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Published: August 8th 2008
Festung Hohensalzburg
Salzburg Castle or "High Fortress of Salzburg" lit by a rare ray of sunshineAfter spending weeks visiting World War II and Communist sights, we felt that it was time for a change of pace and headed to the quaint city of Salzburg nestled on the edge of the Austrian Alps. As Salzburg is known for its classic composers, Janice had been lobbying to visit the city for several weeks and when we found out that our good friends, Tim & Sarah, were going to be there as part of a soccer trip, our decision was made.
A short train ride from Munich later, we arrived in Salzburg and were disappointed to find the city shrouded in grey clouds, cold and with intermittent rain - not what we were expecting from a European summer! Once we had dumped our stuff at the hotel, we headed back into town to arrange our train tickets to Amsterdam and explore the old town. Founded by the Romans around 15 B.C, Salzburg (which literally means "Salt Castle") was named by Saint Rupert, the first of the Prince-Bishoprics that ruled Salzburg until 1812.
A UNESCO World Heritage site, the old town, with its Baroque architecture, many churches, cathedrals and palaces has a decidedly Renaissance feel. Throw in Mozart's
Inside Salzburg Castle
Inside the armory of Salzburg Castle birthplace and residence, and the Salzburg fortress looming high above the city and you've got yourself an interesting place to hang out for a couple of days.
On our first evening we wandered through the old town until we came across the Fan Zone for the Euro Cup - realizing that there was a Pink Floyd cover band playing later that evening, we found a restaurant nearby to have dinner. After our meal and a few drinks, we were about to head to the concert when the heavens opened and the rain came pouring down; then it rained and rained and rained. We abandoned our plans, retook our seats and kept drinking until the rain had slowed to a light drizzle before catching a cab back to our hotel. As it was still early and there was a semi-final of the Euro Cup being played, Andrew and I made our way to a nearby brewery, Stiegl, and watched the game with all the locals which was great except for the huge thunderstorm which kept interrupting the signal at critical times.
The next day, we spent a few hours visiting the Mozart sights before Andrew and I boarded a
Ice Caves, Austria
Inside the ice caves in the Alps outside Salzburg bus that took us through the Alps (literally a tunnel through the mountain range) to Eisriesenwelt ("World of the Ice Giants") a natural limestone ice cave. Extending forty-two kilometres into the heart of the Alps, it is the largest ice cave in the world and is formed when the spring melt drips into the cave and is then frozen during the winter.
After hiking for about half an hour up the mountain, you reach the mouth of the cave and the temperature drops significantly as you get closer and closer to the gaping entrance. Entering the cave, you rush forward as the blast of freezing air pushes past you and threatens to knock you onto your backside. We then spent the better part of 90 minutes wandering through the cave admiring the massive ice walls and formations - in spite of my constant shivering (my thin jacket and sandals just didn't cut it) it was an amazing experience though I was relieved when the cave expelled me with its icy breath and I was able to defrost my hands and feet in the warm sunshine (the weather on this side of the Alps was remarkably different than in Salzburg).
Anne Frank's House, Amsterdam
Andrew and Janice in front of Anne Frank's house Our last day in Salzburg was spent visiting the Fortress, before meeting up with our good friends Tim & Sarah who were in Europe to play football (soccer) against a number of European teams in Germany and Austria. As their trip was sponsored by Steigl, we were treated to a 'behind the scenes' tour of the brewery (where I had watched the game a few days earlier), before going on a walking tour of the old town and ending with a great dinner (all paid for by Steigl!!) While it was great to see Tim & Sarah, eventually we had to say goodbye and headed for the station to catch our overnight train to the city of "Red Lights" and canals, Amsterdam.
Amsterdam is a beautiful city full of bridges, bikes, canals and 19th century houseboats. Founded as a fishing village late in the 12th century, the city rose to prominence in the 17th century when it was home to both the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company; entities that grew to encompass some of the most profitable trading routes in the world and which established colonies for the Dutch all over Asia and
Bikes and Bridges
Bicycles are the standard mode of transport in the city of bridges in the African continent.
It is also the infamous home of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl whose family lived in a set of hidden rooms in their canal-side house from July, 1942 to August, 1944 in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to escape the Nazis. The diary Anne wrote during her time in hiding has granted her immortality and is seen by many as the "voice" of the six million Jews who died as a result of Nazi persecution.
While in Amsterdam we spent time wandering around the older parts of the city, through the squares and across the bridges and of course walked through the famous Red Light District, De Wallen, with its sex shops, erotic theaters and prostitutes enticing customers into their tiny one bedroom apartments by displaying their "wares" through a single glass door. Boarding one of the long canal boats, we motored through the various canals, which once served as major arteries for transporting goods and people throughout the city. Our final stop was the Rijksmuseum; a stunning collection of one million pieces of classical Dutch art, including Rembrandt's masterpiece, "The Nightwatch".
From Amsterdam our next stop was supposed to be Avignon in
the south of France, but as July had just started we weren't able to get a ticket to Paris for two days! What a difference a few days makes - only several days earlier we were able to show up at the station a couple of hours ahead of the scheduled departure time and get whatever tickets we needed. As an alternative, we decided to go to Brussels in Belgium...after all a place famous for beer, mussels, chips with mayonnaise and Tintin can't be too bad. How wrong we were....arriving in the capital of the European Union we found a boring, dirty city with little to see and no open Belgian restaurants. The best we could find was an Italian restaurant, serving mediocre food accompanied by a couple of Belgian beers. At best, our time in Brussels was forgettable and I was glad to get on the train after only one day there and head to Bordeaux in southern France.
Thanks to our good friend Mark, we had arranged to stay in a five bedroom, 18th century farmhouse in the small village of Tourliac in the Dordogne region of France. Arriving in Bordeaux in the early evening, we snacked
Statue, Sarlat La Caneda
Medieval village of Sarlat La Caneda on some fantastic foie gras mousse at a restaurant near the station before grabbing a gyros (kebab) each and getting in the rental car to drive out to the French countryside. On the way we passed numerous quaint little villages and after only getting lost twice, pulled into the main house to meet our hosts (and members of Mark's fantastic family).
The next few days were filled with wine tasting (drinking), eating cheese, pate and foie gras and driving around the various villages in the region to wander through the medieval streets and admire the ruins of the ancient castles that seemed to spring from every hill or mountaintop throughout the area. Although it was early July, the weather was unseasonably cold and while there were some nice patches of sunshine it never really got warm (until of course the day we left). In fact, on our second last day it was so cold and miserable that we lit the fire and stayed in all day drinking wine and writing previous entries for this blog.
One of the most interesting things we did during our time in the region was to visit Font de Gaume, a cave near
Chateau Monbazillac
Monbazillac is known for its whites and dessert wines; the reds weren't too good. the more famous Lascaux caves (which has been closed to the public since the 1960's) that contains around 200 polychrome paintings of bison, horses and mammoths that are around 19,000 years old! Walking through the dark cave and viewing the paintings by torchlight, in much the same way that the artists would have done, was a very cool experience. On occasion you had to use your imagination to "see" the image, but in many cases the paintings were as clear as if they'd been done just a few years ago. The pre-historic artists use of the natural shape of the rock and perspective to convey a sense of movement was amazing - sometimes we don't give our pre-historic ancestors enough credit.
After six days, we had tried many wines from the Bergerac and Bordeaux region, eaten duck pretty much every way possible and had our fill of foie gras, castles and churches, but it was great to spend that many days in one place without having to pick up our backpacks. Unfortunately, it came to an end and with the last day of our Eurail pass upon us, we had to say goodbye to our lovely hosts and drive
Coffee Culture, Paris
Espresso at Cafe de Flore, St Germain du Pres, Paris back to Bordeaux to catch the train back to Paris.
The few days we spent in Paris were pretty low key; as Janice was still quite sick and we'd been there before and seen most of the tourist sights we decided to take it easy and relax before heading off on the final part of our journey. It was also a great opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with "international" cuisine - our first night we had Japanese, followed by Indian and then Japanese again (we had really been craving Sushi!). After stopping for an espresso and to people watch at the famous Cafe de Flore (Jean Paul-Satre was once a regular patron) on Boulevard St Germain, we set off for a walk along the beautiful River Seine.
After having different gypsies try and pull the same scam on us five times within an hour (basically they walk close to you and "pick up" a gold ring off the ground and then ask if its yours; when you say 'no'; they offer it to you in exchange for "Euros, cigarettes??"), we were starting to wonder if we really looked that much like suckers, or if the Gypsies of Paris were
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
Inside the Musee d'Orsay in Paris just really desperate and needed to update their scam book.
Wandering around Paris really affirmed its place in my list of favourite cities; it is just so full of art and majestic monuments - from the Arc de Triomphe to the Eiffel Tower and the supremely gothic Notre dame Cathedral. After lunch we called into the Musee d'Orsay (which was on strike during our last visit) and were confronted by a massive line. Taking a hint from our guidebook, we bought advance tickets for the next day and set off for an area which we hadn't spent any time in during our previous visits, The Marais.
We had intended to visit the Picasso Museum, but unfortunately it was closed (Janice did end up visiting and was unimpressed) so we ended up just wandering through the narrow streets, calling in at random art galleries until we came across an entire street full of chic bars and restaurants and decided to have a drink. Setting ourselves up at a table facing the street provided great people watching opportunities..and boy were there some interesting people to watch. From the group of Japanese girls dressed as goths to the transsexual across the
Arc de Triomphe by Night
Standing in the middle of the road while the traffic whizzed by with inches to spare was a bit scary road that thought he was a reincarnation of late 70's David Bowie, complete with the full length PVC black jacket.
The next day we headed off to the Musee d'Orsay and were pleased to bypass the line and head straight in. After spending a few hours wandering around the former train station with its impressive and massive collection of European art, we met up with Andrew and headed to the Champ de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower to relax for a while and to picnic on the last jar of foie gras we had bought in Dordogne, washed down by a nice red from Bergerac. Lunch over, we walked to the massive Invalides building, final resting place and tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte and home to an excellent military museum. As Janice had gone back to the Marais, we headed over to meet her for a few drinks before heading to dinner at reputedly the best Steak Frites restaurant in Paris - while it was difficult to get to, it was very good.
After dinner, we got on the underground and ended up at the Arc de Triomphe so that I could take night shots of this
The Dead Center of Paris
Skulls in the catacombs of Paris famous monument. For some reason, there were busloads of EU soldiers and police parked on the side of the Champs Elysee so we had to wait for them to leave before I could cross halfway across the road and set-up my tripod in the tiny gap in the middle of the road. Standing there trying to take pictures with traffic whizzing by inches away was a bit of a scary experience, so I was pleased when I got the shot I wanted and could scarper to the safety of the footpath.
On our last day in Paris, we had a leisurely morning and lunch at a recommended French restaurant before meeting Andrew at the Catacombs of Paris. During the late 1700s, the cemeteries of Paris were overcrowded and contributing to disease, so a plan was devised to shut down all of the cemeteries within the city and relocate the dead to the network of tunnels and quarries that run underneath Paris. The first bodies were moved into the tunnels in August, 1788 and more followed over the following years. The catacombs today are an eerie place; first you walk down hundreds of steps until you reach a narrow tunnel
Notre Dame, Paris
Sunlight falls on Notre Dame Cathedral which you walk through for almost a kilometre until you reach the first piles of bones. While its not quite as macabre as the catacombs in Naples, where the skeletons hang from the walls and are fully clothed, it was still quite interesting to walk through a kilometre or so of tunnels seeing walls formed from piles of skulls, legs and arms, topped with collar bones and pelvises.
After a final drink at one of Paris' sidewalk cafes, we headed back to the Notre dame de Lorette area where we were staying, had dinner and returned to the hotel to repack our backpacks and prepare for our flight the next day to the final destination on our global adventure, Turkey.
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