Alpine Adventure

Guten Tag,

I am home with the air conditioning on after having had two glasses of cold water. I am now sipping Prosecco as an aperitif, so I am feeling refreshed at last.

When I hopped off the bus to walk home across the river the temperature at the drug store display read 37C.  Now I am not sure what that translates into for Fahrenheit, but I am guessing high eighties at least with accompanying humidity.  Foof!

But before that I was in the mountains.  On my trip to Bad Ischel I spotted a town that looked like fun, so I went to St. Gilgen today.  Autocorrect seemed to think I meant holy ginger but no.  I have no idea who St. Gilgen was, but he or she has a mighty fine town right on the Wolfgangsee, a large and beautiful mountain lake.

I had a hard time getting started. I could not find a ticket machine that worked at first, and then I forgot the stop to the Hauptbahnhof.  In Munich and Frankfurt I began my day with a walk there, and generally ended it with a walk back to my apartment.  The Salzburg Hauptbahnhof is way across town, and is too long and uninteresting a walk.

I arrived to find my bus ready and waiting so I bought my ticket and got on.  As before it was crowded, but this time not as full, and the trip wound upwards through beautiful countryside.  Apparently for this region the towns have a Hop on Hop Off bus that runs between the charming and picturesque towns of the region, for those folks staying in the area who want to make a day of it.

I got off at St. Gilgen and first headed toward the lake.  I walked through the town to get there.  It's lovely!  It's clearly a holiday destination, with abundant accommodations, restaurants, snack bars, and touristy shops, but the effect is delightful.  I especially loved the traditional flower boxes and wood carving that decorated the buildings in a traditional fashion.

At the lakeshore I found a free toilet!  I want to give the Austrians full credit for their kindness to visitors.  At train stations and the Alt Stadt in Salzburg you will have to pay for your relief, but in shopping malls and these tourist destinations, the facilities are well maintained--and free!!!  For some of us it matters.

Having done the town, I turned my attention to the Seilbahn--a cable car--going way up the mountain. It is fairly expensive (and in my case more expensive than it needed to be), but I feel the experience was worth it.  Now my practice with this sort of thing is to ride up an walk down, so I got a one-way ticket. I shared my carriage with a pleasant German couple and up we went.  And up. And we continued to climb.  Up.  Really high.  Up we go.  My goodness what a steep slope this is.  Did I mention the word up?

It's a longish ride, but the views are spectacular.  One sees not just the lake an the town, but all the way down the lake and across the mountains to other valleys and lakes.

At the top the view is likewise spectacular.  And many trails with good footpaths wind around the mountains and valleys and through the forests and meadows.  I strolled around and enjoyed myself and the views, but when it came time to go down, I chickened out.  Now I am fit enough to walk down hill for two kilometers, but the path was not just steep, it was rough and gravelly.  I feared slipping.  So back I went to the Seilbahn for a ticket down.  It's worth doing however you end up doing it.

I got the bus back and as I said hopped off in the heat.  I did not want to cook, so I made my way to the market figuring I'd get a sandwich featuring the wonderful pork products of the region.  Another iconic product of the region is the pretzel, or Bretzl in German.  I had not had one, so when I saw one sliced as a sandwich and filled with bacon and cheese, I sprang!  I say bacon, but it is speck which is not quite the same--more hamish or proscuittoish.  I also picked up some gelato--amarena and lemon--and most refreshing it was.  Now the Bretzl is chewy and salty.  You can get them plain or flavored anywhere.  They come in two sizes.  Huge and Gargantuan.  Makes a good sandwich too!

Heh.  Interesting times with autocorrect.  If I had left it, this would have resembled a particularly perverse mad lib.