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...
Tuesday 15 August 2000. Tuesday morning found us back in Zell-am-See for a couple of hours free time.
The bus dropped us off just a short way from the Grand Hotel that we saw last night in the distance as we sat by the lake in the twilight.
The lake was as spectacular by daylight as it had been by night. The railway was laid alongside the lake and we had to cross the lines to get into the town. Two seperate lines went into the station. The main line went through but a second light railway line that we saw last night terminated at the station, from Krimml through Shüttdorf where we were staying. Following our stay in Zell the afternoon will be a train ride on the Gisela Express to Kitzbühel.
We have to stand at the level crossing whilst a train goes through to the station on our right. Then we can walk into the town and take in the sights and smells of the main street.
We'll start with the sights. Zell was a wonderful place, with only a few buildings such as the Grand Hotel that were not the by now familiar chalet design. We were fascinated by the number of buildings in the famous music box shape. Houses, hotels, petrol stations, shops, sheds and barns were all the same basic shape. I wondered if they played music if you lifted the roof...
Now the smells. Shops had set up displays along the streets and smoked meat of various kinds added their aroma to the clear mountain air. Sausages, salamis, bacon rolls and rashers...
Miss Franny doesn't like smoked food and it wouldn't have been the easiest souvenir to transport home, but the next shop helped fill her bag with a cow bell and a yodelling teddy bear... In fact half the people on the coach seemed to buy a yodelling teddy! We knew this because they set off singing "Yodel-ay-delayee-oh!" at every slightest movement - which made for a hilarious moment at the end of the week when drivers John and Keith were loading bags into the coach, most of which went "Yodel-ay-delayee-oh!" as soon as they were picked up!
The tallest building in the town was this old tower, now a museum, rising above the yellow umbrella. The Vogt tower is the oldest building in the town and was first referenced in 926 CE, making it well over 1,000 years old. It was described then as an escape tower both for local military and town residents, though whether they were expected to escape from an attacking force or whether it was a contest to see if, once in, they could get out again I'm not sure... It has four floors of local historical displays and artifacts.
It was a festival holiday in Austria. By the church the locals were dressed in their finery and there were plenty of national costumes in evidence. The three ladies were pleased to pose - well, two of them anyway - even after my horrendous attempts to speak their language! Or maybe it was pity...
The men, meanwhile, were playing soldiers - dragging a small brass cannon around. You could tell from the air of excitement amongst them that it was going to be fired! They marched in a twin file with a marching band to the square, set up the cannon with as much fussing and pomp they could muster until the urge to fire it was too much. It made a loud crack, sad to say nothing more, but they all seemed satisfied and there was much laughter and comradely back-slapping. Their wives looked on with expressions of forbearance and indulgance. There was now an air of "They'll be satisfied again now until next year..."
Time was marching on though and with a last look at the square and the old museum we went back down to the lake, setting off towards the station. We had time to cross the lines again for a look at the lake.
By gum, they don't half feed up the livestock! This oversized swan was made for a festival and then afterwards when no one could think of what to do with it, it was left on the lake to keep an eye on speeding pedalloes...
Ok! Back to the station! It's time for us to board the Gisela Express that will take us on a train ride through the Alps to the resort or town of Kitzbühel. Food is provided onboard and will cause not a little hilarity. Join us for the next thrilling instalment!
Monday 14 August 2000. We returned to the Pinzgauhof hotel in Schüttdorf and had our evening meal. Then we decided to go out for another walk as it was still warm outside. We found this little train waiting to be photographed... I obliged!
We decided to walk down to Zell-am-See - the lake which was supposed to be about a quarter hour's walk from the hotel. The town was a little further and we were due to go there the following day anyway. We found this little train waiting to be photographed... I obliged!
I'm not sure if we were the only ones wandering about from our party, but the only people we met were locals out for an evening stroll. The little diesel car was one used on the Ziller Valley railway which was a light railway connecting Zell-am-See with Krimml Falls (which we would see later in the week) and up the Ziller Valley to Fügen - which we would see on a future visit.
We reached the lake and sat watching the sun set. We decided not to carry on into Zell as we were due to go there in the morning anyway and our feet were letting us know they'd had enough for one day!! The lights of the town are in front of us; the brightest lights are on the building occupying land that juts out into the lake: the Grand Hotel.
It went dark pretty quickly once it had started. We were far south of England and the closer you get to the equator, the shorter twilight is. I had to use flash on this photo to stop the foreground from just being a blank dark shadow.
It was dark walking back! Luckily there were signposts to help. Well, except that they didn't mention Schüttdorf. There was a signpost for a golf club with a restaurant and a mini golf course and I presume that's a warning to locals to Shut the back door maybe... There were rumbles of thunder up in the mountains too. We got back to the hotel ok though without getting wet. Tomorrow will be a morning trip to the town of Zell-am-See and then a ride on a historic train to Kitzbühel.
Tuesday 29 January 2002. It's a new day and it's a sunny day! Jock and George have the coach all nicely warm as we set off for a first stop in Zell-am-See, where we spent a wonderful and memorable week two years previously in 2000.
That had been a summer holiday and the only snow we saw was high in the mountains. This time around there is absolutely no chance of getting up to the glacier at Grossglockner without a snowmobile. But today at least there is snow a-plenty for us to ooh and aah at.
There's a bit of mist but it lies in a layer of cloud, sometimes above and sometimes below us. Now, this is the sort of scenery we were hoping for from this holiday!
I recognise that burnt bacon! We're in Zell-am-See with some time off the coach to explore, but it's a little colder than the last time we were here! In the summer there had been plenty of these stands selling smoked joints of bacon outside the shops in town. There had also been stands with sunglasses, yodelling teddy bears, Tyrolean mountain cow bells and all sorts of souvenirs. Today there are deserted streets and snow and ice... Lots of ice...
In fact the entire lake is a vast sheet of ice! People were swimming in this lake the last time we were here. Now there are adverts posted saying you could take horse-drawn sleigh rides across the lake! If so the horses had refused to come out, pointing to the stable thermometer and complaining it was too cold.
Steve and the lads were playing cricket on the lake with lumps of ice. We ventured out a little way but in the same way I've never been for strapping planks to my feet on snow, I'm not one for strapping thin bits of metal on either and trying to balance on ice. We had hiking boots on and they weren't helping us to stay upright too much...
We moved back into the rather tenuous shelter of town. A few ice sculptures were cordoned off in the square, though they looked a bit in progress rather than finished works.
We bought a bread board that had a designed burned into it. We still use it some 21 years later. The design has worn faint and the board certainly has a few gouges in it but it is still serviceable and better than chopping up the work surfaces in the kitchen!
There's another wall of cuckoo clocks, all ticking away merrily. They stay there, on the wall. Let someone else buy one...
Then it's back to the coach and we set off towards Kitzbühel. Here the road has climbed above the mist which hangs below us in the valley like a fluffy carpet. Ooh... coming over all poetic there for a moment...
We are starting to see a few ski lifts and ski runs as we pass. We are getting higher up. Then we start to drop again as we approach Kitzbühel. The road straightens out and we come to the buildings of the outskirts of the town. The coach stops. Out we get. To be continued...
