Austria Episode II: The Phantom Tourist

Meridth and I flew out of W.A. Mozart Airport in Salzburg last night at 11pm and landed in London Stansted this morning, ending the neatest, craziest holiday I've ever been on. We left on Tuesday morning and so we only had four days to see and do as much as humanly possible in Salzburg and the southern Salzach Valley (the places I spent 11 months in back in 2000-2001). We bought this wide ranging pass (the Salzburg Card) that gave us access to just about every museum and tourist-y attraction in the city. There is a time limit however (48 hours) so you really have to move fast if you want to get your money's worth. Some highlights of the trip include Hellbrunn, the summer residence of one of the more eccentric Prince-Archbishops. (The Prince-Archbishops were both the spiritual and the secular rulers of the Salzburg region until Napoleon conquered it in 1813 or so.) This guy loved pulling pranks on his guests so he set up a park full of trick fountains that would spray his chums when they least expected it. The stag above my head sprayed water out of his tongue and horns and stuff. Plus he had clockwork robots that moved via water power. The stuff was fairly complex, mechanically and it was all created in the 17th and 18th centuries (i.e. some 400 years ago) so that was really keen. We also saw the Liechtensteinklamm, a really beautiful gorge in St. Johann im Pongau, about an hour to the south of Salzburg. The gorge is super-narrow and the water that rushes through it is fast, cold and creepy, especially since the only way you can navigate the gorge is via small wooden walkways and through caves cut through the stone. I kept thinking as we were walking that Mom may have had a hard time with these bridges and heights, but that if she ever made her way to Austria again, I would force her to do it, even if she had to walkk through with her eyes closed. It is so worth it. Meridth went crazy over the place and we took dozens of pics during the hike. For the geographically curious among you who realize that Liechtenstein is the name of a tiny principality between Austria and Switzerland, the gorge is in fact named after that country because the prince some 120 years ago made a great big donation toward the construction of those walkways and tunnels. Before then it was called "Death Gorge of Painful Doom" or something equally unpleasent. We also visited the Festung, a majestic castle above Salzburg. It was build to defend the region from people interested in exploiting the wealth of the salt industry for their own ends. It also protected the aforementioned Prince-Archbishops from their own peasents during various uprisings. Aside from being VERY picture-esque atop the Monchsberg (Monk's Hill or Mountain) it was a fantastic defensive location. The last thing I wanted to do after marching up to the gates was deck myself out in some heavy armor and swing a 20 pound sword around. (>huff puff<) Construction on the castle continued in spurts depending on the paranoia of the rulers until the mid-19th century. For a long time it was a barracks and about a hundred years ago, they decided to open it up to the public and tourists (including Mom and Dad back in 2002) have been tromping through it ever since. This picture features Meridth freaking out (relatively) over the cool interior of said castle. Meridth had such a great time on the trip looking at art and stuff. She came away with at least three new favorite artists (modern sculpter Stephan Balkenhol, 19th century history painter Hans Makart and art-deco inspired Church artist Ewald Mataré) none of whom had anything to do with the door she's standing in front of in the picture. Like I said before, it was a veritable whirlwind of activities (six art museums in two days) and sadly we ran out of memory cards before running out of art to look at. And this picture is Meridth with a yak.

We had a fantastic time and might post some more pictures later, but we need to pick up some groceries today before everything closes at 7pm. Oh yeah, and the picture at the top is at the peak of Untersberg. We didn't have time to climb it, but there was a cable-car. They like to put restaurants and hotels on the top of mountains in Austria and Germany. It's a little weird, but since I climbed the mountain twice already, I didn't feel bad cheating.

Love you guys!

-Rusty