Salzburg, Day 0.5

I didn’t think I would post today, as we traveled on three trains starting at 8:30 AM to arrive in Salzburg after 3, but it turns out that the city was eager to share its delights, even for late-afternoon arrivals. 

John Bateman met us at the station, after coming in for the week from Portugal. We’re also celebrating our birthdays. He turns 80! 

John returns to Salzburg after a 50-year hiatus!

Together, we took a taxi to our hotel at Goldgasse 17, literally steps away from the gigantic Domplatz square. We barely had to walk out the door to see all this in the first few minutes of our visit:

Goldgasse, looking from our hotel onto the Domplatz

A horse-drawn carriage in the square

Towering fountain in the square

The Dom cathedral

Old meets new, with the Abbey Church of St Peter in the background

The medieval Hohensalzburg fortress dominates the skyline

Triton fountain 

And a few photos from inside St Peter’s, where designers were definitely going for Baroque:

When the sun began to set, we stopped for dinner, and then for our first Austrian Pastry of the Day, made fresh here in a tiny shop in the same building where Mozart taught one of his students, composer and pianist Fran’s Jakob Freystadtler (as you can see on the plaque above the door).

The pastry is a traditional German baumkuchen, which is a sweet dough, rolled onto a wooden spit, then rolled in cinnamon sugar and baked like a rotisserie chicken in a small oven.

When you eat it warm, it unravels like string cheese, but the Germans think it looks like a log or tree with rings, thus its name, tree-cake.

Regardless of its name and my odd food comparisons, it made a sweet end of the day for the three of us who shared it. Gut nacht for now.

Alpine Hiking, Day 2

We spent another blissful day on the mountain today, hiking from the top of the Kronberg luftseilbahn (gondola), which at 1663 meters is slightly higher than yesterday. 

The hike down was much more gradual, however, starting in the forest…

Passing by Jakob’s quell (well)

And St. Jakob’s kapelle (chapel)

… then after a few hours, onto lunch at Scheidegg, where we had beer, soda, salads, sandwiches and dessert (of course). After lunch, it was more rolling hills, green pastures and lots and lots of cows, who make beautiful music with their giant cowbells.

Who stole my bell?

Pastry of the Day is double chocolate mousse with a raspberry jam atop chocolate cake for me and apricot tart with a creamy filling for John. Both delicious!

Tomorrow is a full day of train travel to Salzburg. Packing up the hiking boots and taking out our city shoes for concerts, art museums and restaurants (and maybe a birthday pastry of the day?)

Appenzell is WOW!

Last year for my birthday, John bought me a set of hiking poles. Since that time, I’ve been fortunate to hike with them in Idyllwild, CA; Creede, CO; the Nakasendo Way and Kii-Katsura in Japan; in the Black Forest in Germany; and now in perhaps the most stunning place of all, the Alps in Switzerland.

We started out the day with a hearty breakfast at our hotel in Appenzell, the capital of the canton of Appenzell. 

With its buildings all painted and decorated in Swiss Alpine style, Appenzell is considered quintessentially Swiss, which makes it a little touristy and a lot expensive, at least in the town itself, however, that does little to take away from its charm.

The real beauty of the Appenzell are the Alps themselves. Today’s excursion was to Ebenalp, the northernmost summit of the Appenzell Alps. To get there, we took a cable car from Wasserauen to the peak at 5380 feet, exactly the same elevation as Idyllwild.

The view from the summit is breathtaking…

But we didn’t linger long because there are so many places to go!

Cliff side trails

Wild kirchli caves

The path to Aescher Guesthouse, built into the cliff

Trails to the summit

Visits with Swiss cows (check out the cow bell)

Picturesque dairies and guesthouses

Alpine lakes (seealpsee)

Today was among the most challenging and fulfilling hiking I’ve ever done, and at the end of the day, we’d climbed the equivalent of 67 floors and covered 7.9 miles. Whew! Time for Pastry of the Day:

Landsgmend-chrempfli, a traditional Appenzell treat named for the plaza (the Landsgemeindeplatz) in Appenzell in which all the citizens meet once a year to vote on canton business. The votes are taken by a show of hands — truly a democracy in name and practice. The pastry is filled with a smooth filling made with ground hazelnuts. Appenzell is also known for philenbrot pastry, Appenzeller cheese (so yummy!), pear bread, alpenbitters, a type of gingerbread called biber, and so much more… A feast for the eyes and the taste-buds!

 

Zigging and zagging

Saturday was one of those travel days when all we could do was pivot. An early morning outing on the lake was delayed by fog, so we did laundry instead, and stumbled on a local farmer’s market.

Later, when we finally did catch the ferry to Meersburg, the old city was completely closed off for a Medieval Faire, but the time on the water and the old buildings we managed to see were worth the trip. 

Albeit a popular tourist attraction, Meersburg is a charming Medieval town.

The coastline and the hills all around the Bodensee are covered with vineyards and apple orchards. With the climate and humidity from the water, I imagine growing conditions are similar to Northern California.

Ferries are constantly crossing the Bodensee…

… taking tourists and locals alike from shore to shore.

Since Meersburg was crowded, Jean was a good sport about driving us to Freidrichshafen, the next town on the eastern side of the Bodensee and the origin of the Zeppelin. We didn’t make it to the Zeppelin museum, but we did see a number of blimps in the sky. 

Finally, another ferry back from one side of the lake to the other, this time to Romanshorn, Switzerland, as the sun was setting to the west.

Of course, when we arrived back at the hotel, we heard the news about the war in Israel, and now, carry the sadness about all the death and destruction with us. Seems like no matter where we go, Jews are always fighting for our lives. Sunday takes us deeper into Switzerland. We will miss our friends and the Bodensee, but the mountains await us.