Linz and around – 30 August 2010

After a leisurely breakfast we set off to cover the remaining few kilometres to Linz. A short detour off the direct route took us through Kefermarkt to see the carved altar screen in the church there. It appeared to compare very well with the one we saw at Rothenburg ob der Tauber, with one important advantage, this one was free to visit. The three saints in the centre are life-size and the intricate filigree carving above the screen reaches 13m high. While the name of the carver has been lost over the years, the details of his work are as sharp as ever.

Arriving at Linz we briefly visited the main square; but the weather wasn't conducive to lingering so had a look at the extremely well done “Story of Linz” at the tourist office which, although very impressively lit and displayed (including Hitler's triumph return to his home-town) was all in German and not conducive to lingering and reading either so we left and drove a short distance along the Danube to Wilhering.

Lingering was definitely in order at the church in the monastery here: It is Rococo gone wild. The walls and ceiling are covered in vibrant paintings, plaster and marble figures accented in gold and one could spend hours looking at all the details of the work here. Built in 1733 it rivals Wieskirche in Germany for extravagance of décor.

Back in Linz we crossed the Danube and drove up the hill to Postlingberg where the views are fabulous and where the steepest adhesion railway in the world terminates. Built in 1898 as a day-trip destination, the Postlingberg-Schlossl was owned by the railway developers and is now a classy restaurant where we felt compelled to sample the wares before heading back across the Danube to find the airport and reluctantly leave Austria.

Back to Austria – 29 August 2010

Leaving Cesky Krumlov we moved a little northeast to Cesky Budejovice as we thought we needed to fill in some time before our next intended stop although this proved to be a faulty assumption. Budjovicr translates as Budwies and the Budvar (Budweiser) brewery is nearby.

We had just walked into one of Europe's largest town squares when some of Europe's largest raindrops began to fall so we retired to a cafe for our morning coffee while the heavens opened. The downpour did not last long so we set off to explore the square and the rest of the town. However, it was only a temporary lull so we beat a hasty retreat to the car and headed south towards the sun and the Austrian border.

Just a little north of the Austrian border is the town of Vyssi Brod and the Rozmberk nad Vltavou Castle. The Rosenberg (Rozmberk) family were related to the family that owned Cesky Krumlov and at one stage when the male line died out, the same family owned both of these castles and estates.

The Buquoy family turned a number of rooms into a “museum” in the 1900s and the tour of this area is supplemented with a tour of the staterooms in another part of the castle and a climb to the top of the “English” tower.

It is most interesting that the locals copied the English styles while the English were busily emulating the French who were probably copying the Italians who .... What is it about the grass on the other side of the fence?

Having spent our last Czech krona it was time to slip back into the Euro zone and take a look at Freistadt, a little south of the border. Although founded in 1220, most of that which remains in today's charmingly compact historic Altstadt was built in the 14th and 15th centuries. We decided to stay here for the night and did the city walk through the old quarter, again dodging the rain showers.

With the walk completed and the sky clear and blue we had just enough time to retrace our inbound route back towards the boarder and Kershbaum where a small section of the horse-drawn railway remains in working order. We arrived just as they were about to finish for the day but in time to see them move the horse from one end of the coach to the other, there being no “front” or “back” and take the horse and carriage back to the museum.

This railway which originally ran 120km from Linz to Cesky Budejovice, was the first ever railway in Continental Europe. Now only fragments of the original tracks from1828 remain but the coach was been beautifully restored or maintained and the coachmen were wonderfully decked out in their period costumes.

Stelvio Tour, Day 4 - 28 July 2009

Today, the fun began: Matrei am Brenner is at the foot of the Brenner Pass thus our alpine passes day began immediately. We took the B182 to enjoy the drive, while alongside or above was the motorway with all the heavy trucks grinding slowly up the incline. Pass 1 was completed at 4495ft 1370m and we crossed into Italy, dropping down to Vipiteno and then on the S44 over the Passo do Monte Giovo (Pass 2: 6870ft, 2094m) and down to Merano.

From Merano we headed for Sponding where the Stelvio Pass begins. Fortunately Laurence in his TR5 and I had a fairly clear run without slow traffic in front and so enjoyed a wonderful romp up the hairpin switchbacks, a truly fantastic drive. (Pass 3: 9045ft, 2757m)

The Stelvio Pass is the second highest paved road in the European Alps and as you go over the top you skirt a corner Switzerland. The 60 hairpin bends on this pass make it one of the most challenging roads in the world.

Down the other side to Livigno before heading off over Passo di Foscagno (Pass 4: 7516ft, 2291m), Forcola di Livigno (Pass 5: 7595ft, 2315m) which took us into Switzerland; and finally over Passo del Bernina (Pass 6: 7801ft, 2378m) where we saw the Bernina Express coming down the mountain, the train we had ridden nearly 8 years ago.

And so we arrived at St Moritz, at the end of a fabulous day's driving and enjoyed a walk around the lake that we last walked on, in the middle of winter.

Yesterday the weather was wonderful but as we relived the day over dinner the thunder pealed and the heavens opened making us wonder what our alpine pass day was going to deliver. Being woken during the night with more thunder and heavy rain, we were quite apprehensive about our chances of seeing the Alps. However the scattered low clouds present when we awoke cleared quickly and we were privileged to see the Alps and drive the passes in glorious sunshine all day.

Stelvio Tour, Day 3 - 27 July 2009

As soon as the Hotel restaurant opened for breakfast we were there, ready to go, as we were on a mission this morning. We had been well advised that the way to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle was to be at the ticket office when it opened at 8 a.m. and secure a place on the first English speaking tour. So, we were duly there at the head of the queue when the ticket office opened its doors and were able to secure places on the 9:20 tour.

We climbed the hill to the Castle and enjoyed the sun and views until our tour was announced. The castle, the inspiration for Disneyland's castle and featured in a number of films is the busiest tourist attraction in Germany so it is well worth making the effort to beat the crowds. When we got back down to the village it was overrun with tourists and the car park was practically full. (There are 4 other parks, but this one was the closest to the ticket office.)

Although looking like a mediaeval fairy tale castle, it was built in the late 1800s by King Ludwig of Bavaria who, tragically, only spent 176 days living there before his untimely and suspicious death. The castle was never finished, the third floor remains unfinished to this day and the castle was opened to the public a mere 6 weeks after Ludwig's death.

It really is worth the hassle of procuring a ticket and climbing the track from the village (you can take horse-drawn transport if you are feeling particularly lethargic) as the interiors of the finished rooms are stunning.

Leaving the castle we climbed up further to Marienbrucke (Mary's Bridge) for a view of the other side of the castle with the valley beyond; we were terribly disappointed to find the entire side of the castle that was presented to us wrapped top to toe in scaffolding and plastic sheeting,

But the Alps were beckoning so we set off from Fussen across the border into Austria to Lermoos then back in to Germany through Garmisch-Partenkirchen and on to Wallgau. Wallgau is terribly attractive with the murals on the shops, hotels and restaurants that are built in the traditional Bavarian/Swiss/Austrian/alpine style.

After a bit of border hopping from Germany to Austria to Germany and back to Austria in a few short miles we were quite glad that EU travel rules were in place and all the border posts were abandoned and closed.

We drove down the side of Achensee were we found a coffee shop to take a break; looking out over the lake and the Alps beyond. On to Schwaz where we stopped for a wander around before taking the scenic route over the hill to Matrei am Brenner and our lovely hotel for the night.

Waltzing around Vienna - 7 September 2008

Although we set off to walk the 4 km ring road that surrounds central Vienna we made so many side trips and diversions that our final route was more like a drunken figure 8 than a ring.

Starting at the upstream end where the ring starts by the river we wandered past the Stock Exchange and the University until we got back to the museum quarter. Then we headed back through the Hofburg to find the Judenplatz and Rachel Whiteread's Holocaust memorial erected in 2000. The Austrians took nearly 50 years to admit their complicity in Hitler's atrocities and thus this memorial is one of the first in Austria. The inside-out library is both simple and striking.

From there we went to the downstream end of the ring and wandered back around to the museum quarter where we visited the Kunsthistorisches Museum to look at the largest collection of Brugel's in the world and one of only two sets of 16th C tapestry cartoons in the world; the other is in the V&A in London and, by way of complete contrast, one of 5 Canadian $1,000.000 coins made in 2007 from 100kg of 99.999% pure gold.

Vienna - 6 Sepember 2008

15C and rain in London? 30C and sun in Vienna? It was a tough choice but having woken to glorious sun in Vienna this morning, we decided to stay and explore the city.

Our hotel was just across the river from the centre of Vienna so we made our way to Stephansplatz to have a look at St Stephan's Cathedral with its attractive patterned roof. Along the Graben we checked out another local tourist attraction, the underground loos designed by Aldof Loos and the beautiful baroque Peterskirche with its wonderful frescoes. An unusual extra in this church are two glass-fronted shrines enclosing the bones of two martyrs brought from the catacombs of Rome in 1730, The bones are clothed in the style of the period with cut-outs in places so that the bones can be seen. All quite macabre really.

There was obviously lots about to happen in the gardens in the Hofburg as people we setting up for a country-comes-to-the-city festival of some sort but we wandered on through the museum quarter and down to the Naschmarkt that, unlike the festival area, was in full flow with thongs of people jostling past the stalls. Exiting the far end we checked the map and found we still had about 7 km to go to the Shloss Schonbrunn, that earlier information had indicated was only 20 minutes away - clearly not on foot.

Time for the U-bahn and, fortunately, the station we were near was on the direct line to Shloss Schonbrunn. When the palace was built it was far enough away from Vienna to be the summer palace, now it is a short ride on the U-bahn.

After carefully considering which ticket combination to purchase we settled on the Classic Pass which afforded us the extended palace tour, entrance to the Privy Garden, the Gloriette at the top of the hill, the Maze and the Apple strudel show. The strudel show was well worth it; watching the chef spin a smallish lump of dough out to an area that wasn't much short of a square metre and so thin you could read through it, was quite amazing.

The palace and formal gardens are quite stunning and wandering though the rows of trees, all meticulously manicured into vertical walls where they fronted a path, allowed us to stumble across all manner of extra delights that did not seem to be mentioned in the information we had been given.

Maire Antoinette was a famous daughter from this palace, Napolean's son was "confined to barracks" here for his short life to keep him out of the political arena, Mozart played here for the Empress when he was 6 and Kruschev and Kennedy first met here for a Summit in 1961, so it has seen a fair chunk of history.

On our way back to the hotel we enjoyed the tail-end of the afternoon with a cold drink and a sun-lounger on a "beach" of golden sand on the banks of the river.

Berchtesgaden and the Eagle's Nest - 9 June 2006

Friday was another great day, and we spent it over the border in Bavaria. We first visited 'Eagle's Nest', the mountain retreat built for Hitler's 50th birthday. The building and access road were constructed in an amazing 13 months. The buses can drive almost to the summit of the 1835m peak and after walking 120 metres along a granite-lined tunnel into the mountain, a stunning brass-lined lift takes you the final 124 metres.

The local mayor campaigned to save the retreat from demolition after the war and it is now a restaurant. The mountains are so close around you: it is aptly named, and well worth visiting.

Our visit to the local Berchtesgaden salt mine was an anticlimax after such a brilliant morning, but the town itself was a good way to end the day.

Hallstatt - 8 June 2006

Inspired by a beautiful scene on a calendar last year and the fantastic day which dawned on Thursday, we took a bus to Hallstatt: a UNESCO World Heritage site.



They have ensured this beautiful village on the lake edge will be preserved, even to the extent of putting a tunnel through the mountain behind the village to provide a traffic bypass. The lake, Hallstattsee, was like glass and the boat trip which circles the lower end of the lake was a good way to see the village.

The wealth of the village came from their salt mines, which can be toured. We choose to visit the German equivalent on Friday.

Unique to this village, and forced on them by a lack of space to expand the church-yard, was the practice of exhuming skeletons after a period and storing the bones in the charnel house. This in itself is not particularly unusual, the twist here is that the skulls were painted and named so your dearly departed was quite identifiable.

Hellbrunn and Untersburg - 6 & 7 June 2006

Tuesday was wet again, so we took a 2-day Salzburg Card. This is excellent value, especially for filling in a wet day, visiting museums. By mid afternoon we were at the impressive fortress, and the sun was actually shining while we were surveying the view from the roof. Just perfect for a few photos then, just after we were safely back in the fortress, the heavens opened once more.

Wednesday dawned with the possibility of the cloud lifting so we took a chairlift up the Untersberg, the 1800m mountain overlooking Salzburg. Unfortunately, the cloud did not lift sufficiently but we did get glimpses of Salzburg and the surrounds.

Back in the valley the day was pleasant, and we particularly enjoyed our tour of the gardens at Hellbrunn. The Palace was built by a Prince-Archbishop in 1613 as a summer holiday home. He obviously had a great sense of humour, as he installed trick fountains that are still working, and which were demonstrated by a guide. They were designed to drench his unsuspecting guests at an outdoor eating area and also in and around various grottos. As it was not permitted to stand in the presence of a seated archbishop, and, naturally, his seat (near end of the table) did not have a water jet. His poor guests were not so much ‘caught between the devil and the deep blue sea’, as caught between the archbishop and a thorough soaking.

A cruise on the river wrapped up the day, all courtesy of the Salzburg Card.