There are no Kangaroos in Austria

Thursday 16 June

Just a bit of rain to start the day which then cleared so we decided to make the most of it and bought a 2 day sightseeing pass which allowed unlimited bus travel and entry into most of the major attractions in Salzburg - "the City of Salt" - as it earned much of it's founding wealth from mining Salt. 

We had a great view over Salzburg from our camp, aptly named Camp Panorama, including the Fortress in the distance.

Sylvi wanted a bit of a challenging hill walk to start the day so we tackled the climb to the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which is normally accessed via the funicular that has been running since 1892. The Fortress was constructed in stages but the first in the 11^th century to house and protect the bishops of the time. 

A 30 minute self guided tour showed us the history of the building, the torture chamber, a climb to the highest point for a view of the city and a look at the barrel organ played at certain times of the day to alert the peasants below it was time to get back to work. We were then able to look at some Roman ruins found during excavations, the museum and the State rooms which, contrary to what we'd seen so far, had ornate wooden ceiling and wall decorations rather then plaster, ceramic and glass. 

 In the bishop's bedroom we discovered one of the first toilets of the time. There was no flushing system but it was better then using a bedside potty.

We came upon the cemetery (St Peter's) used in the filming of “The Sound of Music” by accident which Sylvi had already visited on a 1992 Trafalgar tour of Europe with her friend Joanne. Something she hadn't seen back then were the Catacombs which, apart from lots of stairs to climb to see not much, we could have done without.

A quick look at the Salzburg Cathedral revealed the highest barrel vaulted ceiling we've seen so far and of course much intricate detail in the decorations on every wall, ceiling, floor and furniture. Excavations revealed the first Cathedral built on this site dates back to 746.

We walked past the birthplace of Mozart, but a huge tour group was about to enter so we went on. The old city of Salzburg is bustling with tourists visiting the many shops (some quite expensive) and cafes mostly still set within historic buildings.

The gardens of the Mirabell Palace (1606) which feature in the song “Do-Re-Mi” in “The Sound of Music” are absolutely gorgeous and symbolise the four elements. These days the Palace serves as the seat of regional government and weddings are held in the Marble Hall.

We'd had enough by then so caught the bus back home where we were able to buy Mirabell Balls from the camp site shop. Mirabell Balls are slightly different to Mozart Balls in that they contain pistachio as well as marzipan and still covered in dark chocolate. Those salivating will have to wait for Christmas when Aldi stores stock them in Australia.

We are pleased to report that the local church chimes its last bells at 10pm until first bells at 7am the next morning. The local train is also very polite and doesn't blow it's horn at night.

Friday 17 June

A few sprinkles of rain to start the day but we headed off hoping the sun would make an appearance. Caught the bus to the Hellbrunn Palace, built in 1619 and used to entertain guests of Archbishop Markus Sittikus - no-one ever really stayed there.

Set up for entertainment, there were trick water fountains installed throughout the grounds, including a royal table in the gardens with a special feature. When the Archbishop decided it was time for his guests to leave he would signal his Master of Fountains to flick the switch sending a jet of water up into their pants. However no-one was allowed to leave until the Archbishop stood and declared the party over. His chair of course was the only one without the water jets installed. 

There were many unusual statues and fountains with comical motifs as well as ingenious mechanical inventions all powered by water. Everyone got a taste of the Archbishop's humour as jets would go off as you walked over certain areas. Lucky it had turned into a warm, sunny day.

We were then able to visit the interior of the Villa containing beautiful frescos by Italian designers and details of the many exotic animals kept by the Archbishop as a sign of power. The surrounding gardens were stunning and contained the famous gazebo featured in “The Sound of Music”.

Another bus ride took us to St Leonard at the base of the Untersberg Mountain where we took the 7 minute ride 1,200 metres up the cableway to the platform. You can do a 30 minute walk to the peak at 1850 meters but contrary to the guide book which claims this walk is flat, one look at the steep, rocky terrain put us off. We may have ventured on but the flimsy looking rope used as a guardrail really sealed our decision to refrain. 

Thankfully it was no-where near as cold as we thought it was going to be up there, and the clouds cleared every now and then to give us views down the valleys.

We really enjoyed today. It was good to see a place built for the enjoyment of many back then as today. Just to top off the day, a fantastic fireworks display from a fete down in the valley set off at 10pm - when it was dark enough to give them effect.

Saturday 18 June

A big 4 hour drive to Vienna this morning. We had emailed the Vienna Donaupark campsite a request for a site, hadn't heard back so went there anyway only to be told they were full. An hour later, once we had traversed a windy mountain to the next place (Vienna West, which they also own), we received an emailed response stating they were full. We're not sure if we got the raw end of the deal with Vienna West, but it's a pretty dodgy place. Not to worry, it's only for 3 nights and is relatively cheap (hot water is included).

After setting up we noticed 3 English speaking guys having a few drinks in front of their van, who had also been noticed by 2 pretty, young German girls just arrived on their bicycles. Could be some fun and games tonight!!!

And then the rains came and continued all night, very heavily, plus the Chinese water torture as we were under a tree.

Sunday 19 June

Slow, cold start to the morning as we waited for the weather to brighten before heading into Vienna city by train. We didn't really have a plan of what to see so did a recommended loop on foot. 

 St Charles Church looked huge from the outside and probably was inside too but you had to pay 15 euro for a visit so we gave it a miss. St Stephen's Church had a tower you could climb for a view of the city. We would have done that except you had to pay 15 euro for the privilege of visiting the entire church as well as the towers. You were able to walk around a part of the interior which quite frankly had a dark look and feel to it. That is apart from the tacky coloured plastic strips they'd placed in front of the highest windows, giving it a comical look. We didn't like this church at all.

St Peter's Church on the other hand was beautiful and light inside, covered with the usual grandeur and amazing embellishments, but it also had a spooky memorial to “Saint” Josemaria Escriva. This priest born in 1902, founded Opus Dei. The memorial was of a skeleton dressed in clerical robes, however the priest is actually buried in Rome.

We wandered through the museum district, not going in but just admiring the splendour of their exterior. And then decided to do what Sylvi was convinced no other tourist would surely want to do – visit the cemetery where all the great composers were buried. Well the tram was absolutely packed with those with the same intention. The Central Cemetery or Zentralfriedhof is enormous containing over 2.5 million graves, the largest cemetery in Europe (600 acres). Not only are the great composers here – Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms – but also many Austrians of note and anyone who can afford the large and very expensive looking headstones or family tombs.

Although we enjoyed our day, we were a bit confused about what we should actually be doing here in Vienna – visit museums or yet another castle, catch a musical performance (none available actually), go for a trip down the Danube.  But most things were tacky but expensive tourist traps.  Frankly, we just didn't have a great feel for Vienna, so decided to up stumps and move to Budapest to what will hopefully be a much nicer campsite and the chance to see some different sights not already experienced.

Monday 20 June

With the alarm set for a 7:30am wake up, Sylvi was up like a shot to do some washing before we left while Bill headed back into the city to an English language book store which was closing down, so had a really good sale for some travel guides and general reading books to be purchased before we head off.  It has been very difficult to find any English Language books or newspapers so far.

As the T-Shirt says, there are no Kangaroos in Austria, so we will go hunting them in Hungary!

More photos from Austria here.