Day 48 The challenge of independent travel

With the aid of the Lonely Planet and the Internet we booked most of our accommodation and did most of the planning for this trip ourselves. This suited us as we enjoy doing things our way. Mostly these plans have worked out well but some days have been a challenge.

This day was always going to be complicated for a number of reasons. Firstly we had about 850 kms to travel from Salzburg in Austria to Lake Como in Italy. The plan was to travel through 5 countries, by taxi, two trains and a ferry and arrive late afternoon in Como. Things started well as we left our hostel at 5.45am and caught the train at 6.22am. A comfortable train took us from Austria to Germany, back to Austria and on to Switzerland. By the time we reached Zurich the train was about 40 minutes late. That meant we missed our connecting train to Como. After a 45-minute wait in Zurich we caught a local slower train across Switzerland. We left that train at about 4pm only to discover the connecting train (that we were told about by the Zurich information office) only ran on Monday to Friday. After another hour delay we finally boarded a train for the Italian border. Surprisingly for the first time on our trip crossing a national border by train was eventful. At the border, police, customs and various other uniformed officials with sniffer dogs visited the train. Finally after another long delay and lots of shouting we crossed the border and minutes later arrived in Como, Italy.

Meanwhile another problem was brewing. Our accommodation at Como was in an apartment owned by an American, which we booked on the net. We were meant to be in contact with a greeter who would let us in but as we tried repeatedly to call her the number did not respond. Finally after a long walk from the station in Como we found the ferry wharf only to discover that we had missed the last ferry. It was now 7.25pm, which allowed us just enough time to buy some groceries from a shop across the road, which closed at 7.30pm. We then walked down the road to the bus station and found out we could catch a bus about 7.50pm to Curate Urio. We pleaded with the driver to tell us when to get off and he explained, with the help of a very nice Canadian girl on the bus who spoke Italian, that the bus was taking ‘the panoramic road’ (a problem…as the apartment was on the lake).
After a short trip we got off the bus on top of a very large hill and looked down to the lake. At this point it was now about 8.30pm and we still had a few problems

1. We did not have an address (Richard could not seem to find this in the correspondence)

2. We still had not contacted the greeter.

3. We were on top of a huge hill looking down to the lake (not even knowing if there was a road down there)

4. We knew the name of the place but that did not seem to help at all.

We found some stairs going down and choosing the ones to the right we began our descent. About a third of the way down we opened our laptop on a rock ledge (would have been a great photo but by now we were in no form to take pictures) and Richard realised that he had been dialling the wrong number for the greeter. We finally made contact with Silvana who told us the address and that the keys were under the mat. We climbed down the steps and found the road and number 31 of the street. Our villa was at number 129. After another 30 minutes or so we finally arrive at Vista Lago at 9.30pm.

As Wendy unpacked Richard went next door to see if the local ristorante did take away pizza. Without any common language Richard thought he ordered a take away pizza but after 45 minutes he began to worry.

Finally about 10.30pm Richard arrived back to Wendy who feared he had been kidnapped by the Italian mob.

What a day but in spite of a few very real mishaps we made it to a cosy studio apartment right beside the beautiful lake Como and enjoyed the best Pizza we have ever had.

Day 47 A tragic tour that ended in the snow

Though we are not normally fans of ‘the bus tour’ we temporarily broke our rules and joined our guide Gunter on Salzburg’s famous Sound of Music tour. This really was a tour for Sound of Music tragics. We visited the gazebo where the Captain declared his love for Maria, we looked across the lake to the house where most of the exterior scenes were shot, we drove past the ancient abbey where Maria almost became a nun and we even peered up into the hills to see the patch of green grass where Julie Anthony spun around singing the opening song. In between each stop we climbed back onto our coach were Gunter filled us with trivia about the movie as well as other bits of assorted trivia. For example did you know that Dubai has the cheapest petrol in the world? In between stops, which included a toboggan ride, and more trivia, Gunter marched up and down the bus insisting, that we join him in singing along with the musical’s soundtrack distorting through the bus’s very bad CD player. Many of us obeyed our Captain Gunter out of terror. However a small number of our group, mostly young women, sang every song with the enthusiasm and dedication of a 48-year-old male Monty Python tragic singing the Lumberjack Song.

We finished the tour around 2pm and independently picked up a local bus, which took us the 30 minutes to a cable car, which climbed one of Salzburg’s surrounding mountains. This cable car travelled for a distance of 3kms and climbed to a height of over 1800 metres above sea level. From there we continued to climb on foot for about 45 minutes through numerous patches of snow to a further summit which had a spectacular 360-degree view of the surrounding mountains and valleys far below.

Singing ‘Do Re Mi’ on a bus with Gunter was unusual. Trudging through snow on top of a mountain, in shorts and sandals, in 30-degree heat, was surreal.

We climbed every mountain – tomorrow we will forge every stream and follow every rainbow as we continue to follow our dream.
Ohhhh – how tragic can you get!

Day 46 That's not smog

One of the real surprises of this trip has been that there has been so many surprises. We had read and heard and noted so much about the places we were planning to visit but still we have experienced so many surprises. On arriving in Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart we were ready for an assault to our musical senses. What we did not anticipate as that this beautiful city would be blanked in a quite dense smog and that the temperature would hit 35 degrees. Infact we later heard that the city experienced the warmest May temperature ever on record. The smog made it hard to appreciate the beauty of a city with a torrent flowing downs the an icy river , fuelded by the snow melting from the snow on the mountains around.

After a tour around town we discovered a few more amazing things about Salzurg. Firstly we discovered that this city was made wealthy in the 16th century by its trade with Venice ( on the other side of the alps). Secondly we learnt of the learnt that wealth was also built on a determination to seek peace in a world that was besotted with war –especially war over religion. Thirdly we visited a magnificent 16 the century cathedral dedicated to a God who delights in music, art, peace and light. ( It is the first time we have ever seen a church with 5 pipe organs).

Finally our largest surprise of the day was that the smog was not smog at all. As it began to clear later in the day we discovered from a local that in fact the air was thick with the sands of Tunisia. It seems that occasionally in spring a wind storm will send Sahara sands all the way to Salzburg in Austria.

So in a land where the national sport is Skying and rain is commonplace we experienced a heat wave and an African sands storm. Globilsation in a new form!

Day 45 A day at the beach Austrian style

As the temperature soared to 30 degrees we witnessed what happens when a city has a heatwave, but no coastline. In the centre of Vienna there was a large barge on the Danube Canal with an in ground (in barge) swimming pool attached. People sat either around the pool or on the sun deck of the barge. Behind this barge there was an area on the riverbank where the locals had imported some sand. So essentially on deckchairs, in a sandpit, next to a canal, with a poster of a beach behind them, the Viennese enjoyed a day at the beach.

We decided that we were in desperate need of a swim but decided to venture further a field than Vienna’s beach district. After a short 25 minute train ride we arrived at the town of Baden, famous for its thermal hot springs and ‘beach’. The beach was slightly better than the one in Vienna but not much. Here the locals enjoyed what they call a water park and beach. It was essentially an overcrowded complex of public swimming pools surrounded again by a sandpit with deck chairs. We decided it was not really our scene.

Up the road we visited a much more dignified thermal spring. This was a huge indoor and outdoor complex with a series of three pools. The first was refreshingly cool, the second was wonderfully warm and the third, which came with a strong smell of sulphur, was decidedly hot. We paid for a two-hour visit and wondered why anyone would stay that long. After 1 and three quarter hours we wondered why we had not booked in for the whole day. The refreshing power of this thermal spring made our weary walking muscles feel relaxed and at the same time reinvigorated. An added bonus was that the average age of other patrons at this thermal paradise made us feel decidedly young, which was quite a change from feeling like ‘mum and dad’ in the backpacker/hostel scene.

In short, it was the sort of day where we felt that we really emersed ourselves in the life of a quaint and very pleasant Austrian resort town.

Day 44 Thanks Macchap

Before leaving home, Richard’s employer Macquarie Chapel (known affectionately as Macchap) gave us a generous cash gift so that we could afford to do ‘that something’ that the budget did not allow. That ‘something’ arrived on Day 43. Through the kindness of Macchap we were able to participate in something that we have never done before. It was a real treat! We have never previously enjoyed this form of art, though at various times we have both wondered what it would be like. So after a little bit of wardrobe creativity ( we really did not bring clothes for such an occasion) it was off to the Vienna Opera House to see our first ever opera – Falstaff by Verdi.

The opera was a bright and colourful comedy and with the help of the little digital subtitle screens in front of our seats we enjoyed this event far more than we imagined. Firstly it is difficult to describe this huge, ornate wedding-cake styled opera house and the effect it had upon all of our senses as we sat in the audience, even before a note was played . The members of the audience were elegant and yet there was a diversity of age, backgrounds and dress standards and luckily Richard was not the only patron in jeans. The orchestra was, of course, magnificent. The set was huge and wonderfully creative. The singing was powerful and impressive. And Verdi’s ‘silly’ story was quite humorous (of course Richard laughed louder than most) yet at other times it was very moving as some of life’s big issues such as honour, virtue and the folly of being a man were considered with style, humour, colour and music.

We had read that opera was the prince of the arts and tonight we were indeed royally blessed. Thanks Macchap.

Day 43 No Kangaroos in Austria

Leaving Prague we followed the sort of path between cities that we are getting rather good at. After an early morning breakfast it was time to put the packs on again. We began with a short walk up the road to the Metro where we caught the Line 2 underground from IP Pavlova Station, through 5 stops to the second of Prague’s major train stations. We then caught the train from Prague to Vienna a trip of 418 kms, which took about 4 hours. Then at Vienna we again quickly acquainted ourselves with another cities public transport system and we caught a number 18 tram about 6 stops from the South Vienna train station to the West Vienna train station. Then we had a short walk of about a one kilometre to our hostel and home for the next three nights – Wombat Vienna. We are getting so efficient that we arrived before our room was ready so we placed our bags in storage and enjoyed our pre-prepared devon and cheese rolls.

The rest of the day we spend wandering around and getting acquainted with another wonderful European city – Vienna. Vienna is a bit of a European ‘new kid on the block’ with most of the wonderful and beautiful buildings dating back only to the late 18th and early 19th century. The city was also gearing up for a relatively new phenomenon, football. We found that most of the public parks and spaces were closed as Austria prepares to host the EUFA Cup in the month of June.

Though we are not usually drawn to kitsch post cards later in the day we saw one we could not resist - No Kangaroos in Austria.

Day 42 Quite a city and good sausage too

Our third day in Prague saw the sun shine again and the temperature hit the high twenties. After a short tram ride from our hostel we arrived early at the huge and magnificent Prague Castle. Prague has surprised us for many reasons but mostly because of its rich history and abundance of incredibly beautiful buildings. Prague’s most famous ancestor and one who died a martyr’s death defending the peaceful Christian faith of his grandmother we discovered was King Wenceslas ( Good King Wenceslas). We toured the castle and then at midday sat and listened to one of the largest church bells in Europe as it rang out across the city for 15 minutes. From our vantage point in the courtyard we could even see the bell ringers at work, high up in the bell tower.

After a quick stroll around the completely ‘over the top’ palace Cathedral ( where the merging of church and state religion seemed to have descended to a new depth) we found stairs that led to the bell tower. 287 steps later we lifted our heads above the cathedral, above the castle and looked down upon the river and the city of Prague. Again from such a height we were amazed at the size and diversity of layer upon layer of architectural masterpieces.

Sometimes a traveller’s stomach can demand more attention than the opportunity to explore a city’s history. After leaving the castle we found a little take away café that too looked down on the city. After a couple of very unhealthy but really delicious frankfurts (sausages) we found renewed energy to complete our journey around Prague.

Quite a city and great sausages too!