Conversation with Mozart - Austria & Germany, Nov. 2005

I had an opportunity to attend a work conference in Vienna so how could I turn it down?  Rita agreed to accompany me and I took an additional week of leave to make it a two week vacation.  We left Athens on Austrian Air on Sunday, October 30 and checked into the SAS Radisson Hotel where the conference was held.  The first week in Vienna was sort of boring for me having to sit in and listen to work related topics that will not affect me for very long.  It is difficult to get worked up about the State Department’s five-year IT strategic plan. 



There were old friends to see and some brought their wives whom Rita knew from Canberra.  We enjoyed going out to eat with them and did some fine dining on our own as well.  We did make it to the Hawelka Café but found out it did not really have much of a dinner menu so we ended up at the King of Hungary restaurant which turned out nice.  In the autumn, most western European restaurants serve game of some sort from October through Christmas and Austria is no exception (Greece is though).  So I ended up with a wild boar fillet with dumplings, lentils and red berries similar to cranberries.  Rita enjoyed her goulash which was thick and spicy.  She was surprised when her salad was served to find a jalapeño pepper in her raw vegetables – that’s not like Austria.



Over the rest of the week Rita spent her days hand-quilting or walking around with one of the wives.  She hit a few konditories and in the evenings we usually had schnitzel at our favorites like Figlmuller or Central Café.  One day we finished early so Rita and I walked to the Naschmarkt, an open air market with meats, fish, vegetables, flowers, etc.  After working up a hunger we went to Haas and Haas, a nice restaurant behind St. Stephan’s cathedral. 



This was our fourth trip to Vienna – once in the Hilton hotel, twice in the Radisson and, our first time in 1977, in a campground somewhere in the city.  We’re not tired of Vienna but we’ve seen it pretty well and we don’t get as excited about the city as we once did.  It is a beautiful city on a par with Paris or London.  Our weather in Vienna was overcast with some drizzle most days but it improved greatly as the conference ended.  Mozart informed us that Vienna had a very wet summer but a dry, mild autumn.  However, I’m getting ahead of myself.



Friday, November 4, our conference ended at noon and most everyone scattered.  Rita and I left our big suitcase at the Radisson and caught a cab to the south train station (Sudbahnhof).  We purchased round-trip tickets to Bratislava, Slovakia, a new country for us.  The train passed through pastoral farm country and we arrived in Bratislava in about an hour.  I have read that Vienna and Bratislava are the nearest two national capitals in the world.  Back in the days of the Austrian Empire, Bratislava was run by Germans who called it Pressburg. 



We stayed at the nice Carlton Hotel which is owned by Radisson and central to the small Old Town.  We checked in and immediately started walking the Old Town, stopping at St. Martin’s cathedral where Hungarian Kings and 8 queens (including Maria Theresa) were crowned.  The Old Town is nice and compact and can be seen in about half a day.  We had dinner at Slovenska, a “traditional Slovak restaurant”.  Rita had pork tenderloin encrusted in pepper with a saffron sauce.  I had the “farmer’s platter” which was a large wooden platter filled with sausage, pork ribs, beef tenderloin, chicken and different potato dumplings along with sauerkraut, gherkins and peppers.  It was too much but delicious.  We also found an inexpensive Slovak dry red wine that we liked – Frankovka Modra.  I did have room for a few bites of Rita’s fine apple strudel. 



Saturday morning we found Bratislava a ghost town.  We hiked up to Bratislava Castle, which has a commanding view of the city and Danube River.  We found a nice konditori, Maximillian, where we had thick, rich cocoa.  We toured Primatial Palace with a pretty chapel and Hall of Mirrors.  We had lunch at another Slovak restaurant, Staroslovenska Krcma, which was located in an old cellar.  I had the Slovak national dish of bryndzove halusky – potato dumplings (gnocchi) with melted sheep cheese and bacon sprinkled on top.  Yummy!  We also had Zlaty Bazant Slovak beer.  Then we checked out of our hotel and caught the train back to Vienna.



Sunday started off with a light drizzle in the morning which was the least of our problems.  We rented a car and were given an Alpha Romero 147, a mid-size four-door sedan with a control panel similar to a 747.  It had built in cell phone, and a GPS navigational system that we never figured out.  It had a CD already inserted and a woman (Helga?) kept giving us directions in German which, as best as we could understand, was telling us to get off at every exit and turn around.  It must have been programmed for somebody else, some other trip, and she didn’t like my driving.  We didn’t need that when Rita was trying to navigate us through Vienna onto the A-1 autobahn.  Finally Rita discovered the CD and took it out, silencing Helga for the remainder of our trip.  There were many other features on the car which we never figured out as all the manuals were in German – not our strongest language.



We headed west out of Vienna and stopped at the town of St. Polten where my great-great-grandfather, Ernst August Franke, mentioned he lived and worked for a few months in 1825-26 when he was a youngster rambling around Europe.  It was Sunday morning and the town was dead – about as dead as Bratislava Saturday morning.  We did find the nice Konditori Pusch open and had coffee and pastry along with a few other souls.  We walked around the pedestrian area with pretty, old buildings, churches, and Rathaus that would have been standing when Ernst Franke lived here. 



We returned to the autobahn and headed past Linz and Wels to Passau, Germany where we stopped for lunch.  We had lunch at Die Heilig-Geist Stiftschente, a guest house dating to 1358 with lots of character and adequate food.  Passau is a pleasant town situated at the juncture of three rivers – the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz.  Passau deserves a return visit with more time to spend strolling along the river walk.

We took a short ride in the country to “leaf peek” at the changing colors in the Bavarian Forest or Bayerischer Wald along the Czech border.  We took a back road, highway 85, to Schonberg and then highway 533 back to the A-3 autobahn.  We arrived in Regensburg as the sun was setting and checked into the Maximillian Hotel.  Soon we were walking the town where my ancestor, Ernst Franke, said he visited.  He mentions that he traveled from Regensburg to Vienna along the Danube River so he must have passed through Passau as well. 



Regensburg is much larger than I expected, especially the old town with narrow alleyways and charming medieval buildings.  There are many old churches in this town with St. Peter’s cathedral being the largest.  We stopped at the Baroque Alte Kapelle, as well, and walked across the old Steinerne (stone) Bridge, built between 1135 and 1146.  For dinner we ate beside the Danube at historic Wurstkuche, the oldest cooked sausage kitchen in Germany.  We had sausages, sauerkraut and beer of course.



Monday morning we walked the old town once more but with enough light to take photos.  We finished by 11:00 am and hit the road again.  We stopped in the pretty town of Landshut and walked through the town center with colorful medieval buildings.  Then we pressed on along highway B15 to Wasserburg and highway 304 to the pretty Chemisee lake with the Alps visible in the distance.  Chemisee is very scenic but built up as it is a major tourist area.  We tried to catch the boat to Herreninsel (men’s island) with its castle resembling Versailles but it was closed for the afternoon. 



So we continued the short distance to the village of Aschau and our destination for this evening, the Residenz Heinz Winkler.  Since today was my birthday we splurged and stayed at a nice hotel with a Michelin three-star restaurant where Heinz Winkler is the chef and owner.  The hotel was first class and a pastry was waiting for us in the room on check in.  We dressed up for the only time on this trip for a super dinner in the comfortable dining room.  Let me bore you with the menu.  We started with a flute of champagne and, as nice restaurants do, were offered a couple of free mini starters called amuse bouche, in French.  First was a cup of cream of arugula soup then a plate of three small samples, smoked salmon on cucumber salad, tomato and olive mousse, and a fried croquette of vegetables.  Next Rita ordered a starter of carpaccio of lobster with lemon grass vinaigrette while I had three kinds of goose liver – fried, mousse and pate.  For main courses Rita had saddle of veal with spinach while I had saddle of lamb in Mediterranean herbs with mixed vegetables.  For dessert Rita had lime parfait with mango and raspberries while I had a cheese soufflé with strawberries.  A bottle of Italian Russo de Montecino wine and coffee afterwards rounded out the meal.  Coffee came with chocolate truffles.  It was my nice birthday dinner but I felt over the top.



The next day was back to reality day.  We woke to howling winds which died down by the time we checked out of the hotel and were on the road.  We stopped for coffee and pastries on the road called the Germany Alps highway or Deutch Alpenstrasse.  The weather was excellent and the views of mountains superb.  We arrived in Berchtesgaden about noon and drove into the city center to look for hotels at the information center.  They were closed for lunch so we consulted our guide book and went looking for a place to stay out of town and up in the hills.  We found the Alpenhotel Denninglehen in the small village of Oberau.  It was remote, secluded and had great views of the valley below and mountains in the distance.  In fact, we could see Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest (Kehlsteinhaus) on a ridge from our balcony.  There were very few people staying at the hotel which is situated on the Rossfeld Panorama Strasse, a famous mountain road with views of the Salzach Valley.  We remained here for five days and four nights, sometimes the only guests in the hotel.  This just wasn’t the high season for this area which is mainly busy in summer and winter ski season.  We had exceptionally fine November weather.



We spent that afternoon with a drive over the Rossfeld Panorama Strasse but couldn’t visit the Eagle’s Nest since it closes in October.  You can’t drive your vehicle there but only visit via bus.  So we drove to Lake Konigssee and took a boat ride on this majestic Alpine lake to St. Bartholoma church and returned on the last boat just as darkness set in.  We made it back to our hotel room and balcony to watch a pretty sunset behind the mountains.  We ate at our hotel restaurant which was pleasant with good food.  On most nights we were the only patrons in the restaurant.



We both woke up in the middle of the night, too warm as the heat was beyond our control.  Rita opened up a window and called me to come look at the billions of stars in the clear mountain sky.  The weather was so mild that we slept with windows open most nights except toward the end of the week when it turned a little colder (near freezing).  We did, however, have a mild frost most mornings.



Wednesday we spent the entire day in the city of Salzburg, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.  We haven’t returned since our first visit in 1977 when we camped around Europe for three months.  It’s still beautiful.  We visited the Dom or cathedral, St. Peter’s church, the Franciscan’s church and Petersfriedhof or St. Peter’s unique church cemetery.  Here is where we found a historical movie about Mozart being filmed by a German TV crew and they were spraying artificial snow in the graveyard.  And this is where we met Mozart.  Actually he was the actor playing Mozart and we watched a scene that was filmed several times.  On one occasion he walked over in our direction and I asked him if he was Mozart.  He said “yes, indeed” and spoke good English.  So we struck up a short conversation with him and told him we thought he resembled Mozart.  He told us a little about the film and was very pleasant to talk to. 



We did our hike up to the Hohensalzburg castle fortress that stands out looking over the city.  The funicular was closed so walking was the only way up.  We recalled doing this same walk with two little crabby girls back in 1977 and realize now it must have been fairly difficult for their little legs.  We were tired when we reached the top but enjoyed a tour of the castle starting with the tallest tower with great views in all directions.  We saw the torture chamber (misnamed), old state rooms and the Rainer museum.  Finally we hiked back down into the city and had lunch at what some think is the oldest inn in Europe.  We dined at the Stiftskeller St. Peter which has been an inn since at least 803 when first mentioned – over 1200 years old.  I had schnitzel and Rita had roast pork with bread knudle and sauerkraut but the main course was dessert.  We ordered a Salzburger Nockerl, a large soufflé with raspberry sauce that is the dessert of this region.  It was delicious but was way too much for two persons. 



We toured the palace known as the Residence with beautifully furnished rooms.  After that we stopped at Café Tomaselli, opened in 1705, and had a coffee.  We saw the pretty horse trough called Pferdeschwemme and walked down the pretty Getreidegasse past Mozart’s birth place.  Next we walked down Judengasse, or the Jewish quarter, and finally back to the car and back to our hotel.  All we had room for at dinnertime was a bowl of soup.



Thursday we drove south past industrial areas along the Salzach River until the scenery became pretty once we crossed the Lueg Pass.  We saw the impressive Hohenwerfen castle but it wasn’t open to visitors.  We stopped at St. Johan in Pongau where we first skied as a family in 1980 or 1981 when we visited from Saudi Arabia.  We reminisced about skiing there and the Prem Hotel we stayed at and had our first Salzburger Nockerl.  The Prem Hotel burned down in 1983 and a plaque is on the new building that stands there now.  But the town has built up so much we hardly recognized it.  It was a small, Austrian farm village just 25 years ago and I had to park my car in a barn at that time. 



We pressed on through beautiful countryside over Pass Thurn, where I’ve skied a few times, and into Kitzbuhel where we’ve skied before too.  Kitzbuhel was quiet and pretty much closed down until the snow starts falling.  I wanted to eat at the Landstuhl but it was closed for the month.  We had an adequate meal at the Goldener Gans restaurant and drove back to our hotel via St. Johann in Tirol (where I’ve skied as well) and Berchtesgaden. 



Friday we drove east to the Alpine lake area of Austria.  We took the autobahn around Salzburg and east, exiting at the pretty town of Mondsee on the lake Mondsee.  We drove along the lake on highway 151 to the town of Au, then north alongside the Attersee lake through Seewalchen.  In Weyregg we stopped for coffee and pastry and bought some Mondsee cheese which tasted good but sure smelled up the car.  In the town of Steinbach we headed inland through pretty forests to Altmunster and Gmunden where we stopped for a walk.  All these lakes were very pretty and scenic but at times it was difficult to see much because of fog.  Gmunden had some fog too but we walked the pretty old town which must be very pleasant on a warm summer day.  We drove back to Altmunster and took highway 145 to Bad Ischl, a spa town with many bath houses.  This area was known for its salt mines and salt trade in the Middle Ages.  We had a good meal at restaurant Sissy then pressed on to the town of St. Wolfgang on Lake St. Wolfgang.  In 1977 we vividly remember waking up in a nearly deserted campground with the most beautiful views of the lake and surrounding mountains.  That view is still there but St. Wolfgang and the pretty nearby town of Strobt have built up for the summer tourist trade and seem to have lost their charm.



We continued back to our hotel where we thought we were the only guests for the night (we were the night before).  It is a common German/Austrian custom for adults to go swimming or to the sauna sans clothes and since I didn’t bring a swimsuit I asked if that was okay.  The lady at the desk said “sure, why not, I think you will be alone”.  Well Rita and I went down to the basement swimming pool.  She watched while I went skinny dipping, thinking of joining me, and sure enough a German couple walked in and they had swimsuits on.  Rita gave a laugh and deserted me right away – she wouldn’t even acknowledge knowing me.  I swam a short time and as they started to get into the pool I quietly walked out and wrapped myself in a towel to return to our room.  I was a bit embarrassed but not as much as Rita was to be around me.



Saturday we said our goodbyes to the hotel staff and checked out.  We headed east on the A-1 autobahn and stopped in Melk to see the beautiful Baroque church at the Melk Abbey.  We also discovered they had a nice restaurant so we had lunch there before pressing on.  We took the scenic drive on highway 3 along the Danube River, dotted with castles and vineyards but unfortunately the weather was foggy and overcast.  It would have been nicer in bright sunshine.  In the town of Krems we re-crossed the Danube and headed back to the A-1 which we took into Vienna and the airport hotel.  We turned in the rental car, spent the night at the airport hotel and flew back to Athens Sunday morning.



It was another nice visit to an area we like and where my ancestor visited nearly 200 years ago.  Oh, and Mozart says hello to all.