Trains and Boats and Planes

Trains and Boats and Planes

That is how the song goes but we took every form of trans I can think of today -- Metro and bus to the airport, plane to Memingen, bus to Munich and Train to Salzburg. We have been told that they have had a couple weeks of straight rain. Good thing we missed all that. Found our new apartment in the walking section of the city and fell fast asleep.

This is a great walking city, like Barcelona, and we walked and saw plenty. But tonight we went to see the Salzburg Marionette Theatre, performing the Sound of Music. Imangine choosing that piece in Salzburg. (we did however learn that the Sound of Music is the 3rd most seen movie in history behind GONE WITH THE WIND and CASABLANCA. This Marionette Theatre is 97 years old. I was overwhelmed and the show was fabulous… As an encore they deploy a mirror so you can see the puppeteers working their magic. A big surprise…

Last night we found a bridge club and played bridge—Can you say hearts,clubs,diamonds, spades in German? I can now… we met some great people there whom we will get to know.

We have made a couple friends thru “expat blog” someone from Ireland and someone named David from Chi who works here. We spent the afternoon with David and went to Hohen Salzburg the fortress high above the city. Quite a hike and a beautiful old place.

Our small apartment is on Linzergasse and last week Linzergassefest was in full swing, just outside of our window. 5 bands food, beer and sales from all the shops, just like every street festival you would expect.

I was surprised to learn that Salzburg is only 150,000 people. I guess because of the festivals, and its notoriety from the movie and the home of Mozart, people group it in conversations with the major cities of Europe.

I finally convinced someone at the Mozarteum to let me use a practice room to play piano. The number of pianos in this city is too numerous to even cotemplate but so are people here studying piano and voice as well (they need piano accompaniment). I feel like I am playing pianos, where great piano players may have preceded me. Yesterday I even got a Boesendorfer, originally an Austrian company.

We have also found a couple swimming pools where we go for exercise. We walk to the pool and swim laps.
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Yesterday we went on the Salt Mine tour. It is approx 20-25 miles from Salzburg and its no coincidence that the Salz in Salzburg means salt. It was a beautiful bus ride, near Bertchesgarden. We were issued protective clothing to wear and walked to a little railroad that takes you into the tunnel, deep in the mountain. The mine is at a constant 55 degrees. We walked from our little train and then, as the miners did years ago took a slide down approx 100 feet. It was a riot.

Hundreds of years ago they mined the salt with picks and axes. Then they discovered a way to inject water into it and let it leach out into a lake that creates a 27% solution which is piped out of the mine and dried and taken to market.

Today we toured the catacombs of Salzburg, dug out of the mountainside this is where the monks prayed years ago.
Then we wandered across a couple beautiful churches and finally toured the Festspiel halls. This is the center of the Mozart festival that takes place later this month.
Since I made my living renting theatres all my life this was a very interesting tour for me. There are 3 theatres, 1400, 1600 and 2200 seats. The 1600 has a retractable roof and when the opera director wants it open, it's open, if the director wants it closed, it's closed. It turns out, however, that the roof is not strong enough to hold the winter snow, so, in winter, they open it up, retract the seats and cover everything in plastic for the season.

We were told the large theatre has the largest stage in the world at over 350 feet wide and over 100 feet deep. I can’t imagine that it is bigger than the met opera stage but google showed me that it truly is, by a few feet each way. Mozart festival, which does not begin for another 3 weeks, is 95% sold out. Cheap tickets are $ 50-60 and top tickets go for over $500 a seat.

We met two wonderful women at bridge club and the other night they invited us to one of their homes for dinner and bridge. This is what I was hoping for in getting integrated into the community. We had a great time and we are getting together again Monday and on Thurs I am playing golf with her son.

I am getting to be a regular in the practice rooms at the Mozarteum and I just love going there.

Wally (a female), the woman we met at bridge who invited us to dinner, introduced us to Laurie and Gene. They also play bridge and he is a very successful doctor and quite an avid golfer, he has golfed all over the world. We were at their house for dinner last night. In high school Gene was a foreign exchange student in Denver and both of them speak perfect English and they are very willing to help us in our learning. So I increased my German vocabulary today.

We finally started doing the tourist things. We bought the Salzburg Card, for which you pay by the day and it gives you free admission to the attractions. We visited the house where Mozart lived and learned of this child prodigies story. He was already a superstar at 6 years old, pushed by his “stage dad” and died at age 36, no one knows the cause of death and even more importantly noone knows where he is buried, only in Vienna, seems he died a pauper and went to a common mans cemetery.
Then we went to visit Schloss Helbroon which has magnificent grounds. It turns out the Prince who built the castle was quite the practical joker. He had fountain features through out the property and through them he would have his guests squirted with water. One example, he had an outdoor wine table for 8, When the guests got tipsy, he would turn on his fountain so it not only sprinkled on the guests but the cement seats they were sitting on shot up a stream of water to soak everyone’s pants, except his own chair, of course

Finally we went to the cable car at Unterberg. About 6-10 miles out of the city. This cable car rises to almost 7000 feet and the panorama views are breathtaking. Worth every minute.
Our last day in Salzburg today and Laurie and Oegen invited us to play gof at Altantann, the first Jack Nicklaus golf course designed in Europe. Gene had a match so Annie and I played with Laurie and Marcos, their son who is a banker. Beautiful day, beautiful course. I am gonna miss it here. Auf Viedersehen, Salzburg