Join us for a 9-day holiday trip by coach to Austria, staying at Schüttdorf, close to Zell-am-See, 12-20 August 2000. We'll be touring the sights and musical box chalets of both Austria and Germany as we venture into Bavaria and the Tyrol.
Each article can be accessed by clicking/tapping the fourteen photos below. A link on each page will bring you back here.
Thursday 17 August 2000. At the end of the previous episode we took the funicular railway up from the many squares and churches of Salzburg to the Hohensalzburg fortress.
It's an impressive chunk of masonry and design, far bigger than you would find most castles in the UK to be. In fact inside those formidable walls is an entire village.
It therefore gives an air of both calm beauty and impregnable mass.
It was never taken by force. Even when under siege during the Peasants' Revolt of 1525, with food running out, the defenders coloured their only bull a different shade every day and paraded it around the walls in view of the besiegers below, to convince them there was plenty of food left.
We spotted at least two wells within the confines of the fortress, so presumably water wasn't a problem.
We had gone up there thinking that we might spot a few locations from The Sound of Music, but not so much really. We've already seen that the courtyard seen in the film housing the von Trapp Family Singers competition was down in the city itself...
Just about the only reminder of the film was this. The puppet theatre that had provided the puppets (and no doubt the puppeteers) for the Lonely Goatherd scene. We didn't have time to watch a performance, but I bought a couple of postcards showing some of the puppets. The theatre began in 1913 when friends of sculptor Anton Aicher convinced him to turn his private hobby into public performances. The family by the time of our visit in 2000 had amassed some 2000 puppets.
An underground passage leads you out of the inner fortress to the path leading back down to the city. We had gone up by funicular railway but opted to walk back down.
The way down is steep. Boarding with slats across, like a ship's gangway, are laid down the street to help you keep your footing. In winter it must be almost impossible! The fortress is immensely popular with tourists. After the Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna it is the most visited tourist attraction in Austria.
We came down and turned to visit the cemetry of the church of St Peter, one of Salzburg's gems. We found these intricate iron crosses set up on short gravestones. We had seen some similar ones in Kitzbühel.
Finally we get back down to the city level and in a grim reminder of the reality that was behind the fluff of The Sound of Music, passing through a small square we read a plaque on a wall that told us that Himmler's Gestapo had made their headquarters there during the war.
Not the best quality photo but in 2000, digital cameras were very new and not capable of the high-quality that we take for granted today. Even then, you would not have dreamed that they would be an add-on to a phone you could carry in your pocket! These are eggs. Blown and painted and displayed in their thousands in a shop that sells nothing else but painted eggs!
When I say in their thousands I'm not joking! Miss Franny restrained herself from buying any but then regretted it for the next couple of years until we visited again. On that as yet future trip she would be known for the rest of the week to the coach drivers as The Egg Lady...
It was getting time to return to the coach station. Just time to look at the river - well alright, so we got lost and found ourselves at the river... Anyway we had a look at the river, a look at the map and found we were not so far off track after all!
No need to catch a trolleybus then! Not been on one of those since the 1950s in Manchester...! And they weren't bendy in the middle then!
We got back to the hotel, had our evening meal and decided (gluttons for punishment that we are) to have another bash at walking into Zell-am-See after our meal. Tomorrow night, after all, will be our last night so we would be spending it packing and having a last night with our fellow passengers. So it was tonight or never.
This time we made it all the way! Well, perhaps we did catch the little train seen a few times previously... Asking for a ticket in an unknown language is quite something - especially on the return journey where we wanted to get off at Kitzteinhornstrasse...!!! Actually I must have done ok because the driver/conductor launched into a long spiel which I just about gathered was advice on buying a weekly ticket to save money. "Ja, danke, but wir ist der trundlink homevards zer day after morgen"...
You might have guessed how the weather changed once we got there... Ah, lovely.... lightning show over the lake anyone? We sheltered from the light rain to give it time to get really hard again, then dashed for the station, getting wet at the level crossing, waiting for a mainline train to go through then again after the train ride as we walked back to the hotel. "Been out taking pictures of the rain again?" came a cheerful voice...
Thursday 17 August 2000. After last night, raindrops on noses are not quite one of my favourite things! However I'm prepared to forgive and forget when faced with such a beautiful morning with early morning mist against the mountains and the prospect of a day in Salzburg - the city of The Sound of Music.
We've walked a bit further than usual after breakfast and before the coach leaves and we found the walkers about to board the little train for Zell-am-See.
Coaches are not allowed into Salzburg, except to drop off and pick up at pre-arranged times. John and Keith deliver us into the hands of local guide, Margarethe. After three people though she drops them and asks the drivers, "Please just leave them on the pavement..."
She takes us on a walking tour of the city for almost an hour. She sets off at quite a ridiculously fast pace and soon we are strung out in a long straggly line as we stop to take photos or find it difficult to keep up. Apart from anything else, Salzburg is crowded and we are not sure if the people we are following can see anyone from the coach in front of them or whether we are just wandering aimlessly...
For some reason there were fibreglass cows all over the place, painted in different designs.
Saltzburg has many squares, as we shall see once we get up to the castle! The cathedral stands in a square and a huge stadium had been erected for a concert. There was no way I could take a single photo of it from top to bottom as you couldn't stand far enough back. I took three and have stitched them together.
There are no less than five organs in the cathedral, all of which must be played seperately. The largest, high above the entrance at the back was played only for notable occasions, whilst Mozart himself was not averse to twiddling the ivories of one of the others. He was born in Salzburg and we were to see his birthplace a little later in the tour.
If you watch The Sound of Music You will find a troupe of von Trappers traipsing through this very arch. The only thing we found going through it though was a horse and carriage - but quite splendidly adorned with a miniskirt... In fact there are not many references in Salzburg to The Sound of Music at all. Hollywood has one take on the story. The Austrians perhaps have a different perspective on it.
Hang on a minute, the gang have stopped whilst Margarethe explains something. I couldn't hear her half the time and gave up after a while. Not a von Trapp in sight... Margarethe: please start at the very beginning...
Here's a flight of stairs at the side of a courtyard that may be familiar from the concert sequence in The Sound of Music. It's not in the castle however (which we shall see in the next article).
We come to a large square where a thriving market has been set up. The surrounding palaces are quite something. One of them was Mozart's birthplace.
So a quick look around the market and try to keep Margarethe in sight in the crush of people!
The cheese stall. The market obviously attracts stallholders from all over the place. The young lady was Dutch and in case her cheese wasn't enough, she has a whicker basket full of plain wooden clogs on the ground.
Miss Franny: "Isn't that Christopher Plummer?" Me: "No, it's a fruit and veg stall - they're just ordinary plums..."
Margarethe managed to round us all up and herded us into a very crowded street. "Now ve haf valked you many tvisty turns and you are all lost and disorientated, I leaf you here in zis busy street to find your own vay! Meet back at the bus station vhich you cannot remember and don't be late because der bus can only vait fife minutes! Unt der virst von back ist der sissy!" Disclaimer: she didn't really say that. But, then again, she didn't need to really...
It is a very quaint street with lots of swinging signs outside the shops. We find somewhere for lunch then, successfully fed and watered, we decide to head on up to the castle. Miss Franny stops to admire some plates. Thay are decorated with real gold. I work out the price in UK pounds and push her quickly on...
The Hohensalzburg fortress. It's an impressive chunk of masonry and design, giving an air of both calm beauty and impregnable mass. Should we walk it or take the easy route we wonder? There is a funicular railway that takes you to the lower levels of the castle.
We decide to take the funicular railway up and walk down - we may not be in a rush but we are no fools... This is a funicular railway with a driver's cab! We were at the bottom and were going up. It was crowded and I couldn't see if we had a driver or not.
The car itself was quite steeply racked and had three or four compartments for passengers. At the top of the slope we looked back to watch the cars going up and down for a while. It doesn't look so bad here but I was looking down somewhat - tilt your head to the left a bit!
Ok time to take a few photos and stitch them together to form a panorama. We have arrived at the castle which looms over behind us opposite the view you see here. For those who wish to try their hand at spotting the joins there are four photos...
