So, I’m off again and this time it’s with my friends at the Railway Touring Company, taking Steam around the Austrian Lakes. I’ve been looking forward to this for some time. Firstly, it’s one of those Tours where we are in the same hotel all week!. Yup, no packing and re-packing and multiple hotels and connections. I usually do the more complicated itineraries, so this is a luxury that I’m enjoying. Secondly, we have some Steam coming up and it’s been a while since I enjoyed the welcoming sounds and smells of a steam locomotive. My steam cocks need a good venting! Thirdly, I’ve got help and support from a colleague, the excellent Andrew Thompson. What he doesn’t know about European railways probably isn’t worth knowing, so I can relax and let him do the rail stuff while I do the other aspects of the Tour. We’re a good team.
The final bit of good news is that our hotel is in the lovely Austrian city of Salzburg. It’s a very pretty place to be for a week and this morning we’ve been out exploring on a Free Day.
Th Weather Gods were being a little bit fickle this morning, but we can cope with that – we’re British! The city was the birthplace of Mozart, and they’re determined to make the most of it. In fact, everything everywhere is… mostly Mozart. Mozart Café, Mozart ice cream, plastic Mozart figurines, Mozart & Chips – you get the picture. The great man was born in a brightly coloured yellow house, and his statue graces a square. I found a small cemetery which seems to contain a relative of his, but it may not be. It could possibly be another branch of the Mozart family, otherwise unrelated… The Mozarts of Harrogate or something like that.
As we walked around this morning I found a row of horse carriages patiently lined up getting ready for a days work humping tourists around the streets.
Tomorrow we will enjoy a Paddle cruise on the Wolfgangsee and a steam charter at the spectacular Schafberg rack railway. If the weather is okay (needs to be dry and little wind) I’m going to try out the mini-drone for some aerial shots. I’m still learning, so could be fantastic photos or could be a dog – we’ll know tomorrow.
TimOnTheTrain 