On the road with Jim and Pat: Hello again from St. Johann im Pongau, Austria

Hello again from St. Johann im Pongau, Austria

Friday evening August 29, 2008 (eighth travelogue of this trip)

We last left off on Sunday 8/24. After our great breakfast with Irina and Matthias, they took us to the train station for a noon departure. That was a sad departure. Our bond over the past 27 years has grown very strong and leaving is not easy.

We had reservations on trains to Munich and Salzburg, but the train to St. Johann did not have reservations. It turns out the the train to Munich arrived about a half hour late and we missed our connection. That is not a problem with Eurail passes, we just jumped on the next train. As we have noted, our Eurail passes are good for first class, so there are almost always several seats available. We arrived in St Johann at 8:00 PM

Monday we took it a bit easy. We were going to take the train to Salzburg (a bit over an hour), but Jim forgot his Eurail pass, so we decided to go to a great local attraction: Liechtensteinklam. This is a 5-10 minute taxi ride to the entrance for a wonderful canyon tour. There is a trail along the very narrow, steep canyon. It takes about an hour to walk the trail and the sights are fantastic. The river runs very fast through the canyon and has carved some beautiful shapes into the walls. The trail ends at a huge falls that is quite spectacular.

Tuesday was our long day. We left St. Johann at 6:30 on the train with Fussen being our target destination. That required transfers in Salzburg and Munich. In Fussen we took a taxi up to the entry to Neuschwannstein Castle (http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/palace/index.htm). We took a horse drawn carriage from the ticket building to the castle (a long, steep road). This is a very picturesque castle and was the castle Walt Disney patterned the entrances to his theme parks after. It was started in about 1876 by King Ludwig II. He died at the age of 40 and it was never finished. We had been there before and felt that this tour was a bit rushed and the group was too large. Never-the-less, it is an impressive structure. I have included a picture from their website, as it is impossible to capture the total structure with “amateur” equipment.

Wednesday we took the train to Salzburg and toured what is called old town. The buildings date back the 1400s. We got to see Mozart's first house. The area is primarily an upscale shopping area now. We did not go to the impressive castle that overlooks the city, but we did tour a couple of great cathedrals.

Thursday, we took the train to Munich and toured the old town as well. That is a fairly easy walk from the main train station. There is a long (perhaps a mile long), wide (about 50 yards wide) plaza that has beautiful old buildings on either side of the cobble stone street (no motor traffic). As was the case with Salzburg, the lower level o f the buildings are now upscale shops. As is often the case, there were several magnificent cathedrals. Probably the most impressive was St. Michael's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Michael's_Church,_Munich ). It was heavily damaged during the war, but has been reconstructed to it's original opulent splendor.

One of our goals was to have lunch in the Hofbrauhaus (http://www.hofbraeuhaus.de/en/index_en.html). We are not sure if this huge restaurant reflects typical Bavarian dining, but it sure fits with our image. The heritage of the restaurant dates back to the 1500's. There is seating for 1300 guests, many on wood benches and tables dating back to the 1700.s. They brew their own beer and serve copious amounts! One of the interesting things at the restaurant is that they have an area where they can lock up over 400 special (some very valuable) beer steins for their regular customers.

We also found the Glockenspiel in the plaza (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathaus-Glockenspiel). This is a famous attraction that is housed in the Rathaus on Marienplatz, a very picturesque building (see photo).

Today we are trying to let our tired feet and legs have a rest.

Now for some more general observations.

The Europeans love open air eating this time of year. Everywhere you go, there are sidewalk cafes. We always try to eat in these cafes, as the food is generally good, relatively inexpensive and the people watching is great.

Most of the towns we have been in have cobble stone streets and walks. The laying of the stone involves great geometric designs. However, it is sure hard on the feet and legs.

We have found that most of the tours and museums we have visited charge what we consider to be reasonable fees.

On the trains, we have found that many people want to practice their English on us. For the most part, that has been fun. We met one great little 13 year old boy that stole our hearts. His English was great and he had such a neat personality!

This is “holiday” (vacation) time for many Europeans. It has been crowded in many locations. As a bit of background, most folks in Europe start off with at least 4 weeks vacation (many with 6). They really enjoy there “holidays”.

In the past, we have observed that the continental Europe train system is extremely punctual. There are clocks on every track and when the second hand hits the proper minute, the train leaves. However, on this trip, many of the trains are not on schedule. As I noted, the train to Munich was over ½ hour late. In the USA that would be normal, but it is not consistent with our image of the trains in Europe. It has happened often enough that it can't be considered an anomaly.

Many of the houses in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland are what are they call “timber wood” houses. These houses have the large structural beams exposed and the spaces are filled in with white stucco type material. Most have gorgeous flower boxes. We had thought that they were typical of Switzerland, but Irina pointed out that they consider them to be of German origin.

I guess that about catches us up for now. Tomorrow 8/30 we head to Vienna for a bit over a day and then on to our last stop (Rome via an overnight train).