DAY 6, November 22, 2017
The Salzkammergut area (Lake District),
with a total of 76 lakes, is one of the most impressive regions in
the heart of Austria. We consulted weather at the site yr.no which
has live webcams. It predicted a clear sunny day for St Gilgen and
beyond. We were interested in taking the bus no 150 to St Gilgen
and then onward to Strobl and Bad Ischl. In summer boats ply between
St Gilgen and St Wolfgang but the service had stopped at the time of
our visit. It was resuming by the next week. Only way to
reach Wolfgang was to go up to Strobl and then take bus 580 back.
The least expensive way to buy Salzburg
bus tickets is from one of the kiosks or ticket outlets. Next
cheapest is from a machine at the stops. Most expensive is the
driver.
We wanted to buy the day ticket for the
region at the bus station. St Gilgen is region 4, Strobl is zone 6,
Bad Ischl is zone 8. We also had the bus time table for the day. We
went to the bus stop adjacent to the hbf where we had bought the day
ticket the previous day. But the machine was not working. Don't know
if we could have bought it online, anyway we did not have a data
plan. We had no option other than to buy the ticket from the bus
driver point to point... it'll mean a little more expense and effort
We wanted to take the 8.15 bus, but
with the ticket situation missed it. There was one at 8.45. it's
under an hour trip to Gilgen.
We got on the bus, paid the driver and
sat in the front seat. It was glorious weather and we had a scenic
ride. A major stop was at Fuschl am see. Then the bus drove on but a
thick fog started swirling on the road. We thought it may disappear
but when we arrived at St Gilgen it was still bad. We got down at the
main bus stop. In the previous hollwegger stop, we had seen an
Info point.
A chinese couple had come with us from
Salzburg, they went away in the direction of the lake. The cable car
was just near the bus stop, it was closed. We walked to the Info
point. Saw their live webcam and confirmed we'll be better off at
Fuschl am see. The next bus in the opposite direction came in 5
minutes; we got in, bought tickets and got down at the stop in a few
minutes.
What a glorious weather! Such a change
from Gilgen. We did not know how to head to the lake. We went inside
the church and a lady there guided us with precise instructions, with
our basic German and her slightly better English.
We walked straight, turned right at the
shop and then could see the lake soon.
This is a pile of fresh snow
Sat at the promenade, then walked along the lake for a while. There is a trail but it's 31/2 hours.
We saw lovely chalets and hotels, an alpaca farm. Then also a cow farm.
We sat at the promenade and had our picnic lunch.
Then we went to the info center, the live webcam still showed St Gilgen shrouded in fog.
Horse carriage ride...
A serene cemetery
We were very grateful we had had glorious weather at Fuschl am see, we caught the bus back to Salzburg.
The country side was covered with fresh snow and it had been totally worth while.
Back in Salzburg we walked around the old town.
OLD TOWN WALK:
Mirabel Palace:
We went to Mirabel palace and saw the Angel staircase and the marble ballroom. In fact it was pretty confusing and we wandered into the public offices too.
The main palace itself was
built in 1606 by Archbishop Wolf Dietrich Raitenau for his
mistress Salome Alt whom he had 12 children with.
Originally called Altenau Palace in her honor, it was
outside of the original city walls at the time and was considered a
country escape for the not-so-secret couple. The Archbishop was
expelled in 1612 and the next one tried to erase his memory by
renaming the palace Mirabell after its beautiful views of
Old Town.
Mozart used to have
concerts in the Marble Ball Room as a child; the room
is now used for weddings.
During Salzburg’s
short stint as part of Bavaria, Prince Otto was born in Mirabell
Palace in 1815 and later went on to be the King of Greece.
We came
down to the garden and could recognize the steps, statues, the
Pegasus fountain that had featured in the SOM movie.
The Palace has been owned
by the city since 1866 and they use it for offices including the
Mayor of Salzburg.
To the south of Schloss
Mirabell stretches the Mirabellgarten, an excellent example of
Baroque landscape design laid out in 1690 with numerous terraces,
marble statues, and fountains.
The Mirabell Palace
Gardens, laid out in 1730, offer some of the best views of Old
Town Salzburg. Filled with flowers and fountains, the
grounds are laced with scenes from the movie The Sound of
Music – especially from the song ‘Do Re Me’.
The Northwest corner of the grounds has the Pegasus Statue Fountain. In the movie The Sound of Music, the Von Trapp children danced around this Horse Fountain (added in 1913) while singing and used the nearby terrace steps as a musical scale
Kids were jumping on the steps imitating the song and it was surprising to see how a 50 yr old movie still resonates!
The large pairs of statutes at the Southern entrance which are leaping toward each other with triumphant fists in the air feature in the movie too
We wanted to cross the
Mozart bridge onto Mozart platz. But we got on to another bridge by
mistake and got to the Rathaus stop.
Walked on to Domplatz and
Kapitel platz. Trivia: Confectioner Paul Furst created the world
famous Mozart Chocolate Balls known as Mozartkugel in
1890.
Stift (Abbey) Nonnberg:
I was keen on seeing the
Stift (Abbey) Nonnberg. We did not want to walk up the steep stairs
from the town center, wanted to walk down from the fortress. We had
to pay the full price for the funicular and entry to the fortress
also.
Panorama terrace, Festung Hohensalzburg:
We went up, took the right turn at the fortress from the
panorama terrace. The previous evening we had wondered that the
cloudy weather had impacted our views. In today's sun and clear blue
skies, the view was somehow less magical than the previous day. The
sun was shining bright behind a lovely mountain and the glacier and
snow were hardly visible.
We walked down the steep
path to where walkers pay up for the entry to the fortress.
Some good aids to avoid skidding down...I had had a bad fall in June and was grateful for these wood steps and the handrails later.
It was GREAT because we were using the medieval path and could really feel what it was like in olden days
There are signs for Stift (Abbey) Nonnberg, we followed them and reached the Abbey.
Some good aids to avoid skidding down...I had had a bad fall in June and was grateful for these wood steps and the handrails later.
There are signs for Stift (Abbey) Nonnberg, we followed them and reached the Abbey.
Very lovely views from
there and the church and yard are so serene and peaceful.
We had google directions
to go down, but lost our way a bit and went to the other end of the
town. We entered a shop and asked for directions. Thankfully for me,
it was all flat , no climbing up for our way back to center.
We reached Kapitelplatz, chess pieces were chained up for the day.
Pferdeschwemme (Horse Well)
We went onward to Pferdeschwemme (Horse
Well), The Horse Bath: Hugging the side of Mönchsberg Hill
is Salzburg’s largest Medieval horse bath.
In the Middle Ages this was like
a car wash for horses. With the Royal Stables being built
nearby, the Archbishop added the fountain with its horse
mural facade fountain in 1693. In the Sound of Music this was
where Maria and the kids danced around while singing ‘My
Favorite Things’. There are actually two of horse baths in
old town Salzburg, a smaller one called Kapitelschwemme with a
beautiful fountain and the larger one located here.
We roamed around enjoying the sights
This is the Advent calendar
We were moving onward to Vienna the next day, no pre purchased ticket. We were going to use Westbahn which gives reasonable priced tickets and plies every hour to Vienna.
Report
of Vienna starts here:
No comments:
Post a Comment