Blogs from Salzburg, Austria, Europe - page 6

Another early start, firstly the walk from my hotel to Haupthahnhof (the main train station) then across the road to be in front of Karstadt department store where all the Gray Line coaches depart from each day, to be there by 7:45am. Why be there so early when they depart at 8:30am? - because they leave earlier if the bus is full. They have been running these tours for many years but still they are not organised in that you are immediately able to see which coach you should be on as they have no signs on them with which coach is going where and with seven or eight coaches in a row - it can be daunting. What makes me laugh is that the drivers get grumpy telling people which bus they should be on. ... read more

My stop after Vienna was Salzburg. Salzburg has been high on my list of stopping places after I found out that my grandpa was stationed there during the Korean War. It was a beautiful city to visit, situated in a large valley between the mountains. My first day was just spent walking around the city and exploring. I stopped in the Salzburg Dom, which is the cathedral, and admired its beauty for a while. I also wondered around a few squares and into St. Peter’s Church and Abbey. I also took a walk through the Mirabell Gardens and saw where they shot multiple scenes of the Do-Re-Mi Song from the Sound of Music. Of course being in Austria, I had to stop at a café and have a drink and some cake and I made my ... read more

Friday 22ndMay. I am conscious that I am now in the last week of my vacation, and the low clouds every day, and rain most of the time here in Salzburg, are frustrating. I am not seeing the mountain-scape. My plan for the day was to take the train from Obertraun as far as Bad Ischl, the railway station there has luggage lockers, then to leave my suitcase there and take the bus to St Wolfgang to ride the Schafbergbahn rack railway to the top of the mountain. On arriving in Bad Ischl, I discovered all the luggage lockers were out of service, and the weather was deteriorating. I phoned the Schafbergbahn and they told me that it was very cold, windy, snowing and raining at the top and they had cancelled some of their trains, ... read more

Where is Suzy? Well she is on her way home. She is heading out of Croatia over the bridge back to the mainland. Our plan is to drive through Slovenia sadly as we have no time to linger and spend the night in Austria just south of Salzburg near to Golling. We crossed the bridge and did not have to pay . For some strange reason you pay on your way in but they let you escape for nothing. Bit like the Severn Bridge then. We skirted around Rijeka stopping only for petrol. We waved to a british couple in a motorhome before we headed off to the no mans land between Croatia and Slovenia. A final goodbye to Croatia and we found ourselves in green Slovenia. It is a lovely country with endless green fields, ... read more

We had just one night in Salzburg, and were immediately enchanted. Cold and dusted with snow, it was fairy-tale like on our first night there and transformed by the sun the following day into a charming, riverside town. Salz=salt and it was a big, huge deal some several centuries back and a great source of wealth. That and some disputes in that part of Europe meant that Salzburg needed protection and so the Hohensalzburg fortress was built in the 11th century. The fortress hangs high above the town in picturesque fashion, as these old buildings do; the medieval center is equally picturesque and charming. We went on a boring tour of said fortress--or at least the first part was boring (though the fortress is fabulous!). I escaped fifteen minutes in by signaling to a guard my ... read more