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Published: June 11th 2007
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Grundlsee, Austria Our first night in Austria was spent in Salzburg, jetlagged and after an unpleasant two hour flight from London following an ill advised trip to the pub with Griff's friends. Red wine should not be taken within hours of a 24 hour flight. Ever. Consequently, my first night in Salzburg is a bit of a blur.
In the morning we left for Grundlsee, this time by train (my favourite form of transport, about the only type that doesn't leave me a nauseated wreck). My strongest memory of this is the colour green. It was quite a wet summer in the Salzkammergut and everything was thriving. It even smelled green.
Grundlsee is a little town near Bad Aussee, about two hours by train from Salzburg. The houses were all made of natural timber with carved embellishments over all the doors and windows. It's situated on the edge of the lake, surrounded by mountains and forest. Very Hansl and Gretl. It was very easy to see where the fairytales came from. I could imagine all kinds of magical things in the woods and the houses all looked like gingerbread.
We were staying in the Mondi timeshare
Salzburg
Beautiful Salzburg, from the fortress complex, courtesy of my wonderful grandparents, which was very flash. We had a little studio apartment that looked out over the lake and there was a restaurant on site that served decent meals. Grundlsee was where I first discovered pumpernickle bread. Whenever I smell it, even now, it reminds me of Austria. While we were in Grundlsee we explored the area a little. We walked to neighbouring Bad Aussee and wandered the streets of the little town. We were amused at how many traditional costumes we saw on middle aged folk. Leiderhosen and heidi frocks abounded. I'm sure it was encouraged during tourist season. Bad Aussee was my first taste of real, centuries old frescoes. It was quite exciting and I took endless photos of every one I came across.
Salzburg We also visited Salzburg again, just a day trip this time. We left very early in the morning to catch the first commuter trains. Salzburg enchanted me. I loved the narrow cobbled streets and the elaborate old buildings. We had breakfast at the Mozart cafe on the square near the famous fountain... one of the most famous in the world and no one knows who made it.
Kammersee
Perfection. My soul place. Very mysterious. I bought too many books in Salzburg. Griff tried to warn me, but I ignored him. Consequently, my shoulders were aching by the end of the day, although Griff did carry them for me briefly. We visited all the main sites in Salzburg; Mozarts residence, the fortress, Mirabelle Gardens and the magnificent Salzburg Cathedral. I found a whole street dedicated to antiques and spent a pleasant hour or so nosing around there. One day was definitely not enough to do it all justice.
Kammersee Kammersee was, without doubt, the most perfect place I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. It even tops Wanaka and the Milford Sound for pure magic. We visited it on a short day tour of the three lakes of the Grundlsee area; Grundlsee, Toplitzsee and Kammersee. Each lake more remote, Kammersee at the end only accessible by boat.
Toplitzsee is a lake that is famous for it's Nazi history. There are rumours of fortunes in Nazi gold at the bottom of it, but because it is so deep it is very difficult to salvage. Many people have lost their lives looking for the gold, no one has found it. Other items
Dachstein
The view from the top. Stunning. have been recovered, like shells and ammunition and Nazi documents.
From the very end of Toplitzsee, after a short boat ride, we came to a path through the forest to the hidden Kammersee. On the way there you see the channel that foresters carved through solid rock to float their logs from Kammersee into Toplitzsee. It was carved through six feet of rock by hand in the 16th century. Every spring Kammersee floods it's banks and drains into Toplitzsee and the logs would follow.
Stepping out of the trees onto the shore of Kammersee was like stepping into another world. I don't know what it was about the place, but it was the most incredible feeling of peace that I've ever experienced. I'm almost afraid to ever go back there, in case the feeling is gone.
Dachstein Another trip we made from Grundlsee was to the Dachstein mountains to the famous ice caves. Some of the best views we had in Austria were from the very top of the Dachstein mountains. We caught a cable car to the top and walked out on a 3 hour round trip karst trail hike around the top of the
Purgg Bone House
The highlight of Purgg, the grisly bone house under the 'new' church. mountain. Beautiful views, crazy rock formations, permanent summer ice beds and eidelweiss were the highlights of that walk. Half way down was the eishole and the mammuthole (mammoth caves). Unfortunately we had to choose between them because of time constraints. We chose the ice caves and I certainly don't regret it. Some of the formations were just gorgeous, especially one called the Ice Cathedral which had arches and turrets and was cleverly lit with coloured lights. Very ethereal. That was a great day, but we both got very sunburned. I learned that just because you can't feel your skin burning like you can in NZ, doesn't mean it's not burning!
Purgg Purgg was a quiet little town on the side of a mountain about 45 minutes drive from Grundlsee. A collection of little wooden houses with cottage gardens absolutely bursting with flowers, barns attatched to houses smelling strongly of cattle, and two significant churches. The smaller, plainer church was 1000 years old and inside the walls were covered with original frescoes. I was completely blown away. I didn't take photos for fear of damaging the paintings with my flash but I can still remember them. They reminded me
Grundlsee
Beautiful Grundlsee strongly of Irish illuminated manuscripts. A lot of the same motifs and a similar focus on animal figures in the work.
The other church was newer, but still hundreds of years old. Inside was a more familiar church interior with classical paintings and dark wood pews and a glitzy gold altar. The real treat, as far as I was concerned, was underneath. In Purgg, because it is such a small town, the graveyard space is limited. Because of this the graves are routinely excavated in favour of new corpses. Quite grim. Under this newer church was a room, open to the air but closed off with a wrought iron gate, piled to waist height with human bones and topped off to the ceiling with skulls.
Being a bit of a fan of skulls I thought this was very, very cool. I understand that in Hungary they decorate the skulls so they can tell who they belonged to.
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