A couple of days in Austria

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TUESDAY 6 OCTOBER 2009 - AUSTRIA

Up before 7am this morning to shower and pack a small overnight bag to take with me out to Linz. As I was coming back to the hostel in a few days I was able to leave my big bag in storage; which was a lot better than having to lug it back and forth!

Got the 8:30am train into Linz which arrived at about 10am. Managed to locate Albert as I had seen this man walking around looking like he was looking for someone. He had already planned out some things for us to do for the next two days which was very sweet of him so we headed straight onto the motorway out to Salzburg. Funnily enough, I realised on the train on the way to Linz that I could have gone straight there as it was on the way to Vienna - something I hadn’t realised the day before. Doh. Oh well.

Albert’s son had organised us a parking spot at his university so after parking there we did a bit of a walking tour around the city. Saw the cathedral where Mozart was baptised, a building that used to be a brothel for the castle, the university and town square area and Mozart’s birthplace. Albert’s son then had to go back to work so we headed up to the castle/ fortress where the first thing we did was grab some lunch at a café which overlooked the new part of Salzburg. It was another lovely say with blue skies so it was quite pleasant sitting outside. Then we had a walk around the castle area and saw the fortifications and the museum.

From the castle we headed out to Hellbrunn on a local bus. Nearly got off at the wrong stop too! Hellbrunn was the Archbishops summer residence and the entire thing (complete with animated figurines etc) is powered by water. Well - everything in the garden I mean. We had a guided tour included in the entry price and the guide took great pleasure in showing us all of the ‘surprises’ that the AB had worked in - the trick fountains where when sitting at the table everyone except him got a very wet backside, and they weren’t allowed to move etc. It was pretty interesting seeing how everything was powered by water - quite impressive. It did mean that all of the grounds were constantly wet and I don’t think I would have liked to have been there in summer if the guide was as enthusiastic about the water at that time of year!! After the tour we had a brief wander around before heading back to the bus and going into town.

From there we headed to one of the local breweries whose name escapes me. Not only do they brew beer on the premise, but they also serve it. There were a few massive traditional beer halls and quite a large shaded beer garden which would have be lovely in summer. They only serve the beer that they brew - and out of a keg so it is significantly less gassy and a lot easier to drink.

Basically you grab a stone mug, rinse it in water in the middle, pay for it and then take the receipt to another man who pours it directly into the mug. We also ate a pretzel thing while drinking the beer in the garden outside.

After that it was about a two hour drink back to where Albert and Renata live just outside of Linz. It was pretty late by the time we got back and Renata was about to head off to bed but stayed up for a quick drink and chat.

WEDNESDAY 7 OCTOBER 2009

Early breakfast this morning which Albert went to a bit of trouble for. Fresh eggs from a nearby farm and some lovely fresh bread - not to mention homemade jam and honey. Then it was time for a quick tour of the house and gardens - which not only were huge but incredibly green and well maintained. I even got a look at the well which Albert had dug and which is now their source of water.

From there we headed out towards the Lake District where Albert was born. The plan was to see an Ice Cave in the morning (Dashstein) and then in the afternoon go to the top of one of the mountains by a steam engine and get some lovely views over the region. So that’s exactly what we did.

The ice cave was located about half way up a mountain and required us to get a cable car up there. I was pretty ok with the cable car until it went through one of those pylon things which is what always freaks me out and makes my stomach drop a foot. Got up there incredibly quickly though - and got our group number and then trekked uphill a little way until we got to the entrance. The caves were about 1km long which is the walk we did - as usual on boardwalk-type structures. The first bit didn’t have any ice but the further we went into it the more ice there was.

What happens in normal caves is that the water seeps into caves which forms the stalagmites, etc. However, because this cave always sits at around 3 degrees or less, that water freezes. Over summer, more water seeps in as the ice outside melts and when it enters the cave it too freezes, and so over time there is more and more ice in the cave. When the cave was discovered about 700 years ago, one pillar of ice was only 3 metres tall - it is now 9 metres. The final cave which we went into had ice 25 metres deep. The guide didn’t speak in English so Albert kindly translated the important bits for me!!

From there we headed straight to St Wolfgang which sits at the base of Schafberg. From there we were able to get the cog-railway up the side of the mountain to the height of 1783metres. It was about a 45 minute journey (very slowly and quite steeply!) to the top. At the top we got astonishing views over the many lakes of the Lake District area - a 360 degree panorama in fact. At the café at the top we grabbed a bite to eat (I had a goulash soup with bread) and then wandered around taking in the views. At 5pm we got the train down the side of the mountain and then started the drive back to Linz.

I got a train from Linz back to Vienna, arriving at around 10pm or so. After grabbing my bag from storage at the hostel I had stayed at only two nights previously, I had a relatively early night.

THURSDAY 8 OCTOBER 2009

Relatively early start this morning as I wanted to see as much of Vienna as physically possible. This meant a LOT of walking. Vienna is basically full of museums, galleries and exhibitions but as I had limited time I decided to basically stick to architecture - of which Vienna has quite a lot of!! I wandered past the Rathaus (city hall), the Parliament Building, Spent quite a bit of time wandering through the Museum Quarter as well - passing the Leopold Museum, Haus der Musik, Sigmund Frued Museum, Natural History Museum, the Hofburg, the History Museum, the list basically goes on. From there I wandered up and found myself at a church right opposite the Sigmund Freud Park. After a look inside the church, I had a short break on the very green lawns of the park before heading south again through a lot of backstreets and what appeared to be main roads, eventually finding St Michael’s, which I also had a look in. Right opposite St Michaels was a palace of sorts - quite impressive to look at but whose name now escapes me. I then basically wandered again through the streets towards some spires that I could see and which I hadn’t yet come across. It eventuated that those spires were of St Stephen’s Cathedral - which was undergoing significant restoration work. St Stephens is also one of the main squares in the city, so it was here that I stumbled across one of the sight seeing buses, and deciding that I had done sufficient walking, bought a 24 hour hop-on-hop-off bus ticket which covered three routes, including the palace route which was what I was most interested in.

Each of the routes took about an hour each so after doing the first two back-to-back without getting off, I had a brief break before embarking on the palace route, which started at the Opera House. It was here that I also grabbed a bite to eat and some water. The two highlights of the palace route were Schloss Belvedere which I didn’t look around, and Schloss Schonbrunn, which was the Habsburgs’ summer palace. I got off the bus briefly here to have a quick wander through the gardens and area - although realised on doing that, that I had in fact been here before back in 2001 on my whirlwind Contiki tour. I was going to go in but by this stage it was after 4pm and it wouldn’t really have been worth the entry fee - given the size of the palace (1440 rooms).

After getting back on the bus I went back into town for a final wander around Vienna. I decided to call it a day when it started getting darker and cooler and so wandered back to the hostel. A short time later I headed down to the nearby Chinese restauarant and got some take away Pad Thai (I know - really Austrian!!) and hung out in the common room watching TV until eventually going to bed.

FRIDAY 9 OCTOBER 2009

Took things a bit easier today than yesterday. Got up late-ish (8am or so) and hung around hostel until about 10am when I checked out. Left my bags in a very full luggage room and headed out for a bit of a walk. Grabbed some lunch and managed to find an English-language bookstore so got some reading for the flight back to London this afternoon as once again I was out. Think at the moment I am averaging about a book every three days - mostly because of buses and trains, etc.

My flight was at 3:40pm out of Vienna so I got the airport shuttle out at about 12:40pm or so as it was about a 45 minute trip. Checked in and boarded flight which actually landed early for some strange reason!! I don’t mind aerlingus though - think it was the first time I have ever flown with them and they were better than Ryanair and Easy jet - staff seemed nicer overall and the fact that they assigned you seats was quite a nice change. There was a massive school group of about 60 checking in when I got there - thankfully she sat me well away from them though!!

Anyway as usual I arrived at Gatwick and filled in my boarding card and lined up. Because I had put down on the card that I was only going to be in London for about 4 days, the guy decided to give me a holiday visa - despite the fact that my working holiday visa is still valid. So he gave me a stamp that says no recourse to public funds, no working. I thought that that was unnecessary and a little odd - not sure why he wouldn’t let me enter on my existing visa, but guess it doesn’t really matter in the end.

Anyway from there I headed to north London, had some dinner and drinks and watched a movie. I also did some washing which I (again) was in desperate need to do!! So hard when you are travelling.

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