Salzkammergut - the Austrian Lake District

The Austrian Salzkammergut, or, translated, the property of the salt chamber, is the vacation spot for all Austrians. Much of central Europe was, millions of years ago, the floor of a great sea, as we may have mentioned in a previous post when we went to the salt mine in Krakow. With the combination of plate tectonics pushing the land up and creating the mountains, and water evaporation, the whole area became literally a salt chamber. When settlements came and people realized the value of salt for things like food preservation, it became a very important commodity and the basis of the economy of the region. The city of Salzburg was a major hub for this economy. As most of us learned years ago, the Romans paid their soldiers in salt because it was measured against gold - this was called 'salarium', and is now the basis of the word 'salary' that we use in English.

The changes in the landmass also created these lakes, of which there are seven or eight of significant size. Our full day excursion took us to see three of them - Attersee, Wolfgangsee and Mondsee. The Salzkzmmergut lakes are all fed by mountain streams and rivers, making the water quite beautiful against the backdrop of the trees and high hills.

Our first stop was the Attersee, where we took a boat ride from the south of the lake at the town of Attersee to the north end, at Unterach. We had a gorgeous day for it, although the morning mist on the water made the opposite side of the lake a little haze-covered.

Our next stop was in the town of St. Wolfgang on the Wolfgangsee. This has been a tourist town for hundreds of years, and it is easy to see why. What a beautiful place, with narrow alleyways and houses with colourful flower boxes under the windows.

A shop selling local Lebkuchen, or gingerbread. Had to buy some!

One of the most famous places in town is actually the Romantik Hotel 'Im Weissen Rössl', or the White Horse Inn. It has been a proper inn for 130 years, owned by the same family since 1912. It has such a history in the lake district that an operetta 'The White Horse Inn', with the hotel as the backdrop, was written in the 1930s and turned into a movie musical in the 1950s.

Monica's parents had stayed there as well. We have photos of them with their friends Hanna and Karl, sitting out on the patio beside the lake, with light snow covering everything. This would have been in October in the early 1990s. We'll see if we can find one or two and add them to the post when we get home. Here are some views over the lake from the courtyard between the church and the inn.

The Pilgrimage Church of St. Wolfgang was probably the main reason people started coming to this town. The story in 976 of Bishop Wolfgang of Regensburg says he was living a hermit's life in the area and decided to build a church here. He threw his axe, vowing that wherever it landed he would build his church. He found the axe on a rocky hill beside the lake and, as promised, built it. There has been a church here ever since, and there has been a place for pilgrims to rest their heads nearby for almost as long. The White Horse Inn itself may not have a really long history, but its site has been used for more than 1000 years.

After an orientation we had some free time to wander around St. Wolfgang before setting off for a light lunch at a local inn. Of course, the guys in our group - we had found our nearest 'neighbour' on the tour, Nancy from Buffalo, traveling with her brother Bob, along with another Bob and Tom, and hung around together when we were on the same tours - found a local bierstube with a lovely patio by the lake. Bob #1 is a beer drinker and has to try local beer, or at least certain brands, wherever he goes. Nancy tried the Palatschinken, dessert crepes filled with apricot preserves, and loved them!

Larry and Bob #1

Nancy and her Palatschinken

We were all sorry to leave St. Wolfgang for the lunch; there were so many great places in town that we suggested to the tour directors that we should actually have lunch on our own here - they said 'write it in your comments; head office reads every one!'. But the lunch stop was still quite nice. Lunch was served from a big platter - smoked ham and cooked ham, cheeses, mixed cold cuts and a couple of cheese spreads along with rye breads. And for those who wished, tasting of locally made schnapps, hosted by the distiller. One flavoured with dark chocolate and chili pepper was so good that we bought a bottle to bring home - it will be delicious over ice cream (Barb and Jane)!

Our final lake district view was the Mondsee. We didn't stop here, but drove along one shoreline to get to the Autobahn that would take us back to Linz. Mondsee has two claims to fame: #1 - it is actually privately owned - yes, the whole lake! The lady who owns it now wanted to sell it for 45 million Euros, but the Austrian government only wanted to pay her 3 million Euros, so there's been no deal yet. Mind you, if you happen to have the change in your pocket, be aware that almost all of the shoreline is already owned by cottagers and towns, so you'd be paying all this money for 'a lot of water and fish', as our tour guide put it! Claim to fame #2 - the Sound of Music (yes, we're back to that!) cathedral wedding scene was filmed in the St. Michael's church in the town of Mondsee.

The spires in the distance are on St. Michael's Church in
the town of Mondsee. Tiny town, huge church - seems to
be the done thing around here!

All in all a picture-perfect day, as you can see from the pictures! We left Linz for Passau and our last sailing opportunity after dinner. We were up top again for a while to enjoy what we could.

Krems and the Wachau Valley

On Tuesday morning we awoke to lovely views of the river and the old town of Stein, which is municipally a part of Krems. Stein is actually the oldest town in Austria, and Krems is not too far behind it. Stein was originally a port town on the river, and Krems, the old town being a little farther away, was the fortified area.

Our walking tour in the morning took us to the old town of Krems, through the city gates and around some of the tiny 'gassen', tiny alleys or laneways that are so common in medieval communities. Krems dates back to around 1000, but there have been settlements here much longer - the oldest grave in Austria was found here dating back 27,000 years! In 2000 it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Ornate plasterwork on the facades of some
of the houses

 

Old wall painting depicting scenes from life in the town

The Parish Church of St. Vitus is one of the oldest in town and dates back to 1070. For a church that is not a bishopric, it is very ornate inside.

Along with the ornate plaster on many buildings, our guide showed us some drawing done on the outside of buildings in the method of sgraffito, which is drawn into the wet layer of plaster and then painted as the artist likes. This is, of course, the precursor to modern day graffiti, but nowadays they don't take quite as much pride in their finished product.

After the tour we had some free time so we wandered around a little more, and then decided to walk back to the ship. We found a few interesting views along the way:

In the Stadtpark

Along the river promenade. Leaves are just staring to turn
on some plants

MS Savor docked at Stein

Once everyone was back on board, we started our cruise through the Wachau Valley, which stretches from Krems to the small town of Spitz. We were stopping at Spitz to pick up the intrepid bike riders who chose to ride through the valley rather than sit comfortably on the sun deck watching the little towns - and their huge churches - go by. At the same time we had the option of visiting a local winery to taste the particular local products which have been gaining worldwide popularity - Grüner Veltliner and Riesling. (Monica has been drinking Grüner Veltliner for a while now - it is very similar to Sauvignon Blanc.)

The Wachau Valley has a particular microclimate that is very good for vineyards, along with the steep limestone hills for growing these white grape varietals. It looks very much like the Mosel but the hills are not as high.

We knew we would be passing the tiny village of Durnstein on our way, which is one of the most picturesque spots on the whole Danube. As it turns out, it was also a very important site economically for the Austrian empire during the Crusades. The ruined castle high up on the hill was used to imprison Richard the Lionheart for about 6 months. He was actually held for ransom there, and once it was paid, the empire had enough money to build a fortification wall around Vienna!

We continued to sail along, every so often hearing our bikers calling to us from the water's edge.

Our bikers waving from a beach. They had to ride
20 km, but, unlike the other side of the river,
they didn't have hills like we did when we rode.

For our winery visit, our group went to the Johann Donabaum Winery. It is a small family-run winery with the grandson of the founder now the head winemaker. Since he took it over about 20 years ago, he has put the winery among the top 10 in the Wachau Valley, exporting to a number of countries, including Canada. His wife was our guide - considering that this is only the third time she had hosted a tasting, she was really great; wonderful sense of humour and very interactive with the guests. In fact, one of our gentlemen was asking about harvesting the grapes - which is done by hand on the steeper slopes - and she suggested that if he wanted to help next year, he would need to start working out as soon as he got home! That certainly drew guffaws from the rest of us! But then, she wasn't kidding about how strenuous it is to carry baskets loaded with 40 kg (about 100 lb) of grapes from a maximum grade slope down to the truck. They had an intern working with them a couple of summers ago who ran the New York City marathon after the season ended, and came in second!!

The town of Spitz is very small, but we did find one symbol on a doorway that we hadn't found anywhere else. The grapevine wreath hanging on this door indicates that there is what the Austrians call a 'Heurigen' there. Heurigen are little restaurants that winemakers were allowed to have to sell some of their wine locally, served with cold foods only. These still exist now, and the grapevine wreath is the quick way to see if the winery has one. Of course, the larger producers now can't have a heurigen, so Johann had to close his grandfather's little place when he decided to get serious about the wines. Apparently his grandfather was rather skeptical about the idea, but the rest, as they say.....

The town church - they all look like cathedrals around
here!

The grapevine wreath that indicates there is
a heurigen here.

One of the vineyards right near the river

Why is our ship in the middle of the river with all
of us on land? It had to get out of the way so the regularly
scheduled 'ferry' could make its stop. There is service
all along the river so people don't have to drive between towns

  

As we sailed further westward along the Danube, we noticed that there were lots of rocky beaches along the river that shouldn't really have been there. This didn't bode well for the update we were going to get before dinner:

And we were right. At our briefing, our cruise director Maggie gave us the bad news - we were facing a deviation from the itinerary once we got to Passau. The water levels remained at an all-time low near Pfelling, just west of Passau, and the German authorities had told the cruise companies that there would be no ships sailing through that area. Instead of being able to enjoy some scenery we hadn't seen before, and the better part of a day of cruising time on Thursday, we would be touring out of Passau by bus and then on Friday taking our buses to Nürnberg for tours and to stay overnight at a hotel so we wouldn't miss our train to Berlin on Saturday morning.

Lots of upset people around us, but it wasn't like there was any surprise. For anyone who had noticed that every time rain was forecast, it didn't fall, there was no way that the river was going to get any deeper for us. Of course it was disappointing not to have more time on the cruise, but we knew that Tauck would do whatever they could to provide as close as possible to the same level of experience for us until we could get back to the program in Berlin. We'd just have to wait for further details.

As this was a major talking point for much of the evening, Larry found himself explaining how the train ticketing for the group probably worked, and how it would be impossible to expect the Adlon Kempinski Hotel, one of the most prestigious and sought-after addresses in all of Berlin, to have 60 hotel rooms available a day early at the drop of a hat.

Just to make sure we could have some more of the cruising experience, we went up to the sun deck once we left Spitz and watched the towns and villages (and church silhouettes) go by for a while. We sat through the transit of one lock and then turned in. We had a relatively early wake-up for our all-day tour to the Salzkammergut from Linz.