Slight panic when Anne and Peter didn't arrive on the 13:30 or 13:50
trains; they turned up on the 14:30 in good time for the taxi at 14:45.
Arrived at Stansted in reasonable time but were still almost last in the
queue. We ruined a woman's holiday by being shunted from one desk to
another, in front of her!
The flight was nice (GO), about 1.75 hours. Sandwiches and coffee
served. Nice views of the mountains as we neared Salzburg. As we stepped
out of the plane on a beautiful warm sunny evening, we had the full
glory of the ring of mountains around Salzburg. Taxi to the Gasthof
Bräuwirt in Lengfelden, closer and a less expensive journey than we
had anticipated.
Had a wash and a nice snack outside in the courtyard, serenaded by
cicadas, then walked round the village, which seemed to be asleep.
Andrew and I slept very badly.
Breakfast at 8, much to Anne's disgust. Checked out and caught the bus
(only hourly on Sundays) to station. Had to wait for train (Munich to
Debrecen in Hungary) and had seat problems when we got to Linz. Andrew,
Peter, and I sat or stood in the corridor most of the way. Pretty
mountain meadows, the great monastery at Melk, and the Danube were the
highlights. At Vienna's Westbahnhof we stepped out into 25° heat and
90% humidity. Awful! Walked to Ibis Hotel, though crossing the ring road
wasn't easy!
A shower and short rest revived us, and we took the underground
(excellent) to St Stephen's Church, a restored 14th-century building
with a beautiful carved stone pulpit and several poor paintings
surrounded by "holy" golden star-bursts. We were too late to visit the
catacombs, and too hot to climb the south tower.
Outside to apfel strudel and iced coffee, both with cream! Off to the
Prater park, with its giant 100-year-old ferris wheel and funfair with
sick-making rides. Very good view from the top of the wheel (you're hung
in a sort of cabin). Still extremely hot, so more drinks.
Andrew got us back to the hotel by a devious tram route intended to show
us more of the city; unfortunately, much of the route is underground!
Back to the hotel at sunset, so as it was rather late we decided to eat
in the hotel -- turned out to be an excellent choice. Very good and
filling meal. Straight to bed and slept very well.
Good buffet breakfast. Hot and sunny again, so we decided to visit
Schönbrunn Palace early. Outside we saw the emperor's personal
U-bahn station, built in Art Nouveau style and used only twice! In the
gardens there's a magnificent wrought-iron palm house and a zoo, but we
didn't go into either. Walked up to the Gloriette (memorial to Maria
Theresa) from where there are fine views over Vienna, and a café
where the waiter rather abruptly hinted about a tip and so got only 5s
for his pains.
The beautiful Neptune fountain was covered with scaffolding and workmen,
as were the "Roman ruins" folly, the base of the obelisk, and several
other features. We wandered down through the woods to the palace and
decided we couldn't face the crowds and heat inside, so headed back.
We then went to the Schatzkammer in the Hofburg to see the imperial
robes and jewels, including the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire.
Well displayed (and nicely air-conditioned!) but described only in
German. Back via the Rathausplatz to check on availability of food
later.
Ice cream, sandwiches, and tea in a café near the west station,
then in for shower and rest.
To the Rathausplatz for an ethnic meal from one of the stalls, but
there were no tables free, so we had a very good meal outside a
restaurant across the road. Towards the end of the meal the film-concert
started up, with Richard Strauss' "Alpine Symphony". We got to the seats
in front of the Rathaus just in time for the last 10 minutes of the
music. We saw what must have been a very low, very bright meteor. As we
left the Rathausplatz on the tram another film-concert began -- drat,
missed it!
Spectacular thunderstorm at about midnight, with torrential rain.
Wanted to go to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, so decided to collect the
car later. The museum is wonderful -- especially the Brueghels,
including "Hunters in the Snow" of which we have a copy. Amazing
Egyptian relics, too.
Avis seemed surprised to see me -- they only keep their cars for one
hour after the appointed time! But they found us a car -- a big Opel
saloon with huge boot and air conditioning. Drove back to the hotel to
pick up our luggage, then wended our way out to the motorway in rapidly
increasing rain. Didn't look promising for the eclipse tomorrow. Because
of the rain we missed out some of the places we'd planned to visit, but
stopped in Eisenstadt for a snack. Eisenstadt seemed to be almost
deserted -- which was just as well because I entered the car park by
driving along a pedestrian path and the wrong way round a monument!
Weather improved as we headed further south through Burgenland, which is
a pleasant, very quiet farming landscape with a lot of vines. Arrived in
Bad Tatzmannsdorf in good time and found that the field opposite the
hotel was being set up for the eclipse festival tomorrow. Ate (only just
in time at 8:30!) in a restaurant across the road and slept well.
54 today! Presents and cards with breakfast. Very nice.
Cloud. Gloom! But the festivities opposite got going with music and
talking, and Bad Tatzmannsdorf rapidly filling with cars and coaches
full of people, most of whom came into our hotel for breakfast! The
hillside behind began to fill with people who had judged it the best
place to watch the eclipse, as it was south facing. The clouds cleared a
little as we walked round the town to look round and post first-day
eclipse covers. At 11:15 we established ourselves on the hillside and
the sun gradually began to vanish. Even when there was only a thin
crescent remaining it was still amazingly bright. Our eclipse glasses
worked well, and because of the thin cloud we were able to watch the
last stages of partial eclipse without the glasses. When the thin cloud
covered the sun it was impossible to tell where the sun was while
wearing the glasses.
Towards the total eclipse the clouds thickened. Oh woe! Then the shadow
was upon us, and it became dark where we were, though the clouds around
the horizon were still illuminated in lovely pink and purple colours.
The first 30 seconds of the total eclipse were completely obscured by
cloud, but then a lucky gap gave us a view of the eclipsed sun and
corona. The crowd cheered and clapped. Lots of people took photographs,
though our cameras wouldn't work in such dark conditions.
Then there was another patch of cloud, but it cleared just in time for
us to see the diamond ring effect as the moon's shadow began to leave
the sun. More cheers. It quickly became fully bright again.
Visited the fascinating castle at Burg Schlaining -- much bigger than it
appears from the outside. It's the headquarters of an international
peace movement, so not all of the rooms were open. It contains some good
collections of objects both decorative and useful, and is well set out with
clear explanations in German.
In the late afternoon we went to the Burgenländisches
Freilichtsmuseum near Bad Tatzmannsdorf -- a collection of buildings
moved there from various parts of Burgenland, and dating from the 17th
to early 20th centuries. The cider presses were particularly
interesting. Throughout Burgenland a drink called "apfelmost" is served.
We correctly guessed that the "most" part of this word related to the
English word "must", meaning the residue of skin and pips left after
first pressing. The drink was delicious, sharp and tangy. However, it
wasn't until later that we discovered that it is in fact not just
a variant of the familiar apfelsaft, but is actually a form of cider,
and is quite alcoholic.
Back to our hotel for a pre-dinner drink. Just after 8:30 we wandered
out to get some dinner. Then the horror of being in a spa town
full of elderly people who all go to bed at 9pm struck us -- everywhere
was closed! Even the open-air swimming pool's restaurant closed at 9pm,
so we returned to the hotel and ate our following day's picnic lunch in
our rooms.
Set off fairly early towards Carinthia in mist and rain. Stopped at Burg
Hochosterwitz, a fairy-tale castle perched on top of a hill, and reputed
to be the inspiration behind Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle. There
is an amazing rail-lift up to the castle, but we didn't have time to go
up.
After a long drive we finally reached Weißensee, where the main
town, Techendorf, was very busy with tourists. We drove along the south
side of the lake to our destination, Naggl, and went into the hotel.
They looked blank. "Oh, you're not staying here, the place is full of
Italians." What??!! I showed them the brochure, the phone number I'd
called, and the email from the owner, Herr Putz. "Oh, he's not here, he
owns the hotel in Berg, about 25 minutes drive away." (All this in
German.) As it was already after 8pm, I asked them to phone him to say
that we were on our way and would like dinner when we arrived.
It turned out that the number shown in the brochure for the Naggl
hotel was in fact Herr Putz's number at his other, bigger, hotel in
Berg-im-Drautal, and we had been given reservations there without being
informed of the fact!
So, not only were we not staying at the quietest place on the quietest
lake in Carinthia, we weren't even staying in the same valley! The road
to Berg actually goes over a small mountain pass, and it was almost dark
by the time we arrived.
Herr Putz greeted us in person, and didn't seem at all disturbed by
the fact that he had booked us into the wrong hotel. After some
confusion as to whether we were eating à la carte or
table d'hôte, we had quite a good dinner.
The hotel in Berg was in fact quite nice, but we got the impression
that Herr Putz was trying to run it on a shoestring -- at various times
we saw him acting as receptionist, cashier, waiter, and barman. His
staff seemed somewhat exasperated by this, and it certainly didn't make
for good service at reception! When we stopped being irritated, it was
actually quite funny.
Email me at JLD1@cam.ac.uk