Final report - a bit late

A chance conversation yesterday prompted me to check that this last (or nearly last) post had been published. It was still in draft so here it is. I haven't really been in Venice until December 29th. This should have been sent out towards the end of October. The trip back in fact was very smooth - Venice to Munich via Salzburg, Munich to Spa in Belgium. Then the ferry and a night in Deal. Straightforward really, I'd recommend it to anyone who has the time. I'm glad I didn't leave it much longer though. As the picture shows there was snow on the motorway to Salzburg.

Parked up at a service area in the mountains - with snow on the road

I prefer the sun

Apologies to all my avid readers. I think I said somewhere earlier that Internet arrangements are variable on campsites.  My last blog was from Salzburg where by comparison with Venice it was pretty straightforward. Here you have to go up to the hotspot at the pizzeria and after being out all day that’s a bit of a hassle.

Anyway Salzburg was great.  I particularly enjoyed the fact that the main part of the old city is small and it’s possible wander around within a fairly tight area. It’s very colourful and has a lot to offer the tourist.  The Getreidegasse, the street where Mozart was born, is particularly ‘old world’ with its shop wrought iron signs hanging outside each shop  indicating the kind of establishment it is. The Hohensalzburg fortress was worth the visit. It dominates the city and provides excellent an excellent view of the city from the top.  The Salzburg museum was one of the most interesting museums I think I have ever been in.  It is not full of objects so much as full of ideas. It basically gives a history of Salzburg with a focus on its political and civic development. After spending time there you really fell as though you know the city and its past. It’s interesting how places like Salzburg have been subjected to rule by various foreign powers over the years.

Berchtesgaden is about 20 miles away and I called in there after visiting the Hohenwerfen fortress where much of ‘Where Eagles Dare’ was filmed.  Oddly enough when you are inside the fortress it seems fairly small and compact but the view of it as you approach it on the motorway from Salzburg

The 'Where Eagles Dare' Castle - Hohenwerfen

is a real ‘wow’ moment. It’s like in ‘Colditz’ when the camera suddenly pans in on it with a big crash from the orchestra.  Though I didn’t have time to go up to the Eagles Nest where Hitler had his mountain retreat I did visit the town and did some shopping. Berchtesgaden is a very attractive town and it’s not surprising that Himmler or whoever it was chose it as a spot to get away to. Berchtesgaden is in Germany now; but it has been part of the kingdom of Bavaria, like Salzburg, and part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at other times.  Napoleon also had claim on it. 

So a definite ten out of ten for Salzburg and the surrounding area.

I decided not to bother with Innsbruck. The plan had been to spend some time there and then go over the Brenner pass into Italy and stay by Garda for a while. In the end I decided to do one fairly long trip from Salzburg to Venice on the basis that it’s less tiring than being constantly on the move. So I came here to the Veneto on Friday 15^th October. The campsite is opposite the island of Venice.

Venice at sunrise across the lagoon

 

 As I look out of the window I can see the towers and domes that make up Venice. There is transport – a boat that leaves every hour to take people across the lagoon. Arriving here and seeing Venice across the water in the distance provided the same buzz as seeing the Acropolis from the hotel bedroom in Athens a few years ago.  Venice is an amazing place in so many ways. It’s amazing that it exists at all since the whole place is built on wooden piles that have been driven into the soft mud. Those engineers 1200 years ago knew a thing or two about land reclamation. It’s amazing that Venice became as powerful as it did. Over the years it took on the might of the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Pope and of course sundry Italian cities who wanted a slice of the action.  And it produced some of the greatest artists, composers and musicians, poets and................I could go on.

Today it’s a tourist’s paradise. Everything is designed for the benefit of and, if you’re not careful, to the detriment of the tourist. It has always been able to do that. Before the fourth Crusade Count Tibald of Champagne and his French knights wanted to get the help of the Venetians to take Jerusalem. They came to Venice 1199 to enlist the help of the Venetians in providing ships and transport. Unfortunately when it came to it they couldn’t afford to pay for all the ships and crew they ordered because they had spent all their money on the dazzling delights of what Venice had to offer –even then. In the end they let the French have the ships at much less than cost price, set sail and sacked a number of cities on the way. The Doge then decided not to go to Jerusalem after all and went instead to Constantinople where they completely obliterated the place and brought back everything they could. It seems that the booty collected was equivalent to 10 times the annual income of the King of France – which was a lot of ducats. The point of the story of course is that Venice is rich in treasures either home produced or acquired elsewhere.

I found St Marks a bit disappointing. I expected it to be bright and glittering and full of richness and beauty. Instead it is dark, dirty and damp. Depending on the time of the day it’s likely that you have to queue on raised platforms because of the water in the square.

Early morning - A damp St Mark's square

The museum on the other hand has some wonderful mosaics and the original bronze horses that came from Constantinople and the Doge’s palace next door was great. Amazing that the Venetians had such a sophisticated organisation and political system so early.  The palace contains the private apartments occupied by the Doges and all the state rooms and different rooms used by the various councils and government departments that evolved over the years. Then by the sixteenth century it was already in decline as a force to be reckoned with. The prison was a formidable place and it’s hard to see how Cassanova managed to escape from it.

The city is a great place to walk around; at this time of the year there are fewer tourists and the weather is not unbearably hot. There are things to see and places to go that are less on the tourist trail. For instance a tour of the ghetto (the first ‘ghetto’ was in Venice) was a chance to see the area where the Jews were forced to live until Napoleon came and freed them.  Unfortunately the Veneto is the wettest area of Italy and it can rain on any day of the year. There has been some heavy rain but some great days too.

Around Venice there are other great things to see and do. Padua and Vicenza have St Anthony and Palladio respectively.

Palladio's celebrated Villa Rotunda, Vicenza.

 Both have people telling you not to take photographs in the churches and museums but both are a must to visit. Ravenna, further south, has the most magnificent mosaics that have to be seen.

Giles has been here for the last week and Jackie also joined us. We went south to Forli on Monday and it was good to see Claudio and Giovanna Drei Donna again. Claudio is a wine producer and his wines are exceptionally good. Last night we drank a bottle of ‘Magnificat’ – his 100% cabernet sauvignon. Nothing remarkable there except that it was from the part of the cellar that Claudio calls the ‘historical’ bottles. This one was 19 years old and was absolutely fantastic after it had been open for an hour.

All good things come to an end. This trip has been great. I’ve met some interesting people, seen a lot of great places. It has given me food for thought about things I didn’t know much about – the holocaust, the history of ‘la Serenissima,’ the most serene Republic of Venice; I’ve walked in the footsteps of some of the great geniuses of our past – Mozart, Beethoven, Monteverdi, Dante........................I have seeing some of the great cities and heritage of Europe. Most of all I have learned a lot of practical stuff that will be really helpful when it comes to an even bigger trip to Greece in April and May nexdt year. I have been really surprised at how many grey-haired people ‘of a certain age’ are doing the Greece trip. I thought I was being really adventurous and cutting new ground. However, the Dutch, Germans, English: they are all at it and all of them have offered great advice and in one case a really useful map published in Holland!

The only problem now is how to get home. The intention had been to head west through Verona, Milan and Turin and then burrow into France underground via the Frejus tunnel. But I gather there are problems in France. I have not really heard any news for two months but I gather that they are revolting again. So that may not be a good plan. Otherwise it’s over the Alps or Dolomites through Switzerland or Austria and Germany. However I noticed that the Dolomites seemed ominously snow capped as I drove back from Forli south of Bologna yesterday afternoon.  I suppose it’s a bit early for the Brenner Pass to be closed because of snow and I don’t particularly fancy sliding about in the snow with a caravan in tow. The trip going north over the Brenner is supposed to be really stunning. So it may be even better if there is some snow as well.

Monday 11th - Day 38

The internet here has been a bit unpredictable here so the blogs have been a bit sparse.
Anyway it's Monday and today has been superb. I went into Salzburg for the first time and wandered around the old town looking around and taking it fairly gently. I had no choice because yesterday I drove over to St Gilgen which is a village on one of the lakes in the Salzkammergut which really is an area of outsdanding beauty. I took the cable car up to the top of the mountain - the Zwolferhorn and walked down the mountain back to the village.


It was a brilliant walk - 'lovely views' as they say, but the last part was really tiring along paths with uneven stones and quite steep in places. It took about three and a half hours in all. But being all downhill it meant I used muscles that hadn't had a really sustained outing since skiing nearly two years ago with the result that I the legs were pretty stiff today. The problem was that I didn' really know until I tried to walk down steps in Salzburg this afternoon - bit of a delayed reaction. I was glad I had my two walking sticks though; I'd have looked out of place without them because almost everyone has them. The style seems to be to fully extend them and have a really good workout - arms as well as legs. I used them more as a brake.


To be more precise St Gilgen is on the shore of the Wolfgangsee which is one of many very large lakes in the area. Its claim to fame is that Mozart's mother in law was born there and that's where young Wolfgang Amadeus got his name! Not many know that; not many care, I suspect.

There is much to see and do in Salzburg so I hope to be back there at the crack of about 10.30 am tomorrow to continue my explorations. It's odd how every city latches on to its former notable citizens. It's all Mozart here, everywhere you look. The fact is that he couldn't stand the place. He described the Salzburgers as 'peasants with a frightful accent.' After he had an argument with the archbishop about his contract he upped sticks and went to seek his fortune in Vienna. Seems like the archbishops of Salzburg were a pretty tough lot; one of them, Archbishop Wolf  Dietrich, built a palace for his mistress, one Salome Alt. Their progeny ran into double figures. Still, at least it was out in the open in those days! I imagine the current archbishop of Salzburg would have to think very carefully before embarking on a similar project. The palace, Schloss Mirabel, is now privately owned.

Monday 11th October - Day38

The internet here has been a bit unpredictable here so the blogs have been a bit sparse. In fact I can't persuade it to upload photos today either, so no piccies.
Anyway it's Monday and today has been superb. I went into Salzburg for the first time and wandered around the old town looking around and taking it fairly gently. I had no choice because yesterday I drove over to St Gilgen which is a village on one of the lakes in the Salzkammergut which really is an area of outsdanding beauty. I took the cable car up to the top of the mountain - the Zwolferhorn and walked down the mountain back to the village. It was a brilliant walk - 'lovely views' as they say, but the last part was really tiring along paths with uneven stones and quite steep in places. It took about three and a half hours in all. But being all downhill it meant I used muscles that hadn't had a really sustained outing since skiing nearly two years ago with the result that I the legs were pretty stiff today. The problem was that I didn't really know until I tried to walk down steps in Salzburg this afternoon - bit of a delayed reaction. I was glad I had my two walking sticks though; I'd have looked out of place without them because almost everyone has them. The style seems to be to fully extend them and have a really good workout - arms as well as legs. I used them more as a brake.


To be more precise St Gilgen is on the shore of the Wolfgangsee which is one of many very large lakes in the area. Its claim to fame is that Mozart's mother in law was born there and that's where young Wolfgang Amadeus got his name! Not many know that; not many care, I suspect.


There is much to see and do in Salzburg so I hope to be back there at the crack of about 10.30 am tomorrow to continue my explorations. It's odd how every city latches on to its former notable citizens. It's all Mozart here, everywhere you look. The fact is that he couldn't stand the place. He described the Salzburgers as 'peasants with a frightful accent.' After he had an argument with the archbishop about his contract he upped sticks and went to seek his fortune in Vienna. Seems like the archbishops of Salzburg were a pretty tough lot; one of them, Archbishop Wolf  Dietrich, built a palace for his mistress, one Salome Alt. Their progeny ran into double figures. Still, at least it was out in the open in those days! I imagine the current archbishop of Salzburg would have to think very carefully before embarking on a similar project. The palace, Schloss Mirabel, is now privately owned.

Thursday 7th October - Day 34

Vienna to Salzburg.

The weather seemed to be changing today. After many dampish days in Vienna I was on the road at 9.00 am having now cracked the whole business of organisation and packing up. The drive was really good but for the fact that I got severely delayed on the road from Klosterneuburg to the motorway. It's only 25 miles, but it's on backroads through villages. I still didn't fancy the idea of trying to find the motorway by navigating through Vienna. Even coming back from the cemetery yesterday I got stuck in a loop and couldn't find the exit from the motorway to get back. There were three exits in very quick succession and you had to be in the correct lane - it wasn't straightforward, honest  - and that was with GPS. Vienna is complicated.  Unfortunately there was an enormous agricultural vehicle of some sort that took up the whole road and and was limited to 20 kph. It meant that it was 10.30 am before I got to the motorway to really start the journey.

However I have now arrived in Salzburg. The city is only 15 minutes on the bus. The surrounding area looks great - Sound of Music country -  and I think I will stay here for 9 days and not bother with Innsbruck. I need to investigate the motorway from here that goes directly to Venice.

Salzburg Camp site



On Friday morning the sun is streaming through the trees. time for a coffee and then some exploring..................

Wednesday 6th October - Day 33

The weather forecast says that the weather is better to the south and west so I think it's time to move. Yesterday, Tuesday, I went to Vienna again and saw the ramaining things that were on the list. Top of the list was the house where Beethoven spent several years. It is by what was the city wall.  It's a very fine building still and probably a really expensive place to live now and then. As the lady on the cas deskl said you could feel his soul in the house.  

The house where Beethoven lived
4th floor, top left



The other thing yesterday was the St Michael's Church which is next to the Hoffburg which was the Kaiser's palace in Vienna. Now much of it is occupied by Government offices. St michael's church is the one where Mozart's fundral took place and where the first performaance of the 'Requiem' took place. His story was really one of riches to rags. After the superb appartment in Vienna next to the cathedral, courted by princes and with plenty of money and support, it is thought that Mozart took heavily to gambling. Whereas he could often get rich friends to lend him the money it did hit the buffers finally. He died penniless.

There was not much pleasure in walking around in the damp weather but I persevered and ticked off the remaining things on the list then back to the camp site.  



Beethoven lying next to me!

 On Wednesday I almost called it a day in  Vienna and headed for the sun. However I still hadn't been to the Central Cemetery in Vienna to see the Musicians Corner. It would have been a pity not to do this. So on Wednesday I drove there - about 15 miles - to the other side of Vienna. It is an enormous cemetery and in pride of place there are several of the musicians who were key to life in Vienna. Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert make up a central threesome with Brahms and others around the edge. I'm glad I made the effort; it would have been a mikstake not to have. Interestingly there are lots of people on a similar 'pilgrimage' as me.



Monday 4th October - Day 31

The weather today was not brilliant. It was grey and a bit on the cold side. I was going to make it an admin day but went out to look at the local area here. Klosterneuburg is dominated by the monastery up on the hill. It is a functioning monastery with 50 Augustinian Canons basically managing the wine industry in the area. It is a very old foundation. It goes back a thousand years and has been built and rebuilt over the years. It was the Kaiser who founded it and invited the Augustinians to set up there as well. I decided to go for the guided tour. I was the only one when the time came so the guide was happy to do it in English. Then after we had started three Germans joined in so that was the end of the English. The Kaiser also had appartments here and they were very find and well worth seeing. It would have been foolish to come here and not see the splendour of the monastery up on the hill.

Good news about the Ryder Cup but it wasn't the same watching the live updates on Sky.

However, not a day for photos particularly. I don't know where the good weather is at the moment. It says on the news that it's up to 25 degrees north of the Alps in places - but not this place. 

Sunday, October 3rd

Beethoven to his published, Hoffmeister:

' I am out in the country and live a little lazily, just so that I can live much more actively later on. '

*************************

Today has worked out very well. After a not very successful day on Friday I spent yesterday working out exactly where I should go, what to see, and crucially how to get there. This morning therefore I was off at 9.15 am with a clear agenda.  Sunday is a good day for looking around because there is less traffic and the parking tends to be free.

My first stop was Heiligenstadt which is 7km from here.  Beethoven used to spend the summers out of the city and came mainly to Heiligenstadt or Modling both of which are now suburbs of Vienna but used to be a good day’s journey from the city.  The man had just turned the key in the lock of the first house at 10.00am so I had it all to myself.  This was the house where Beethoven wrote a letter (the Heiligenstadt Testament, http://home.swipnet.se/zabonk/cultur/ludwig/beeheil.htm) to his brother in which he made clear that his hearing was becoming worse and was driving him crazy.  The house has an inner courtyard which cannot have changed much at all in the last 180 years. The other house is in the square next to the church and is now a ‘Heurige’ which is a sort of restaurant with the focus on drinking rather than eating. The square would have been better without all the cars parked by people in the church  but it was Sunday after all. And there were other bits of interest in Heiligenstadt............

After that it was back in the car across Vienna to Modling. Modling is a fine little town with old world Austrian charm and but for the fact that it was really cold would have merited more time.  It has the house where Beethoven stayed for several summers  – the Haffner house and where he did some really significant work.

My final place for the day was the town of Eisenstadt. This is where Haydn was employed in the palace of the Esterhazy princes as ‘Kapelmeister’ ie. In charge of music in the court.  I was expecting something on a much more lavish scale from the Esterhazy palace.  I think the family must have fallen on hard times and sold everything except the family silver which was on display. The purpose of the tour is really to see the theatre in the palace which is very fine and in which the court orchestra played and operas were performed and indeed it is still used for concerts.  The lady doing the tour was Hungarian and apologised to the group for her accent not that I’d have noticed but the Austrians and Germans presumably would have. She did her best with a fairly mixed bunch of individuals. The foreigners in the group had a written explanation of the main points. But there were unfortunately a number of individuals – 3 couples to be precise – who kept talking while she was explaining things. I got fed up with it in the end, huffed, puffed, tutted and blurted out in by best German ‘this is impossible.’ It quietened down a bit after that.  These foreigners have no idea how to behave! I said to her afterwards that she needs to tell the likes of these to button it until she has finished. She agreed.

One interesting bit was that I’ve always thought of Atilla, the Hun as not a very nice chap, not one you’d want to come across on a dark night. However he was well up in the social rankings with the Esterhazy’s and she talked about him as might a guide in England talk about Nelson or Wellington. Shows how wrong you can be.

So, I’ve now accomplished a lot of what I wanted to in Vienna. Tomorrow will be a quiet day. There are other bits and pieces to do in Vienna itself but otherwise I can say that I have seen what I wanted to see. From now on everything else will almost be a bonus.

I'll sort out some pictures tomorrow when there is a bit more time.

Friday October 1st - day 28

Vienna is big and frankly complicated!

First complication how to get in there? It's not as bad as buying tickets for trains in England, but there are various combinations and possibilities depending on the number of days and whether you want reductions to concerts etc. When it came to it I just went for the one day 'shopping ticket' which was not the cheapest way. The other thing is that you need two tickets because Klosterneuburg is not part of Vienna. So you need a ticket to Heiligenstadt and then another from there to Vienna. So transport for the rest of the week has yet to be decided. Heiligenstadt however is a name well know to all music students. It's where Beethoven was staying when he wrote his will. But that's another story to explore.

The second complication is that I didn't have a decent street plan. The one in the book didn't have the names of all the streets; the one with the names of all the streets was made of thin paper and fell apart rapidly. So I got  the train in to the central station and then walked -  a lot. It was about 40 minutes from the station to the old town.  I had decided to do a fair amount of walking today to get a feel for the place and I had hoped that in walking there would be lots of things to drop in and see. But Vienna is not quite like that. There is a lot to see but it's all quite far apart and it wasn't along the route from the Franz Joseph Station to the old town. So there is no option but to get my head around the transport system and get the right ticket!

However, on the bright side I visited the 'Mozarthaus' near the cathedral which I stumbled on by accident though would have found eventually. I got a reduction without having to lie about my age - the girl at the desk had no idea about the difference between 57 and 60!

Lots of talk about the cathedral but I found it disappointing. Mass was about to start the first time I tried so the main part was closed. The organ was trundling  through several verses of  'To Jesus' Heart all burning' which I haven't hear for a very long time, fortunately. The organist was, I think, bored with it in the way he was playing it in the way I would have been if I'd been playing it. It was as though he was reading the paper at the same time or thinking what he was going to be doing over the weekend. That's a phenomenon well know to organists! I could only think that it had more 'whizzy' words than the version we used to sing 40 years ago otherwise why bother?

There are people dressed as Mozart trying to flog tickets for concerts. One of them tried to interest me in a ticket. They are 'tourist concerts' with scratch orchestras of people dressed in costume playing 'excerpts' from things. I said I was more interested in proper concerts of Beethoven, for example. He said Beethoven only lived in Vienna for two years and he was German. Wrong on both counts but it's true that there is little or no sign of him -  it's all Mozart and that's not why I came!

So, the sun has shone all day though it has not been very warm because all the buildings are tall and the streets are mostly in the shade, but nice all the same. My homework now is to decide exactly where I want to go in the coming days, and how to get there. The good news is that because I did not stamp my ticket for Vienna transport system (I didn't realise I had to) I've got it to use again. It was explained to me by the lady in the information office at the underground station, so it's official.

Now - starters, steak and mushrooms, cheese and a few glasses of wine.  That's all till tomorrow.

Thursday 30th September - Day 27

The sun has shone all day. It was a lovely drive from Linz to Klosterneuburg; the Austrian countryside is wide with the hills and mountains in the distance.

The site is right in the centre of Klosterneuburg, at the foot of the monastery which dominates the town. It's a prosperous and very old town having its origins in roman times.

Some research to be done about what the best kind of ticket is for travelling around; certainly using the car is not a good option. It's probably very expensive to park in Vienna and not easy to find parking places.

Not much else really. I'll stay here for a week and may also visit Bratislava and Budapest. Budapest is only two hours or so by car and Bratislava is nearer. We'll see.

Nothing esle to add today. Really just a day for travel and organisation.

Wednesday 29th September - Day 26

I think there is a general depression - weather in particular - over Europe at the moment. Yesterday, Tuesday, turned out to be solid rain all day.  It looked promising to start with but after about 10.00 am there was nothing for it but to admit defeat, turn the heat on and spend the day with a book or two. Which is what I did. With the help of a dictionary I got my head around a book about the war and Hartheim in particular.

The story is basically that before the war the castle was occupied by a convent of Sacred Heart nuns who looked after physically and mentally handicapped children there. Once the war started they were shipped out so that 'adaptations' could be made to the castle. Once completed the children were brought back; they are described as being all excited at coming back to what was for them home.  The bus drew into the inner courtyard and they were marched straight into the gas chamber. They had lived there previously and were the first group to try out the new facility. After that they came in by the lorry load. It took four hours from entering the place to going up in smoke. What can I say? 

It has been an interesting experience learning all about this. But its time to move on now and get back to the composers in Vienna. I did make one decision and that is that the timetable needs to be flexible. There is no point in moving on if that means packing up in the rain. I should really have gone to Vienna today but it was very damp this morning and I put it off till tomorrow. However I did go out for a drive and not entirely unintentionally ended up in Vienna. I wanted to see how complicated it would be getting there. It's pretty straightforward really. The book says to leave the motorway a good 30 miles before Vienna and come in from the north. I couldn't see why that would be necessary. Now I know and it's good that I figured it out in advance.

Vienna looks great and Klosterneuburg to the north of the city, where the campsite is, looks really good, as does the camp site itself. I drove back through the middle of Vienna and the reason for the big detour became clear. The roads are all wide and one way, which is fine. The problem is that they all seemed to be divided into four lanes. This would be ok if everyone were driving golf buggies but the lanes are just about wide enough for a car. Add lorries, busses and trams all of which seem wider than the available space and it's like being in a fairground - good fun but I wouldn't want to do it with a caravan in tow. It would be fine if there were three lanes but four is pushing it a bit. The one thing it does seem to do is make everyone drive quite slowly. If you drive briskly you would be sure to hit something! Vienna looks big and pretty exciting!

The weather forecast according to Google looks to be impriving now over the next week so it's all looking quite promising after a fairly wet couple of days. Breakfast outside on Monday morning in the sun was basically the last bit of seriously proper weather there has been.

Anyway, it's 5.30 pm. Much of the major packing is done for tomorrow. But there's no real rush because the site in Klosterneuburg closes for lunch at 11.30 am. So it'll be a leisurely start and I'll stroll up there in the early afternoon.

More news tomorrow - providing the internet is not to expensive. It has been great here listening to Radio 4 all day over the internet at no extra charge.

Tuesday 28th September - Day 25

Yesterday turned out to be a lovely day - a typical late summer say with warm sunshine, but not too warm in the shade. I went as promised to do the tour in the St Florian Augustinian monastery.  The required minimum of 6 people turned up and it went ahead. It was well worth it, absolutely beautiful inside eg the library and the Kaiser's Hall.



St Florian Monastery



This is Anton Bruckner country; he was born not far away, was educated in the choir school here, composed a fair amount and was organist here for many years. So that was on my list and is now ticked off. More information is available for any of my readers who would like to know more!

They have had quite a nice idea that I might pursue today; there is a walk that is laid out from the village where he was born to St Florian. You get an mp3 player or walkman and stop at places along the way to admire the countryside and listen to extracts from his music. I might give that a go but this morning it is a bit damp. May just do the admin instead. The problem is that it's not a circular tour so you have to walk back. We'll see.

The guide explained to us that it was a good thing the Americans came to the monastery at the end of the war because they were able to protect the monastery from the marauding Russians as they went home. They were described as 'peasants from the far side of Siberia,' and it seems, they destroyed all in their way. They would have really enjoyed burning the monastery and all its contents. So well done to the American soldiers on this occasion.

Since the weather was so nice and I was on a roll on the tourism front I drove about 15 miles to Schloss Hartheim after a light lunch back at the ranch.

I had seen something about this on TV - probably the World at War - and there were lots of references to it at Dachau and Mauthausen. Schloss Hartheim is a lovely renaissance, italianate building. Inside you could put on a very successful performance of Romeo and Juliet appearing on the upper floors. There are some additional buildings not in the photo that are a musical/theatre centre of some sort. I could hear somebody practising the trombone.  



Schloss Hartheim, Alkoven



However this place has a very sinister history. For all its beauty it's where thousands were gassed in the war. It had a special role of being the place where initially the mentally ill or people with disabilities met their end. Eventually it was used for anybody. The simple strategy was a lorry parked outside with the exhaust fed into the room on the ground floor of one of the towers. They all died of carbon monoxide poisoning. 

Schloss Hartheim, interior

The pictures show a steel grill both inside, and outside where the lorry parked. The unfortunates were marched along this lovely arcade to their end.  Unfortunately the visit and exhibition were closed when I got there at about 3.30. So I'm guessing at the details. There is an exhibition about human rights regardless of disability and so on. I think I may go back there today particulalry if the weather doesn't pick up a bit. 

What a cynical place.

Day 24 - Linz

Monday 27th September 2010

The weather for the last two days has been a bit misterable. It was so grim the night before last that I used the ear plugs to deaden stop the noise of the rain on the roof. But this morning there is blue sky and breakfast outside. The proof:

It is warm and very pleasant. I hope it continues.  This site is quiet mostly people on their way home wherever that is. They roll up later in the day and have gone by the time I'm moving.  I was just talking to a chap from Holland who is here fro a day or two who was singing the praises of all the distilleries in Scotland. That is a trip to do I think.

It says in the guide book that Linz is pretty industrial. It is. Driving into the old town yesterday was like driving through a very large factory, all chimneys, steam and pipes. Also the look of the place is pretty much what I imagine thoses dire soviet cities to be like.  However the old town was lovely. It has its share of Baroque and Renaissance architecture. It plays a lot on its Bruckner connection. He was a composer in the second half of the nineteenth century. After Linz I went to St Florian which has a very large Abbey where Bruckner sang as a child in the choir and then taught for many years in the choir school. It is a magnificent place. I may go back today and do the guided tour.

Mauthausen on Saturday was a very sad place. It made Dachau seem like a much less threatening place. I have learnt a number of things. First that the war is not something swept under the carpet. Things to do with the war are there and on view. There was something on the radio yesterday about Hitler though I couldn't really follow the detail of it, for instance. The churches all have their memorials to their 'fallen heroes of both wars.'  I think that what is becoming clear is that the ordinary 'gerry' in the Wehrmacht was probably just as frightened of the SS and the Nazis as everybody else. And local populations were manipulated which is why they were able to accept these camps in their midst - or they were profiting financially from the camps. So that is all an interesting story that is beginning to uncover.

There are a few other things around here that I want to see - either musical or war. Probably stay till Wednesday and then head off to Vienna.   

Friday 24 September - Augsburg to Linz

Little of consequence to report today.   The object of the exercise was to get from Augsburg to Linz - about 220 miles, duly achieved.

I've got the whole moving exercise down to a fine art now.  Got out of bed at 7.40 - no point in getting up earlier because the freshly baked bread rolls weren't available till 8.00 . Up, breakfast, shower, pack up and on the road at 10.00am on the dot. Not bad. Although it's quite a way, it's very simple.  Motorway towards Munich, turn off towards Nuremberg, then Deggendorf and turn right for Passau and Linz.  Off at St Florian, left at the roundabout and the campsite is the 7th turn on the left after the built up area. I knew this because I'd seen it on google maps. Couldn't be simpler really.

Stopped after 2 hours for 'lunch' - a roll with Parma ham, 1 sausage, a banana, and water; it's not a culinary tour. Stopped again to buy the road licence for Austria. 7 euros and a few bits of shrapnel. I was talking to a chap yesterday who offered me his if I could get it off his windscreen with a razor blade. He was on his way home. Didn't seem worth the hassle though a kind offer.  Arrived at campsite at 2.50.

The best bit was crossing the Danube. I'm not sure exactly where it was but it was a very large bridge and an even larger Danube. I must say rivers like the Danube and the Rhine make the Thames look like a muddy stream. The are big and majestic rivers.

A curiosity is that having visited Dachau a couple of days ago the turn-off from the motorway to get to this campsite is also the same turn-off for Mauthausen. That wasn't planned, it's a coincidence. In the world of concentration camps, about which I'm becoming a bit of an expert, Mauthausen was the worst. It was a level 3 camp for the completely incorrigible types with no hope of  being reformed whereas  Dachau and Auschwitz etc were just level 1 for the straightforward cases - Jews, Jehovas witnesses, other general wrong doers. Mind it's all a bit relative. They all needed a very large barge poll.

The good thing about this site - camping Linz - is that the internet is free and it actually works with no waiting around, or messing with internet settings.  The bad thing is that the weather is about to change. It's quite a challenge resurrecting O-level German, but fun; however O-level German doesn't really cut the mustard when listening to Austrian radio. Austrian German sounds like the person spent too long in Holland. I suppose it's a bit like serious English dialect - real Yorkshire or something except here it's official and on the radio. Anyway I did pick up that snow is expected at 1900 meters tomorrow afternoon. Good job Linz is just 200. However it will mean keeping an eye on the Brenner pass into Italy which has to be a touch over 200.  It may mean sneaking home underground in a tunnel in due course rather than doing the decent thing an crossing a mountain. We'll see.

Best thing today: definitely the Danube and the mountains in the distance. I must find out what they are. 

As it used to say on the Hanah Barbara cartoons 'That's all folks.'

24 September

The one thing I have learnt on this trip is that 'hot spots' are not all they are cracked up to be. It's not just a matter of paying your 3 euros for 2 hours and off you go. It can take two hours to persuade the flaming computer to make contact. The one on this site is more temperamental than the last site at Tubingen. On that one you had to register which was not obvious. On this one you don't have to register but you have to alter the pop up blocker settings and then wait ............ endlessly while the connection works. 

Anyway that's today's rant done with.

I've been here in Augsburg for several days now. Came Sunday and it's now Thursday. I'm off the Austria tomorrow - Linz.

And I take on board my wide readership that wants less detail....... But I do want you to read this lot:

I decided to have a less hectic time here in Augsburg. The weather has been really brilliant so that encouraged me to relax a lot. I did go into Augsburg on Monday and had a good look around. Augsburg is interesting for many things but one in particular which is worth noting. It has the oldest public housing scheme in Europe – probably anywhere in the world. Basically a catholic philanthropist, one Mr Fugger,   back in 1400+ set up a housing scheme for poor Catholics (this is a very catholic area, it seems). They didn’t have to pay rent, but did have to say a ‘Hail Mary, Glory be... and an Our Father’ for the well being of Mr Fugger and his heirs.  It’s still there – the Fuggerei – and you can visit it. The deal is still the same -  Hail Mary, Glory be... and an Our Father plus the electricity. Seems like a good deal really. Pite they can't do a bit of negotiating and knock the prayers down to two of the three.  They are basically small flats including a bedroom, kitchen, lounge, and bathroom. The deal is that you have to be a catholic and have no money!  It was quite heavily damaged during the war and there is a ‘museum’ there in what was an underground bunker built to protect various citizens during the war. It's actually a lovely protected area a bit like the very expensive retirement villages in the UK, but cheaper by far.

The other thing worth mentioning about Augsburg is the ‘Golden Room’ in the Town Hall. Fantastic. Magnificent gold walls and decorations with ceiling paintings etc. Again it has been reconstructed because of being badly damaged during the War.

And there was much more..............................

One of the important things on my list was to go to Dachau.  The first thing to say is that Dachau is a rather nice, typical German town. It has all the things that typical German towns have in their ‘old town’ – Schloss (castle), Church, Town Hall. Dachau is no exception though the Schloss only has one wing left of what was a much bigger building. In the old town in Dachau you could be almost anywhere in Germany.

'Arbeit macht frei' - Dachau entrance gate

‘Dachau’ though is infamous. The word sends shivers down the spine of anyone who has the remotest idea of what concentration camps were.. Before I came here I really couldn’t understand why they hadn’t changed the name of the town in order to rehabilitate itself. What they have done is to set up a memorial/museum/education centre to the victims who dies there. Fine.

I decided to look around the old town then walk from the station along the same road that thousands had been forced to do from 1933 when it was set up. It takes about half an hour to get to what was the outer limit of the camp. This outer limit now is called John F Kennedy Platz.  During the war this was an SS parade ground. Dachau was not just a concentration camp it was a big training centre for the SS. Along the road on the left there are magnificent large, white houses. They are now behind a fence. It turns out that these were the houses of the SS who were working in the camp. It’s now the headquarters of the riot police, but they are lovely houses and presumably look the same now as they did then.

Houses of the SS, Dachau

 Along the road of the right are ordinary suburban houses, and flats etc with children skating on the path, or cycling, or little children on little tricycles going around in little circles as they do. In the contemporary descriptions it describes houses on either side of the road. It seems curious that people could live in these houses that were once occupied by such infamous people. However perhaps they have been built more recently.......   

There is now a modern building which includes cafe, bookshop, toilets and information centre at the end of this road. I picked up the audio guide and set off.

The entrance to the camp is opposite the end of the railway line the remains of which are still visible. It was built during the war to transport people directly to the camp instead of having to walk. The entrance itself is quite small; you cross the bridge over the small stream go under the arch and through the iron gate with the words ‘Arbeit macht frei.’ (Work sets you free.) In front is the Appelplatz (parade ground) with the foundations of the huts on the left. The fences and ditches and watchtowers are still there, as is the crematorium.

I’m glad I went there. And I’m looking forward in an odd way to going to Mauthausen near Linz, which was worse in many ways. The educational side of the camp is the museum which is housed in what were administrative buildings and where newly arriving prisoners were processed.  I found I started off reading all the panels carefully and taking it all in. But there was too much of it to take in.

I gave up and just watched other people reading it. It was interesting that they were mostly youngish Germans who hadn’t really appreciated what it was all about, it seemed to me. There were frequent sharp intakes of breath as they managed to control themselves and not rush off howling. There were others – not Germans – whom I would have thrown out. They had no idea of how to behave in such a place. 

I’ve spent the last two days relaxing, doing admin and reading about the camp. It’s good that the camp has been preserved. It was never set up as an extermination camp but as a work camp where tens of thousands were worked to death. The real exterminating happened in the satellite camps which were fed by Dachau and there is little or nothing left of these. There were three apparently here in Augsburg somewhere, but where? It would be wrong to pretend that it never happened.

So it’s good that the camp exists, and that Dachau has not changed its name.

And finally:

This is me relaxing in Augsburg on the campsite. It's been great! Hardly anyone here, sun shining and I can do precisely what I like - even if that's nothing at all.

 Tomorrow: Linz in Austria. About 220 miles drive tomorrow around Munich, up towards Nurenburg, turn right somewhere after an hour or so and into Austria. Piece of cake really. Helga will keep me on the right road. (Giles christened TomTom as Helga; I won't hear a word said against her.) 

Day 10 Mannheim and Heidelberg

14th September

The old part of Mannheim is interesting because it is laid out on a grid pattern into blocks which makes it easy to see where you are. The main point of interest in Mannheim is the former Elector’s Palace. It was modelled on Versailles and building began in 1720 when the Elector Karl III Philip moved the court from Heidelberg. It is now used by the University. Cultural life in Mannheim flourished under Karl Theodor.

In musical history Mannheim is famous for its orchestra and the development of the symphony. Mozart described the orchestra as being ‘the best in Germany . It consists of people who are young and upright, not drunkards, rakes and gamblers.’ He is commemorated on the wall of the palace church where he attended services and played the organ. His stay in Mannheim in 1777 as part of the long trip to Paris was productive musically.  However he also fell in love with Aloysia Weber and wanted to cancel the onward trip to Paris and go to Vienna with them. His father however put his foot down saying basically  ‘look here, lad, get yourself to Paris and earn some money.’ His mother was dispatched to Mannheim to make sure that’s what he did. When Mozart finally caught up with the family again (1781 in Vienna), Aloysia had married someone else, so he married her sister, Constanza, instead! Both of them performed in his operas and concerts so they obviously all got on.

The interior of the Schlosskirche, Mannheim

Although the building is now used by the University of Mannheim some of the living quarters can be visited. They have a restrained grandeur and it is easy to imagine the opulence of the Mannheim court of the Electors.

Palace forecourt, Mannheim

The Jesuit church in Mannheim turned out to be a jewel in the crown. Although it doesn’t get much of a mention in the guide books other than it is a baroque church with a neoclassical facade the interior is sumptuous. The use of different shades of green and white marble give a fantastically clean and rich feel.

Jesuit Church, Mannheim

Heidelberg is said to be one of the most beautiful cities in Germany. It’s easy to imagine that this is the case.  Lying in the Neckar valley the city is dominated by the mysterious and romantic Heidelberg castle. It was built and rebuilt between the 13^th and 17^th centuries as a well fortified gothic castle and seat of Wittelsbach palatines. (Palatines are nobles who are granted powers to make decisions in theor own lands by the pope. It ceased to have any meaning in the 14th century, I think, and was an honorary title.) The castle's importance was diminished during the Thirty Years War and it was more or less destroyed by war with the French in 1689. It’s a fascinating place to wander around with its mixture of styles and romance.

Heidelberg Castle

The place has inspired artists and writers over the years. Turner did a painting of Heidelberg castle. Goethe lived in Heidelberg for a time and often soaked up the atmosphere; there is a

The Goethe Seat, Heidelberg Castle gardens

memorial to Goethe near his favourite seat in the garden. Mark Twain describes the castle in ‘A Tramp Abroad.’  On his trip to Paris Mozart visited the castle and saw the recently installed ‘Great Tun.’ This is an enormous barrel into which was put wine which the locals had to contribute as a form of tax. The wine must have been very rough but it must have been good enough for the nobility!

The Great Tun, Heidelberg

Two churches of real note in Heidelberg are the Heiligegeistkirche, Church of the  Holy Ghost, and the Jesuit church.

The late gothic Church of the Holy Ghost is in the Market Square. For centuries covered market stalls have been set up between the buttresses. It is unusual in that the church was shared by Protestants and Catholics since the Reformation.

Church of the Holy Spirit, Heidelberg

 The Elector Karl III Philip tried to give it back to the Catholics in 1720; but the fuss that followed resulted in the screen that separated them being put back. It was only removed in 1936 and since then it has been a protestant church. 

The reality is that we didn’t leave enough time for Heidelberg.  It was worth seeing the interior of the palace at Mannheim, but Heidelberg merits several days rather than several hours. One final little bonus for me was to look up from the table where we were having something to eat to see a plaque ‘Robert Schumann lived here.’  He had gone to Heidelberg University to study Law. In fact, in spite of promising his father that he was turning up to lectures he never set foot in the Law faculty but spent all his time on Music. Naturally his dad was not happy; there was no money in music and it wasn’t a suitable profession...............!