October 16, 2023

Dateline – Linz and Salzkammergut, Austria –

I was awoken early this morning by the ding ding ding of my phone text alarm. My siblings were communicating back and forth about the health of my father. He is in the hospital but it doesn’t sound overly serious and even though he turns 91 in a matter of weeks, he’s in the right place and in good hands and there’s not a lot I can do from 7500 miles away other than offer kibitz advice when asked. He was improving at last check so I’m hoping for nothing but good news moving forward. I may be a geriatrician but this does not mean I have discovered the fountain of youth for mine or anyone else’s aging parents. So don’t ask.

An hour and a half later, the planned alarm went off and I got up and breakfasted and looked at the weather. We were docked in Linz, close to the border of Germany, and a city I have not been to before. It’s mainly an industrial town so it’s not on the usual tourist itinerary. It was cold and foggy so I put on my winter jacket before getting on the bus and heading south towards the Alps. Most tour companies make the ninety minute trip to Salzburg (a place I have been before but not for some years). Tauck instead opted for us to go to the Salzkammergut, the countryside in the Tyrolean Alps outside of Salzburg centered around a series of Alpine lakes wedged in between the mountains. They made a wise choice. While Salzburg tends to be full of tour busses attending to Mozart and The Sound of Music, the small towns of the Salzkammergut were relatively free of tourists being late in the season.

We started in Attersee (on the lake of the same name). As we pulled into town, the morning fog bank was rapidly dissipating and although it remained nippy in the 40s, the sun was coming out and promising a beautiful day (it did not disappoint). On to a small touring boat for a five or six mile cruise down the length of the lake, with each view more heartbreakingly gorgeous than the last. Then off the boat at the little town of Unterach and back on the bus to wind around the base of the Schafberg to the town of St. Wolfgang. More incredible views including a mountain valley that I recognized immediately as being one which had decorated by 9th grade school binder. I remember wondering when I bought it just where those mountains were. Now I know…. The mountains, the lakes, the meadows, the small farms, the chalets, the onion dome churches. It wa like riding through the opening credits of The Sound of Music and I kept expecting to hear the overture piped in over hidden speakers.

The town of St. Wolfgang, on Wolfgangsee, was lovely and we had a couple of hours to explore the church, the winding streets, and even take a peek at Hotel Weissen Rossl (The Whitehorse Inn famous in the world of operetta), finishing up with lunch in an Alpenhaus restaurant that looked straight out of Epcot. The food was reasonable, especially the cherry chocolate cake for dessert. Then back on the bus and back to Linz past the Mondsee (where the Von Trapp villa scenes were filmed), arriving late afternoon, allowing a couple of hours to explore downtown Linz. (Large baroque central square and a couple of churches).

For dinner, it was the chef’s night to show off with a fixed menu (smoked duck and scallop appetizers, an amazingly good halibut, and a lovely chocolate mousse type dessert) before a musical entertainment in the lounge as we continued our up river sale. The musical entertainment was a salute to Austria. It was cute, but it wasn’t good. We’ve had goo music on this trip in general, but this one needs some help, or some additional rehearsal.

We’re in Passat tomorrow, our last full day on the river. I was also given notice that I have to be ready for my ride to the airport at the end of my trip by 3 AM. I’m thinking, as I will be in Berlin, that I just won’t bother to go to bed that night and sleep on the flights back.