome complex of 15,000 square meters and cover the 1,300 years of history. Needless to say, it took a while, but alas, no Carillon.
Then we headed for the Strazburg Museum. This museum held my favorite exhibit. This was the antique instruments, some of the most unusual that I’ve ever seen. They also included excellent videos of these being played. The instruments included: a horn violin (just what it sounds like – a mouth piece at the top of the scroll that sounded just like a trumpet when blown, then change and play the violin body), a brass violin, a ‘violin d’amour’ (12 strings), an oboe with a snake’s head who’s tongue vibrated when played, and a single stringed instrument that sounded exactly like a trumpet when played with a bow. That was just the start. I could have stayed there all day listening to the excellent video recordings of these instruments actually being played by some of the top musicians in the area. But also, no Carillon.
Lesley asked about it, and nobody seemed to know until she said ‘Glockenspiel’. We were told it was through the Panorama Museum. So we went through that one, which was very cool. But again, no Glockenspiel. We finally found out that it was closed – and only opened on Friday and Monday. However, we saw a lot anyway, and we were pretty much on museum overload.
We then meandered through more narrow streets filled with beautiful guild signs (picture attached – note Lesley (dark teal shirt) in the lower right corner trying to find me as I’d fallen behind trying to get a picture. She commented that she should be wearing a Waldo red and white shirt.).
We then took a boat ride down the Salzach river. It was hailing, but the boat was enclosed. The river ran hard and fast and tended to be fairly shallow.
We decided that was enough for the day. As an aside, I have never seen so many Mozart candy shops in one place in my life. There are Mozart umbrellas, plates, magnets, basically everything you could emblazon Mozart on, including the worst mobiles I’ve ever seen. Six Mozart’s in orange on Slinkys, all bouncing at different times. (Steve – I almost got one for you but figured I didn’t want to be fired.)
Then, if you were tired of Mozart, you could always OD on the Sound of Music tours, pictures, patches, plates, etc.
FYI, the other picture I’ve included was from the Fortress. It’s a cabinet that if you look closely, all but the paneling is made from weapon parts. Rifle stocks for legs, bayonets as decorations on the sides, etc. It’s like one of those hidden object games, locating all the parts. It’s a really fascinating piece of furniture.
We did room service for dinner. After that day? It sounded perfect.
Day 11 – Mountains and Gardens
Today we took a tour over the border to Bavaria to see the Eagle’s Nest – Hitler’s conference retreat. We took a regular tour bus to the staging area, then changed to a special bus designed for the single lane, 28% grade, pull up the switchbacked road. It felt a little like being on the ‘Night Bus’ from Harry Potter – it seemed to be able to squeeze through any tunnel or around any bend. Needless to say, the views were spectacular.
At the top, we went through a 407 foot tunnel straight into the mountain to a Brass paneled elevator. This could fit 46 people (tightly packed), and rose 400 feet straight up in 14 seconds. It was spectacular on top. The views were unbelievable. And then it started to snow . . .
There were many hiking trails through the area as it is a national park. I’ve included a picture from the tunnel entrance with the hiking direction signs against the backdrop of the valleys. This really shows how high we were.
After that, the tour bus took us to the town of Berchtesgaden. I was excited about this, and Dad had told me about the town when he was stationed in Europe during the Korean War. He travelled around a lot on his time off and he particularly remember this town.
The tour company recommended one restaurant in Berchtesgaden, and we immediately went the other direction, and found the find of our trip. We went into the Cafe Spiesberger and had the place to ourselves. The food was amazing, topped off by homemade ice cream. We got chocolates that they made as well. Lesley had a look of bliss on her face as she sampled the beer. That expression was echoed by the rest of us while we finished off our meal, then had the amazing ice cream. The woman who ran it was delightful, and the decor was light blond wood, and a huge collection of coffee pots in china and silver. In addition, she was putting fresh roses on the table. She showed us one that had the most unusual scent – it was citrus! We asked her what it was, and she said she didn’t know. She would ride her bike up to an old woman’s home who grew many roses, and would cut them and bring them for the tables in the restaurant. She also gave us postcards of the area. This was really a highlight of the trip.
After the tour, we spent some time in Mirabell Gardens in Salzburg. We’d seen some parts of it, but finally got to just take the time and really explore. I’ve included an embarassing amout of pictures below. The place is truly spectacular. There was even a garden of midget statues. Apparently the owner had several drawf servants that he valued, and had a statue of each made and placed in the garden!
After that we wandered about in the open air market on the river, then in a section of old town we really hadn’t explored before. We went through the one remaining city gate (the others were torn down as they were impeding traffic flow), in search of the big beer garden. We missed the antique horse wash (literally a car wash for horses), but did find the beer garden – biggest in Salzburg.
Tonight we pack up, and tomorrow it’s off to Vienna.
