Travelling back home

Monday September 12th 2022

When the alarm went at 5, we woke very unwillingly, and I discovered I had a sore throat, which gradually worsened during the day.

We were down in hotel reception by 5.45, and were soon on our way. The sun rose shortly after 6.

It was an almost 2 hour drive to Munich airport, and quite difficult to find the EasyJet desks once there. The terminal is organised into A, B, C and D, which none of us realised, and we were dropped outside D. After panicking because our plane was not on the destination board, somebody ran about and discovered EasyJet in B, so it was a long walk there, and an even longer walk to passport control, because we were not able to use the automated passport gates and had to walk the entire length of the terminal to get to a person. Then we had to go through security and walk the entire length of the terminal a second time to get to our gate. However, we had been given the gate number at check-in, so at least we were able to go there and sit in one of the few seats. I was starting to shiver and feel quite unwell.

Fortunately, it was a short flight, but I was feeling really unwell by the time we arrived. The queues for taxis seemed to be long, so we ended up getting 2 buses, one to Redhill and one to Oxted, and then a taxi home from there. I got straight into bed, feeling really rotten. Thank heavens whatever it is didn’t strike me until this last day! At least it didn’t ruin my holiday.

Oberammergau

Sunday 11th September 2022

After the 6am alarm, a rushed breakfast and final packing, we left Kramsach just after 8 am in driving rain. The first part of the journey was difficult, not only because of the rain but because of the very low clouds hanging in the valleys. Sometimes as we travelled along the valley floors we were below the low-hanging clouds. Sometimes as we climbed the mountainside we were above them and not able to see the valley floor. And sometimes as we snaked along the mountain roads and navigated the hairpin bends we were actually in the cloud and visibility was only a few yards. That was quite worrying, like driving in a heavy fog, and suspecting there was a sheer drop on one side of you but not being able to see how big a drop it was, as the fog of cloud obscured everything. There are no photographs, unfortunately, as those I took were so hopeless I deleted them all.

It was a bit of a complicated day because we were not staying in Oberammergau but in Garmisch- Partenkirchen which is a half hour drive away. Our tickets were waiting at the hotel, but the tour guide did not want to make the detour, so she dropped us in Oberammergau just before 11 and then the bus went to Garmish to get the tickets and drop our baggage. We only had time for a fairly quick look round (and to buy blankets because the theatre is open to the air at the front) and make a quick stop for cake and coffee before it was time to meet her at 12.45. The town is quite interesting because of the many painted buildings. 

This is probably the most spectacular. But there are others.

Some were painted all over, like this one.

Others just had painted panels.

The performance began at 1.30 and we had to go through security, so we needed plenty of time. We waited for our tour guide outside the theatre, close to this fountain.

This is an image repeated at the start of the play.

Unfortunately, there were traffic jams outside Oberammergau so our tour leader did not get to us with the tickets until 1.15, by which time we were a bit stressed - and she was considerably more stressed. However, we did manage to pass security and take our seats before the performance began. 

I should explain that the Oberammergau Passion Plays are every 10 years, following a vow taken in 1634. There was plague in the area, and eventually it came to the village and 80 people died. So the villagers prayed to be delivered from plague, and vowed in return to put on the Passion Plays every 10 years if they were delivered. Since that time, nobody has died of plague. I didn’t ask about Covid!

We were originally booked for the 2020 presentation, but it had to be postponed until this year. I am told the next one will be 2030, and there will be an extra one in 2034 to celebrate 400 years of the presentation. All the parts are played by local people; the players have to commit to growing their hair, they must have their own hair - and their own beards, if they are older men. That would let me out, I’ve never been able to grow my hair successfully. 

Obviously, it has been much commercialised since it started. As I watched the scene with Christ driving the merchants out of the temple, I did wonder what He would make of the shops full of tat, and the expensive blankets and cushions being sold to stop you freezing to death during the 5 hours or getting a numb bum in the uncomfortable seats. 

I’d love to be able to post photos here, but all photos are forbidden and it’s quite strictly policed by marshals who watch like hawks and make you put the phone away. Nobody objected to photographs before the play began, fortunately.

You can probably see from this why we were in danger of freezing to death - the theatre is not really a building, it’s just a roof. And the temperature went down below 10 degrees once the sun went down, so we got very cold sitting still.

It’s not quite like the medieval miracle play cycles with which I’m familiar because it has been modernised. The most different thing is that the 5 hours are all devoted to the life of Christ. The earlier Bible stories get a nod in between scenes because the choir and soloists sing about other stories and there is a tableau at the back of the stage illustrating the story. The choir was excellent, as were the bass, soprano and contralto.  The tenor wasn’t as strong, but I suspect that was possibly because he was really more comfortable being a counter tenor, as became clear during one of his later solos. I assume all the singers and musicians are local too, along with the actors. Mostly, the actors were very good, though I thought the men were generally stronger than the women. It’s a demanding commitment for everybody. They have to commit to at least 80 performances. Performances are 5 days a week, and last for 5 hours; they are in two parts with a break half way for food. The main parts are all covered by 2 people so that’s about half the performances each, as it runs from mid-May to the first week in October. Heaven knows how you hold down a job as well. Our bus driver to collect us after the plays and take us to the hotel was one of the cast, an older man with a magnificent mane of white hair and a long white beard. He just said he played many of the parts, when asked. But he was also a good bus driver!

The plays were in German of course. But you get the English text in a book so you can follow it. You need a torch once it gets dark, of course. They sell those too. I used my phone. 

There were some wonderful set pieces which I wished I could have filmed. Fairly early on, we saw Jesus riding in to Jerusalem on quite a large donkey, with a huge crowd waving palm fronds and lots of excited children. 

Later, the casting out of the merchants in the temple was excellent. It featured several well-behaved sheep and goats, and a basket of white doves which were released at the end of the scene and flew up out of the theatre through the open part. 

The Roman soldiers were interesting. They wore round black helmets and black leather chest armour. Some had Roman looking kilts in grey, but the majority wore narrow grey trousers and jackboots. Their commander rode a horse. So did Herod, in a later scene, and he also had a camel! Sometimes it was hard to hear over the sound of the hooves on the floor, as there were several occasions when people rode horses around the stage. And I was trying to hear, because I was trying to follow the text, so I was listening for people’s names and the odd German word I might recognise. 

The riot scene, when the people shouted for Barrabbas to be saved, was particularly well done and must have been difficult to control, there were so many people on-stage. It wasn’t like a usual amateur production where a crowd is usually represented by about 5 people. The huge stage was filled with people and they yelled their heads off. You really felt they were rioting and would be hard to control. 

The second part had all the gruesome scenes. Judas really did hang himself. The scourging and the crown of thorns looked believably awful. And the crucifixion scene was, as you might expect, awful but mercifully, fairly short. Though I imagine it felt much longer to the unfortunate 3 men hanging there. 

I didn’t find the last scene, in the Garden of Gethsemane, very believable, as I didn’t think the women were as good as some of the men. But that could have been exhaustion on my part, after sitting for so long. 

It started at 1.30, and the first half finished at 4. Then we walked round to our designated restaurant for a meal. It took a while to collect the group, so it was long past 4.30 when we reached the restaurant. The meal was good and efficiently served, and we were back at the security checks by just after 6.30, in good time for the 7pm start. 

Everything was over by 9.30, but it seemed to take ages to collect everybody, then we had a fairly long walk to the bus. There were two hotels, ours being the second, and we had to check in and find our luggage which our tour leader had stored for us in the luggage storage room. So it was well after 11 when we reached our room, and midnight before the light was out and we could sleep. And I had to set the alarm for 5am.  - we had to leave the hotel at 5.45. 

Kramsach

Saturday 10th September 2022

Today was a free day, when we could choose whatever we wanted to do - or do nothing, of course. It was quite tempting to stay in bed! However, after breakfast, buses being few and far between, we decided to take a taxi to visit the Museum of Tyrolean Farms. This is a collection of traditional farm buildings, all of which are several hundred years old, brought from all over the area and re-erected here. It proved to be a fascinating visit.

This is one of the typical farmhouses. This one dates from 1577. The date is known because it was displayed over the two windows on the right.

This one has a central hall, with rooms on either side. There is a stable at the back, as it was usual to keep the animals here in the winter. In this case, the stable housed 12 cows, a horse, and some pigs and goats. Another house we saw had a separate pigsty, which might have been preferable. One of the houses has food stalls which could be moved up, since the stable was only cleared out once a year. So the accumulation of straw and manure rose up higher and higher so the floor was higher and the food stalls had to be moved up as well. When it was finally dug out, a pickaxe had to be used. We tried not to think of the smell! 

This one presumably had rather more frequent arrangements, judging by the gutter at the back of the animal stalls.

Most of the houses only kept a few cows - 8 or 9 was quite common. There would also be goats and a pig or two, as well as hens. Sheep were mentioned a few times as well. Most of the houses had chicken coops. We liked the arrangements for the hens in the house below.

This house has a little stair on the left for the hens to climb up at night. Their coop is inside against the ceiling of the stable, above the cows’ heads.

Maize could be grown in the milder climate of the area where this particular farmhouse originated. Those are cobs of maize hanging up to dry under the roof.

Inside the house, the kitchen would have been very smoky because the cooking was usually done over an open fire.

The bread oven was often outside

You can see this one has been pretty heavily used and consumed a lot of wood. Apparently, bread was baked once a month.  I would guess it must have been pretty hard by the end of the month, if the bread I bake is anything to go by!

The parlour was usually heated by a stove, and had simple wooden furniture. Nothing looked very comfortable.

This was one of the better furnished ones, some of the houses had very little furniture. 

Although there was sometimes a downstairs bedroom - especially in the case of farms where there was an extended family and the older members might be less able to manage the stairs. This was not surprising, I found some of the stairs quite difficult as they were frequently steep and narrow, and always poorly lit. In fact, all of the houses were extremely dark inside. The bedrooms upstairs were very simply furnished, sometimes with just beds and a chest for storage. This one has more furniture.

This was about the only house I saw with a rug on the floor. The spinning wheel was more commonly found downstairs, and most houses seemed to have one.

All of the bedrooms we saw had a pot under the bed. Apparently, there was sometimes a channel on the wall for the men to use to urinate at night; we saw one that went down to the lavatory at the side of the house. The women had to use the pot. I only saw one lavatory, attached to the back of the house, which I unaccountably failed to photograph, but I imagine all the houses had one. 

All of the houses had very high thresholds to each doorway, you had to step over very carefully. I imagine this was so there were no draughts under the door.

There was no running water in the house of course.

This seems to have been the most usual arrangement, though there was no pump handle, so this one must have worked by water pressure. Goodness knows what happened in a drought! One or two houses had water supplied like this, another had a well.

As well as keeping the animals, people grew vegetables in little vegetable plots and made cheese. Many houses had a cellar to keep the cheese cool while it matured. Inside, there were huge cauldrons to heat the milk, as well as churns and cheese presses.

I would imagine cheese was made in most of the houses, I’m not sure about butter.

Most of the houses had a spinning wheel, but there was only one where I saw a loom.

Plenty of sheep must have been kept, judging by the number of spinning wheels I saw, but not much mention was made of them on any of the information boards. Goats were more often mentioned, and both animals could have been used to make cheese, of course.

The whole community would have had to work together to build a mill like this one.

This is an overshot wheel, with a long channel being used to bring the water from a nearby pond. There was a simple chain to pull the water channel over or away from the mill wheel. The same channel also served a sawmill in the distance as well as a small nail forge behind it. 

The sawmill was quite ingenious

You can see where the water comes down the steep channel on the right to turn the wheel. The power from the wheel was converted into 2 different movements. The rectangular frame holding the saw blade moves vertically, while the carriage runs horizontally on rollers. With the huge amount of wood being used, I imagine there was some need for a mechanical means of sawing it up.

Other community buildings include 2 tiny chapels and the schoolhouse.

Obviously in the classroom here the emphasis was on reading, writing and simple arithmetic.

As well as the two chapels, we encountered boards marking the Stations of the Cross as we walked round. I’m more familiar with these being in a church, but of course the chapels in these villages were too tiny, so it made sense to arrange the Stations of the Cross outside. I don’t know whether they were permanent or only there around Easter.

I can’t end this without posting the photo of the oldest building in this collection.

This house dates back to a period between 1200 and 1280. It is what is called a housebarn, the stable being that stone built part on the left. It has the threshing floor above it. The stable could house 4 cows, some calves, 3 pigs and 5 sheep. The living quarters were on the right of the door, and all the ground floor rooms communicate directly with the kitchen. There are poles in the kitchen to hang meat for smoking.

We were pretty exhausted after walking round all these houses, which are arranged so you can follow a circuit. The circuit ends at a restaurant, so we were able to go in for something to eat and drink, before going back to the museum entry building to view some films about the museum and old Tyrolean customs, and to see an exhibition of handcrafts. Then we went down the hill to the car park where we were able to catch a bus back to Kramsach, which dropped us a fairly short walk from our hotel.

At supper, our guide explained the next 2 days to us. Tomorrow it’s early breakfast as we leave at 8 for Oberammergau, and our luggage with go to our hotel in Garmisch-partenkirchen, where we will not rejoin it until about 10 o’clock at night after the plays. Our bus will leave us in Oberammergau without any luggage as we are not allowed to take anything much into the plays. 

Then we will have a very short night because we must leave at 5.45 am on Monday morning to drive to Munich to catch our plane. So details of the last day of our holiday, which is Sunday, will not be posted until Monday or Tuesday. I don’t imagine I will have many photos of our last day, I can hardly be taking photos at the plays, so it could be quite a boring post, which I might be able to do at the airport I suppose.

Neuschwanstein

Friday September 9 2022

Today we set off just after 8 am in driving rain for a two and a half hour drive to Neuschwanstein. We drove past Innsbruck and then into the Alps, and crossed into Germany. We weren’t really able to appreciate the scenery, which was spectacular, because of the rain and low clouds. The motorway traffic was slow moving, and once we were off the motorway, we were stuck behind a tractor. Our guide had to collect our tickets by 10.30, or else they would be re-sold, and she only made it with about 3 minutes to spare! 

We had not realised that the bus stops at Hohenschwangau, considerably below the castle. From there, it is a very long climb to the castle, though you can take a fiacre or the shuttle bus. When you get out of the bus, it’s still at least a 15 minute climb up to the castle. Once inside, there are 73 steps up a spiral staircase to where the tour begins on the first floor. After that, there’s a further 96 steps to the next two floors. So that’s 169 steps up. On the way down, there are 251 steps. Some of our party, who were even older than us, or more infirm, elected to stay in Hohenschwangau when they learned of all this. 

As well as a little settlement, there is also a castle at Hohenschwangau where King Ludwig ll of Bavaria, the builder of Neuschwanstein, grew up. 

This castle is not as new or as spectacular as Neuschwanstein. It is possible to take a photo of it though. It isn’t really possible to take a photo of Neuschwanstein without a drone. So I’m dependent on a photo of a photo.

You can see how spectacular it is - and how come there are so many stairs to climb up and down! 

We caught the shuttle bus up, then climbed the last bit - rather slowly, in my case. Part of the way along, there are some amazing views.

That’s the little settlement of Hohenschwangau on the lake on the left, below Hohenschwangau castle. You can see how much higher up we are. 

Our tour was at 12.05. At 12pm we were allowed through the main gate into the castle courtyard, and 12.05 we were allowed in. No photos are allowed inside, so once again I am relying on photos of photos. It was so overwhelming you need something to look at to remember it all. 

Some of the rooms have wooden panelling near the floor, in others, that area is painted. Above that, every surface is covered with patterns and garlands, surrounding huge paintings, either of biblical subjects, or of mythical scenes from German legends. And everything is gilded, and there are coloured marble columns and mosaic floors.

This is the throne room, 15 metres high and 20 meters long. The floor is mosaic, and the chandelier is gold plated brass.

The king’s bedroom is equally splendid, a gothic style room with oak carvings. Paul took this photo of a photo, and it isn’t as clear as I would like, but it does give you a flavour of the room.

The bed is large because the king was 6 ft 4. The wall paintings are scenes from Tristan and Isolde. The king was very fond of Wagner operas, so many of the paintings in the castle represent scenes from Parsifal or Lohengrin or Tannhäuser.

The Singers’ Hall is especially sumptuous. The king designed it for concerts, though it was never used in his lifetime.

The wall paintings show scenes from Parsifal. The ceiling is carved pinewood. We were particularly taken with the painting from the stage end, where the singers would perform.

This illustration is the garden of the magician Klingsor, an evil magician in the Parsifal story who has sworn to destroy the Knights of the Grail. The garden was supposed to be peopled by flower maidens whom he had trained to seduce the knights, though the maidens seem to be missing in this painting. I don’t know why, because in the King’s study there’s an illustration showing Tannhäuser in the Venusberg with 4 completely naked ladies. 

After all this sumptuousness, we stopped at the café for some lunch, it being lunch time. I was glad to sit down for a while. Then we descended the first lot of stairs down to the kitchens. Here we were allowed to take photos.

The king was always alone when he visited the castle. He was something of a recluse. There were usually about 30 servants in the castle, and this number was doubled when the king was visiting. So the large kitchens were really necessary. 

There were still more stairs after this, and a long passage to the exit, then the long walk to the shuttle bus. We had time to look inside a few shops before were were back in the bus ready to set off back to Kramsach.

We made a comfort stop half way back at Fernsteinsee, a particularly pretty lake 

The swan boats are obviously a reference to Lohengrin. And the swan was a particular favourite of King Ludwig. There is also a small castle, but nothing like as spectacular as Neuschwanstein. 

We were back at the hotel in time for dinner, after a long slow journey. We have a free day tomorrow, I may just do a lot of sleeping since we have had an exhausting few days. 

Achensee, Pertisau and Rattenberg

Thursday September 8th 2022

At least we had a slightly longer time in bed this morning, as our bus wasn’t leaving until 9.20, but it was raining hard and quite cool. This was the day we really did need jumpers, raincoats and umbrellas! 

To reach Achensee, which is a lake high up in the mountains, the bus took winding roads and hairpin bends up the mountain. Views were impossible through the driving rain, and the clouds were low. This was my best photo through the bus window, which was a village we passed on the way up, on the flat shoulder of the mountain.

The church is fairly typical of the area, austere outside with a very tall spire.

It was still raining miserably when we arrived at Pertisau at the southern end of the lake, and we got out of the bus and waited in the rain for the boat to take us to the north of the lake, 9km away.

A couple of boats like this ferry people between the villages around the lake, I think there’s quite a lot of local traffic of both people and supplies, and usually rather more tourists than there were today. One of our party wondered how on earth they got a boat that size up to the lake. It’s more than 950m above sea level and the road is narrow and winding and full of 180 degree bends and has quite a few low roofed areas because of avalanches or landslides. We can only conclude they take it up there in bits and assemble it.

Being wimps, we sat inside and drank hot coffee, so my photos through the windows were rubbish - full of reflections and obscured by raindrops. It would have been a lovely trip with beautiful views in sunny weather. When we arrived at the north of the lake, our bus met us and took us back to Pertisau where we were meant to spend the day. Only one person actually wanted to stay for the day, so the rest of us agreed to leave after lunch. 

Interestingly enough, Pertisau was the village that was supposed to house the school in the series of books about The Chalet School. Probably only people my age would remember them. They were written in the 1930s and the village was given another name, but this is the village where the original stories were set. Around 1938 or 39, the stories were moved to Switzerland, for obvious reasons. I think I only ever read one of them, I didn’t like them but they were popular at my school - my primary school that was, we’re probably talking 1953 or 54. I always though they were set in Switzerland anyway, as I associated the word ‘chalet’ with Switzerland.

On a nicer day, we would probably have taken the cable car up one of the surrounding mountains, but the clouds today were so low it’s doubtful whether we would have seen anything. It stopped raining after a while, and we wandered along the shore line admiring the scenery - or at least, the bits we could see.

This is the view looking south. It really is a pretty place, and I understand it is a centre for hiking, cycling, sailing and wind and kite surfing - apparently it can get quite windy there. At least we didn’t have that to contend with!

There’s a platform you can climb to get a better view of the place, so we duly climbed it and found the view slightly better.

This is the view looking north. The weather was gradually improving, and we set off back towards the bus, pausing only for a cheese toastie for lunch on the way. We needed something warm!

Back on the bus, we set off down the mountainside again, pausing to photograph the little cog train which terminates nearby. I’d like to have gone for a ride on it, it looks so charming.

This is the dear little engine, you might not be able to see it but his name on the front is Theodor, and he is 135 years old. Apparently you never know what will happen if you choose to ride on the train, as it often breaks down. I don’t know if you are left stranded half way up or down a mountain or if they rescue you. Apparently, it’s the oldest cog railway in Europe.

A bit further down, we stopped again to photograph the view 

The clouds were still low and it was quite damp. The place where we stopped had an automaton, a Tyrolean band which played a yodelling song when you put in €1. Our guide put in the money and made us listen to it. 

Once down again, we set off for Rattenberg, a small town full of medieval buildings painted in pretty pastel colours.

The town specialised in glassmaking, so there were lots of retail opportunities. Some of the glassware was somewhat reminiscent of Murano.

However, everything was very expensive, and I didn’t think I’d stand much chance of getting anything home in one piece, so I admired but didn’t buy. We decided to visit the church instead. This was a disappointment. The exterior was austere, not unlike the one at the top of this post. The interior I could only describe as some sort of rococo nightmare.

I had the impression that any surface had to be adorned with gilt, or stucco or paint, and frequently all three. Don’t miss the twirly blue columns on the far right, supporting a canopy covered in gilt and stucco. This photo doesn’t show much of the ceiling, which has trompe l’oeil pained panels, surrounded by pained garlands, gilt and more stucco. Paul took no photos at all - he said it was not an experience he wanted to remember! 

Amongst the medieval houses I really liked was this one, with wooden galleries at the back

The walls look really thick, especially at the base, and I liked the panels in relief and the single painting.

My back was quite uncomfortable by then, so I rested on a bench while Paul walked around a bit. There was a museum but we didn’t really have time to see it, and I needed to be sitting down anyway. So we went back to the bus, which was waiting for us and returned us to the hotel.

At dinner I got the newsflash from the BBC about the Queen’s death, so was able to pass this on to the rest of our party. Nobody knew what to say. It wasn’t unexpected, but she’s been Queen for so long we just expected her to be there for ever. I’m not particularly a royalist, but she has been a constant in our lives for so long, and seemed to embody things we no longer appear to value, like hard work, integrity and duty. So we are all very sad. And it seems odd to be out of the country when it happened. 

Salzburg

Wednesday September 7th

It was another rainy day to start with, but we were more prepared for sun and heat later in the day, so this time we left the jumpers and raincoats behind. We set off very early for Salzburg, but soon encountered problems on the motorway. There were miles of roadworks and the traffic was at a complete standstill, so we left the motorway for smaller roads. This meant driving slowly through small towns and villages, but at least we were moving, unlike the motorway traffic. We were fascinated by the number of churches with onion domes like this one - not a very good photo, taken through the windscreen of the moving bus in the rain, but it’s typical of some of these churches.

The journey took two and three quarter hours, so we didn’t arrive until 11.15, and we then embarked on a 2 hour guided tour of the city - which probably explains why I am so exhausted. There were two guides, but one said she would go more slowly for the older members of the group, so we joined the other one because it’s slow walking that aggravates my back problems.

We began at the Mirabell Palace, built in 1606 by one of one of the Prince bishops of Salzburg for himself and his mistress. Salzburg was not originally part of Austria, it was an independent principality which was part of the Holy Roman Empire, and was ruled by a series of Prince bishops. It was annexed to Austria in 1805. 

Part of the palace is now administrative offices but the Marble Hall is accessible to the public and is a popular location for weddings. The gardens have been public since the 19th century and are laid out geometrically. As well as the fountain you can see in the background, they contain many mythology themed statues.

From here, we walked into the town past the marionette theatre and paused to look at the Mozart Residence.

The Mozart family lived here from 1773 (when Mozart was about 17) until 1787, in an eight-roomed apartment on the first floor. It’s now a museum. We had hoped to visit later, but there was no time.

We walked on down to the river Salzach, pausing to look briefly at the house where Herbert Von Karajan was born, and then crossed the river into the old town. The Main Street here is called Getreidegasse and is lined with shops and historic houses, of which the most notable is Mozart’s birthplace.

The Mozarts lived here in a small apartment on the second floor, also now a museum. We did manage to visit this later. 

There are many medieval buildings in the town, and to draw attention to their age, the date they were built is often displayed on the building. 

The handsome pink one here was originally built in 1300, as you can see. The other date, 1999, is the date of the last renovation. Adjacent to the church of St Peter, which we visited shortly afterwards, there is a restaurant which claims to have been open since 803. The church and monastery of St Peter dates back to the 7th century, and the building that houses the restaurant was documented as being an inn in 803. 

St Peter’s also has a fascinating old cemetery with catacombs just nearby. 

It’s rather crowded, and only notable people were buried here. The catacombs are not underground tunnels, they were built into the rock face you can see here - you may notice some of the tiny windows. The monks lived here, and the guide didn’t mention anything about them being used to bury bodies, so I’m not sure why they’re called catacombs.

We passed on through the Residenzplatz to view the Salzburger Glockenspiel, set at the top of a tower.

There are 35 bells, covering 3 octaves, and it can play over 100 different pieces of music. Quite a few of these pieces are by Mozart, either father or son. It only plays 3 times a day though, and unfortunately, none of the times was while we were in the city. 

You cannot fail to notice the lorry here at the front of the photo and the wooden stage in front of the lorry. This is because Salzburg is getting ready to celebrate my birthday. Yes, really! September 24th is the name day of St Rupert, patron saint of the city of Salzburg, and there are huge celebrations all over the city. I wish I could be there. 

After the tour was over, we took ourselves off to Mozart’s birthplace, to visit the museum there.

The apartment really is very small, just a kitchen, a living room, a bedroom, a study, and a small store room. Mozart’s parents rented this apartment and lived in it for 26 years. 7 children were born there. Only 2 of the children survived though, Wolfgang and his sister.

This is the kitchen

The stove was masonry and the firewood was stored at the side. The kitchen would be smoky and soot would build up on everything so there were few furnishings. This kitchen was luxurious in that it had a drain in the window sill to get rid of waste water. Many people kept chickens in the kitchen, though it isn’t known if the Mozart family did.

There were various artefacts, possessions of Mozart or his family. One nice touch was his little violin, which he received at the age of 6. He could already play both the piano and the violin by the age of 5.

This is a replica of Mozart’s piano.

There’s a letter from his father mentioning how often the piano had to be carried out of Mozart’s house in Vienna to be taken to wherever Mozart was giving a concert. More than 12 times during his visit to his son, he claimed.

The museum also has Mozart’s clavichord. 

According to his wife, Mozart used this instrument to compose The Magic Flute, La Clemenza di Tito, and the Requiem. 

After this, I was beginning to flag a bit so we went to a cafe for some refreshments. After that, there was little time left so we visited St Peter’s church, which was, disappointingly, rococo inside though the exterior was quite austere.

We met the rest of our group and I sat to rest while everybody assembled and was counted. I was sitting behind this instrument.

I’m not sure what you would call it. The side facing me is a Hygrometer which records the humidity - 70% in today’s case. And one of the other sides records the temperature - 30 degrees. I was too exhausted to examine the other two sides.

We then had a route march back to the bus, which took nearly half an hour. Coaches are not allowed in the city centre. Once in the bus, it was decided to avoid the motorway which was still having problems, so we drove back to the hotel using much smaller roads. The journey took two and a half hours but was through some interesting scenery.

I’m hoping tomorrow will be less exhausting. Apparently, according to the weather forecast,  it will also be pouring with rain. We might well need the raincoats this time!