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Published: February 12th 2007
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After breakfast, the 3 of us headed toward Linzergasse on the other side of the Salzach River. This area is on the "new" side of town, but quite frankly, their "new" makes most of what is old in the U.S. look like it was built yesterday. The shops here are more practical for the people who "live" in Salzburg - but also have some of the more "high end" shopping for those seeking it. I found a store that sold Lithium batteries for my camera - I've been feeding regular AA batteries for the camera after every 30 pictures or so - that's about twice a day or more. Linzergasse was OK - but without the charm of the Getreidegasse across the river.
We took a 4 hour "Bavarian Alps and Lakes" tour with Panorama Tours, which picked us up at our hotel at 1:40, and delivered us to Maribelle Palace for our 2:00 departure.
The tour guide spoke in both German and English, for which I was greatful. Friedhelm and Charlotte insisted we do the English Tour, even though Friedhelm's English is limited, and Charlotte's is even more limited, and that I could fill them in. Guess they
Santa Claus is coming to the townhouse...
You better watch out....Santa Claus is coming through your window.... have more confidence in my German than they do in their English. Anyway, the guide did both, and we all enjoyed his commentary. Shortly after departing the city, we began to rise in elevation, and the snow was everywhere - not falling, but on the ground. The Alps were quickly in view, and so majestic with the snow outlining the sharp peaks and crags. Our first stop was in the village of St. Gilgen, on the end of Wolfgangee (Lake Wolfgang - See = Lake). I had visited this village on my last trip on a tour, but our stop was so short, I did not venture far. This time we were able to make it further into the village, and we found yet another small Christmas market. They had small warming fires built strategically along the way, which I thought added a welcoming touch - it sort of said, "come on in, have a coffee and stay a while". But, this too was a short lived stop, as the guide promised us an even more enjoyable and longer stay at our next stop of St. Wolfgang, on the other end of Wolfgangsee.
The guide did not lie. This
The Alps on our way to St. Gilgen
I was able to capture this from the bus as we made our way from Salzburg to St. Gilgen. See the road and car in front of us to understand the magnitude of these majestic mountains. little town was full of charm and fantasy. It ranked right up there with Oberammergau with the decorative painting and ornate wood trimming on the buildings, but felt less commercial than Oberammergau. According to the guide, the Christmas market here was only open on the weekend evenings, and with this being Friday evening, it would be the less crowded of the 3 days. There were market stalls, as well as the permanent stores, each and everyone decorated to the hilt to celebrate the Advent season. They also had the warming fires. They had horse and carriages apparently for hire, although I did not see anyone taking a ride, and wasn't sure where exactly they would go because people walked in the streets - no cars, and the streets were very busy with people. Maybe they were just there for effect. We were snapping pictures right and left - me of everything and Friedhelm of the wood carvings in the market stalls, so that he might try his hand at these creations as well. We were told by the guide that a very famous German opera and later movie "The White Horse Inn" was about a hotel that was located here.
St. Gilgen
Street scene in St. Gilgen We found this inn, and what was painted on the front of it but a "white horse". We had a little over an hour at this stop, so we enjoyed some Gluhwein before making our way back. At the bus gathering spot which overlooked the lake, we spotted a gazebo in the water, decorated with lights, and had small lights in the shape of lit candles in the water that encircled the Gazebo. It was dusk, and I had a hard time with the light and the exposure of the camera, so the picture I have doesn't do the view that I had justice.
At the end of the tour, we were dropped at Maribelle Platz, and since it was at the time of day that I had arranged to call Jeff - 6:00 in Salzburg and noon in Florida - I made my daily call from there. We began our walk to the hotel. It was maybe a mile or so, which compared to all of the other walking I was doing really wasn't a bad walk. We strolled through Getreidegasse again, and stopped at a steakhouse for dinner. After dinner, we passed through Residence Platz and grabbed
Christmas Market Stalls in St. Gilgen
The market stalls in St. Gilgen were scattered throughout this small village instead of clustered together and packed tight like Salzburg's markets some Eierpunsch (my dessert), and made our way back to the hotel.
This was a good day for us to be out and about. Caleb's band Christmas concert is tonight and I'm gonna miss it, and every time I think about missing it, I get sad, so it is best that I stay overly distracted. He has a solo part in the jazz band concert, and I'm gonna miss it. As we were passing through the Christmas market, there was a small ensemble of young students - probably high school age - with instruments playing Christmas songs. I was feeling nostalgic, and I guess so were Friedhelm and Charlotte. They had just lost their only son in October, and tears began to fall from Charlotte's face as we listened to the music. Friedhelm put is arm around her, and I hooked my arm through her free arm, and we just stood there enjoying the music with tears flowing. I hugged her, and that was all that was needed - we didn't need to talk about all of the emotions that we were feeling.
Once in my room, I gave Caleb a call after I got back to the
St. Wolfgang at Christmas
The streets were busy this Friday evening. St. Wolfgang's Christmas Markets are only open on the weekends. St. Wolfgang's buildings are adorned with frescos, as are common throughout Bavaria. hotel - it was 10:00 pm in Salzburg and 4:00 pm in Florida - and wished him luck, apologized again that I was going to miss it, and told him to pretend I was there so that when I watch the recording I'll know he was playing for me.
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