Contents

  1. Preface
  2. San Francisco
  3. Amsterdam
  4. Amsterdam, Helmond
  5. Amsterdam, Zandvoort, Haarlem
  6. Amsterdam, Bruges
  7. Bruges, Brussels, Cologne, Berlin
  8. Berlin
  9. Berlin, Potsdam
  10. Berlin, Wansee
  11. Berlin, Prague
  12. Prague
  13. Prague, Karlstejn, Vienna
  14. Vienna
  15. Vienna, Salzburg, Füssen
  16. Füssen, Neuschwanstein, Munich
  17. Munich, Innsbruck
  18. Innsbruck
  19. Innsbruck, Zürich, Lauterbrunnen
  20. Lauterbrunnen, Jungfraujoch
  21. Lauterbrunnen, Schilthorn
  22. Lauterbrunnen, Spiez, Zermatt
  23. Zermatt
  24. Zermatt, Martigny, Chamonix
  25. Chamonix, Mont Blanc
  26. Chamonix, Mont Blanc, Courmayeur, Aosta, Turin
  27. Barcelona
  28. Barcelona, Sitges
  29. Barcelona
  30. Milan, Venice
  31. Venice
  32. Venice
  33. Venice, Milan, Cinque Terre
  34. Cinque Terre, La Spezia
  35. Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca, Florence
  36. Florence
  37. Florence
  38. Florence, Siena
  39. Siena, San Gimignano, Rome
  40. Rome
  41. Rome
  42. Rome, Sorrento
  43. Sorrento, Vesuvius, Pompeii
  44. Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, Ravello
  45. Sorrento, Capri, Naples
  46. Naples, Bari
  47. Patras, Athens, Mykonos
  48. Mykonos
  49. Mykonos
  50. Mykonos, Paros, Santorini
  51. Santorini
  52. Santorini, Athens
  53. Athens
  54. Athens, Amsterdam, San Francisco


Prev :: Thursday, 15 September 2005 :: Next

14. Vienna, Salzburg, Füssen

Photo Gallery

Early train to Salzburg this morning, arriving around noon (I had actually planned on even earlier, but after the long day yesterday, that wasn't happening). Salzburg is another place which was nearly removed from my schedule, but then some insidious Mozart fan talked me back into it. In this case (very much unlike Vienna), I actually felt that I could have given it a miss! But it was pleasant enough, though the weather was grey and hazy. I felt I had plenty of time there (though not enough for the Sound of Music tour, which struck me as a ghastly idea, but it is recommended even by the Rough Guide).

I started off badly by taking the bus in the wrong direction (so check before you get on). When I finally started back in the right direction, an interesting woman from Iran chatted with me. I think as far as I know I'd never met someone who I knew was from Iran! Interesting to talk about politics (I'm no fan of Bush, and she obviously isn't fond of the current gang of Iranian clerics). We were both staying only for a few hours (she for three, me for four), so we toured the sights together. We walked up the hill to the castle, and then down to the two houses where Mozart was born and lived. The birth house was undergoing considerable renovation and was mostly hidden behind scaffolding. After my friend left I had a nice lunch at the Resch and Lieblich, a restaurant which is actually carved out of the cliffs. Then I picked up a box of 18 Mozartkuegeln for €6. These are little chocolate spheres with marzipan inside and Mozart's face on the wrapper. The price varies wildly from shop to shop even for the same box. They're good, but not nearly as good as the chocolate I had eaten in Bruges.

At 16:53 I got back on the train bound for Munich, crossing back into Germany. At Munich I changed for another two-hour ride to Füssen, on a small bumpy train. It makes good progress in the first hour, getting you probably within 10 km of the town. But then for the next hour, it slows down dramatically and stops like twice a minute. Füssen is a very cute little Bavarian town in the Alps. I stayed one night at the Hotel Hechten, which felt like easily the best accommodation value I'd yet found (€49). It's a touristy town, but the vast majority of tourists seem to be German (and somehow when you're in a foreign country, domestic tourists seem so much less objectionable than others). Things were mostly closed down by this time of evening, so I sampled my first doner kebab. This is an odd cheap thing where they slice bits of meat off of a spinning cone and put it into a pita. It's all over Europe, but nowhere in the US. This was the first night I tried it although I had seen it all over the place. It's actually pretty good.

I used to love to watch the show Benson when I was little. Of course, this may lead one to form an opinion as to what Bavarian women are like! I must say there's something to it — there's something marvelously severe about them (yet also warm and friendly, perhaps unlike the sitcom character, at least on the surface). I rather think they tend to run the show in Bavaria, while the men sit around big tables with big pints of beer and loud conversation! But then, I was only here for two days, so it's difficult to judge.

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