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.
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