These giant ice caves are located outside Salzburg in
Austria, and
in October 2002 I ventured deep in to them to explore the underworld. The
beautiful Salzburg
was my "base camp".
Photo. The beautiful Hohensalzburg Fortress in Salzburg.
This city is associated with Mozart, locations from the
famous movie Sound of Music, historical sites listed on the World Cultural
Heritage list, big castles, the Hitler's Eagles Nest and Castle Werfen that
became famous in the movie "Where the eagles dare" about incidents during the
Second World War). These are some of the great opportunities to experience in
beautiful city.
To the east of city is the beautiful lake district, das
Salzkammergut, which perhaps many know as a song too. For they who really want
to experience something unique, the enormous Eisriesenwelt ice caves are a must.
Salzburg, also called
the "Mozart's city" and the "City of the Sound of Music", is
Austria's
fourth largest city with 150.000 inhabitants, and its second most visited after
Vienna
. For they who have time, it's possible to
tour around in the city to get an insight into the Gothic,
Renaissance and the Baroque aspects. There are plenty of historical and architectural
landmarks in the beautiful city.
Salzburg has
stood here since pre-Roman times, but the city reached the height of its
influence in the 16th and 17th centuries as an independent city-state under the
rule of its Prince-Archbishops, and funded by profits from the salt trade (its
name in German is literally "salt town").
Salzburg's influence
waned in the 18th century, although every cloud has a silver lining and in
Salzburg's case it was
that many of the city's old buildings weren't destroyed in the name of
"progress". As a result Salzburg boasts a well
preserved Old
Town, a UNESCO
World Heritage site, looking pretty much as it would have 300 years ago, and its
most impressive and visible monument, Hohensalzburg
Castle. At the
end of the Napoleonic wars Salzburg was
incorporated into Austria,
where it has stayed ever since.
Salzburg is a
Mecca for
shopping where you can find the most beautiful, useful and useless things: clothes,
arts, crafts, souvenirs and whatever. Especially the jewelleries were
beautiful. Undependable of the season you can find both things for Christmas and
Eastern. In the city centre I noticed that there was a shop at one side of the
street where you can buy gifts and decorations for Christmas, and at the other side
of the street there was a shop where you can buy gifts and decorations for
Eastern. It's easy to be infected of the shopping syndrome as my travel companion
became, and it's so hard to cure.
The city of
Salzburg is located
next to the Prealps and therefore very much influenced by the Alpine climate.
Winters are usually quite cold and dry, snow can be found pretty often. Summers
are hot and friendly; however, rainy periods occur and can last for a couple of
days in the 'worst case'. Summer and winter are the busiest seasons with the
city pretty crowded. Spring and autumn are quieter, but just as enjoyable, which
I can confirm.
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart was born on 27 January in 1756, as the seventh child of
"Salzburg's royal
chamber musician" Leopold Mozart (1719 - 1787) and his wife, Anna Maria Walpurga
née Pertl of St. Gilgen near Salzburg (1720 -
1778). At a very early age, the two surviving children, Maria Anna, known as
"Nannerl" (1751-1829) and her younger brother Wolfgang, displayed an
extraordinary musical talent.
|
Photo.
Mozart, Mozart, play a song!
Statue
made of bronze of Salzburg's most
famous son, Mozart, on Residence Square. |
 |
Since I couldn't
hear Mozart play, I bought two CDs with Mozart-music, performed by London
Philharmonic Orchestra ("dirigent" Alfred Scholz), which are well worth to
listen on. My favourite symphony is "Symphonie 4 C-Dur KV 551 "Jupiter". Turn up
the volume on your stereo and feel that you soar in the air. And don't forget to
eat your Mozart chocolate and drink your Mozart chocolate liquor. Then you
become totally lost in Mozart too.
In Getreidegasse
no. 9, is where the Leopold Mozart family lived from 1747 to 1773. Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart was born here on 27 January in 1756. Today the rooms once
occupied by the Mozart family house a museum.
|
Photo. Mozart's birthplace in
Getreidegasse no. 9 seen in the late evening. This place is like a
pilgrim's shrine to lovers of Mozart. |
 |
Mozart and his
wife travelled to Salzburg (1783) and
twice to Prague in 1787 to
attend the performance of "Le Nozze di Figaro" and the première of "Don
Giovanni" K. 527. His last two successful operas were "La Clemenza di Tito" K.
621, which had première in Prague on
6 September,
1791 and "Zauberflöte" (Magic Flute) K. 620,
at the Freihaustheater in Vienna. Mozart died in
the house in Rauhensteingasse in which he had composed "Zauberflöte" and his
unfinished "Requiem" K. 626 on 5 December in 1791 at the age of 35 years of
"heated miliary fever".
The film Amadeus
was released for 1- 2 years ago. It's said that it offended Salzburger pride.
The inhabitants there were not bothered that the film became a hit and spawned
designer clothes, Swiss wristwatches, and a rock tune of the same name. It
wasn't the poor taste that bothered Salzburgers or even that the movie was as
much fiction as fact. Rather. It was that not one scene was set in
Salzburg, even though
the composer had lived there for twenty-five of his thirty-five years on earth.
What a great paradox!
The Sound of Music
locations
Visitors to
Salzburg would have a
great enjoyment to see the locations in the city, where the movie Sound of Music
was recorded in 1964. It's based on a true story about the family Trapp and
their life during the Second World War. Baron George von Trapp, a retired
captain, refused to serve in the Nazi army force, and had to escape together
with his musical family and the nun Maria.
| Photo. Cover from the movie "The sound of music". |
 |
The scene with
Julie Andrews (playing Maria), singing Edelweiss along with the children and
their father in the beautiful Austrian Alps, is something I never forget.
Especially amongst fans from overseas the film has reached a unique status and
incredible popularity, and many of them dream of following Maria's footsteps at
least once in their life. Following the enormous success of the stage musical
"Sound of Music" (written and composed by Rogers and Hammerstein - the work was
performed on Broadway almost 1500 times, won 6 Tony awards and sold more than 3
million records), Robert Wise produced and directed the film with the same name.
UNESCO world's cultural
heritage
Two significant
cultural sites in Austria were
placed on UNESCO's list of the world's cultural and natural heritage on
1 January
1997: Salzburg
Old City and
Schönbrunn
Palace.
Hohensalzburg Fortress
Hohensalzburg
Fortress, built in 1077 by Archbishop Gebhard, considerably enlarged by
Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach (1495-1519), one of the largest,
fully-preserved fortress in central Europe.
Photo. Panorama view from the Festung or Hohensalzburg Fortress, the main
landmark of Mozart's city. It is the largest, fully-preserved fortress in
central Europe.
"Fiaker" - sightseeing by
horse cab
Fiakers were
once Salzburg's taxi transport. Today Fiakers are very popular as a
tourist attraction. A romantic Fiaker ride is a pleasant way to see the city
centre for hot loving couples.
Photos. It can
sometimes be romantic between the horses too. Here you
see a loving couple that can't hide their strong emotions.
This article continues in
part 2 - read about the incredible Eisriesenwelt ice caves.
Stein Morten Lund, 25
November 2002
Additional
information
Practical
information about the Eisriesenwelt ice caves:
·
The caves are closed during winter. The
alpine circumstances are much danger at this time of the year. It will be
reopened at 1
May 2004.
·
Mountain road: the road from village
Werfen up to the parking area over approximately 5 km is now opened for all
vehicles (also all coaches without extra longness of more than 14 metres)
·
The Eisriesenwelt can be reached on the
Tauern motorway (A10), on the trunk road from Salzburg or by train.
They are situated near the village Werfen about 40 kilometres (approximately 30
miles) south of Salzburg city. The
mountain-road (with maximum gradient of 21%) up to the parking area situated at
an altitude of 1000 metres above sea level, is now opened to all vehicles up to
14 metres length.
For more
information about these incredible huge ice caves, look at the website www.Eisriesenwelt.at
For general
information, contact the Tourist Information in Salzburg.
Party life:
We had a great
party at Shamrock, an Irish Pub at Rudolfskai 10, the mentioned weekend. The pub
is located in the centre of the city on the
Old
Town's upriver
from State
Bridge. It has a
décor of an Irish Pub, and the atmosphere was great even it can't compares with
traditional Irish pubs, especially not them in Dublin. Here we drank Guinness,
black as the Liffey
River in
Dublin. The pub also
offered Austrian beer, Irish and Scotch Whiskeys. The music was both live and
disco. Little bit Irish music was played as far I remember, but it was mostly
modern pop music. For people who like to dance there is a narrow floor by the
stage where they can jump and swing around. The pub is closing late, so just
hang on as long you can!
| Photo. It was real rock`n roll from the stage at the Irish Pub,
Shamrock. |
 |
The
spectacular Olsen's Capricorn Caves in Australia
The spectacular
Capricorn Caves are a unique system of above-ground caves in a limestone ridge
situated 23 kilometres north of Rockhampton (in Queensland in the North East
part of Australia, not so far from Cairns). These ancient caves have attracted
visitors since their discovery by the Norwegian pioneer John Olsen in 1882.
Today, they are the only privately owned show caves in
Australia.
Read more about these
incredible caves on our website (Travel
Explorations)!
E-mail this
Print this
