After leaving Salzburg, we went to Berchtesgaden, Hallstatt, Mondsee, Enns, Krems, Vienna, Graz, then into Slovenia. We’re in Croatia now, so I am clearly pretty far behind on my blogging. In my own defense though, up until Slovenia, my husband approached this vacation like a season from the Amazing Race so there was little non-driving, non-hiking, non-sleeping, or getting-a-bite-to-eat-and-keep-walking time. A tactical shift occurred Slovenia, but that is for another post.
So, I mentioned in my previous blog that Berchtesgaden was the guy I didn’t want to date. Well, I’ve thought a little more about it and decided that this characterization is probably uncharitable. In fact, Berchtesgaden is probably a place where paying for a Sound of Music tour would come in handy.
See, the Sound of Music driver would probably know that the recommended route up the mountain was closed a third of the way up due to construction (a sign at the bottom of the mountain would have been really helpful). He would also know that trying a secondary road off the first would be too narrow for a donkey, much less two way traffic and eventually end at the closed section of the main road where turning around would present a few challenges. He may even know that at this point all people in the car (I mean, bus), especially the driver, would declare they were done (that’s a polite way of putting it) and determine that going immediately into Hallstatt was in order.
After descending the mountain, and joining the main road south, all people in the car would then fly abruptly to the left when the driver decided to reverse a 120 second old decision and turn right onto a different road labeled “Berchtesgaden”. See, the clincher isn’t that the Eagle’s Nest is at the top because I (the driver) have very little patience for Hitler. The problem with passing by Berchtesgaden in a huff is that the beginning scene of Maria twisting around was filmed here as was the ending scene when the family escaped over the mountain. It seems strange that the family would escape in the direction of Hitler’s house, but that is why you don’t hand people maps when they enter a theater…..that and they wouldn’t shut off their flashlight iPhone app to watch the movie (I’m speaking of myself here) .
Anyway, we drove up the mountain, paid for the privilege of parking on gravel (it was only a Euro or two, but I wasn’t in a paying kind of mood), then looked around to find Maria and the family. We didn’t ask anyone (we weren’t in an asking kind of mood either), but all we saw were pine trees and clearings on distant hills that could have been the opening scene, but again, this is why you’d pay for a Sound of Music Tour.
The tour bus might also take you up to the Eagle’s Nest (20 minutes further up the mountain than they allow cars) which would save a family of four about 60 Euro for the shuttle.
We opted to get lunch at the restaurant, take a little hike, then head toward Hallstatt.
You may think that I regret not going up to the Eagle’s Nest, and I do, but sitting on a shuttle bus for a total of 40 minutes while my daughter says her head hurts (code for “I’m car sick”) and my son won’t stop commenting loudly on the Nazis and Hitler is not something for which I’d pay 60 Euro.
Hallstatt:
We brought our bad attitudes with us to Hallstatt, but they didn’t stay long. It was raining, 3pm, we were hungry, and we didn’t have a place to stay yet, but we were tickled pink to be there. See, I have a theory that it’s impossible to be unhappy in Hallstatt. In fact, I think a man could serve his pregnant wife with divorce papers there and it would go swimmingly.
Hallstatt is pressed between cliffs and a beautiful turquoise lake. It used to be accessible only by boat, but they blasted a tunnel a few decades back allowing car traffic through. According to my husband (though his source is surely Rick Steves), it used to be said that one could only die in Hallstatt from drowning or falling rock. I imagine they also died in the Salt mine (the word “salt” is the source of the town’s name) 4/5ths of the way up the cliff….or by wandering out of the mouth of the cave before their eyes fully adjusted.
There are swans on the lake and plenty of boats. Some of the centuries old houses are perched on the side of the lower cliff with covered bridges/sidewalks connecting front doors, and you sometimes see sleeping cats in the low rafters. We’ve seen a few places where you had the sense you were walking through a post card, and this is definitely one of those places. In fact, according to the locals, the Chinese sent an architect to Hallstatt to get the exact dimensions of every building and natural wonder so they could duplicate it in China. I Googled “Hallstatt China” and some pictures came up but I didn’t research further than this. The streets looked very similar to the Austrian version, but there is no way you can duplicate the landscape without a cliff isolating the city, poised to push it into a lake.
My pictures are not very good because of the rain and because I could never get the proper perspective (being squished between the cliff and the lake and all), but if you go to the book store or on Amazon, find the DK Eyewitness Guide to Austria. Hallstatt is pictured on the cover.
Mondsee:
If you missed the yellow Sound of Music tour buses since leaving Berchtesgaden, you’ll see them again in Mondsee since this is the location of the real and movie Von Trapp wedding. I expected to see the attached abbey gates and maybe I expected to see Mother Superior on the other side as well, but it’s just a church. In fact, it’s a cathedral with the skeleton of a long-dead saint behind glass over the altar, but I didn’t see abbey gates or anyone wearing a habit. What we did see was the picture of a woman in the front on the nave whose funeral mass was about to start. She looked to be only 55 years old, and she was wearing a dirndl (the traditional dresses you associate with the Alps).
Outside, I forced everyone to stand around for a while because I wanted to see how many people would attend, what they would wear and how they would greet each other. Since there is no visible parking near the church, it seemed like people emerged from every road in every direction that led to the square in front of the church. Because they were wearing mostly black, you saw them distinctly from the tourist crowds before they approached the square. Many of the men wore the short-collared wool coats you associate with this region, fewer women wore the Dirndls, but most carried a single rose with a wine-colored wide satin ribbon around the stem. We didn’t wait to see what they would do with these flowers, since my family has less patience for people watching than I do, and the boy declared it a “downer”.
In case you’re curious, there was little display of overt emotion. One woman turned away to wipe tears off her face, then turned around again to be seen. There was definitely pain on people’s faces, but they pushed it down into the cobblestones as they walked.
Below is a very bad picture of The Eagle’s Nest (I had to zoom in with my phone), what could be a meadow used for the movie (but who knows), Hallstatt, and the Cathedral in Mondsee.
Author of: Letters to Salthill
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