Country Life in Austria

Guten Tag,

As someone who hates buses, I have been taking an awful lot of them this trip. But the destination today was worthy. Open Air museums are one of the delights of my life and certainly one of the greatest pleasures of travel.  If I can get to one with public transportation, I make sure to go, and so I went today to the Freilichtmuseum near Salzburg.

The weather has turned.  I fell asleep last night to the sound of rain pounding on the windows.  It's raining now.  I even needed my sweater today.  But fortunately for me the rain held off while I was walking around Freilicht.

I got my bus from the Hauptbahnhof, and we wound through some dull suburbs and then farmland until my stop came up.  What the Europeans do is "rescue" old farmhouses, barns, and whatever buildings they can to reconstruct in these parks.  They are a lot of fun and almost always places of serenity and beauty.  One can enter most of the buildings and sometimes there are period furnishings or exhibits.  In addition to the sights, there's the smell of hay, gardens, musty wood, and old stone.

Freilicht is fairly large and the regional villages are spread out, so I got some lovely woodland walks in as well as seeing the buildings.  I ran into some goats, but those were the only animals.

I have mentioned before how compelling I find the remains of the lives of ordinary people.  The houses are dark with low ceilings, small windows, narrow stairways. I would find it fun to live in one for a day or so, but then I'd want my indoor plumbing and running water and electricity.  And yet people were able to create comfort and beauty with what they had.  I did not see every single building, but I spent a good part of the day and saw most of it.  There are picnic areas and a restaurant, too, for those needing nourishment.

One charming feature, I made sure to take advantage of.  A small gage railway runs (very slowly) through the park.  Riding it is included in the admission to the museum.  I love these little trains and after my explorations on foot, I did another round by rail.

If you are in the area make sure you come.  The museum does have a web site, but they don't market a lot to foreign visitors, which is a shame.

It began to rain as I got to the bus shelter.  I had to wait a while--and then the bus was late and the city traffic snarled.  But here I am safe and dry.