Mondsee

Up at 7:30 today, just in time for sunrise...

I wrote up my notes on the balcony, sipping an orange juice, then checked the map for possible destinations for the next four days....

Wildpark? St Wolfgang? St Gilgen? Mondsee? Steinbach? Attersee? Wolfgangsee? Zell am Moos? Linz?

For breakfast this morning we had toast with background music provided by Eno's "On Land" and a Schubert String Quartet...

We decided to drive down to St Wolfgang via Ebensee...

The countryside was stunningly beautiful as we drove all the way to the far end of the choppy lake of which I took a quick photo...

Then we parked up and queued for tickets for the famous St Wolfgang train that takes you up the mountain...

Most people queuing were OAP types on bus trips and we spent around an hour all told in the queue before finally getting on the train. We managed to get good seats with spectacular views as the steam engine pulled the few carriages up the mountainside on a twisty windy track...

A highlight of the 40 minute trip was the dog which rode on the engine platform and kept sticking its head out to see what was going on...

We alighted almost at the summit, from where we had a panoramic view of the whole mountain range...

Then we climbed to the top where, at the back of the main building, there was a sheer drop. From this vantage point we could see the Mondsee, the Attersee and several other lakes and mountains - the weather was clear and bright...

Birds were jumping off the fence into the abyss and I had an idea for a children's book - "The Bird Who Was Afraid of Heights" - that wouldn't do...

We had a drink on the terrace as there were no seats at the small cafe - then we headed to the main restaurant and secured an outdoor seat. I enjoyed a baked potato with roasted veg and sour cream while Anne partook of the Gulaschsuppe - both were declared very tasty indeed...

Then it was back to the train, where a few of the oldies were already onboard, claiming their seats early - we managed to get the same seats as we had on the ascent but the trip back down wasn't quite as exciting - I suppose it never is...

It was very hot though...

We got back to the car at 14:50, around 4 hours since we first boarded the train, then we drove all the way round the lake to St Gilgen where we had some difficulty in finding a place to park...

Having eventually succeeded, we walked down into the town and sat by the lakeside enjoying a better ice cream than yesterday's as we watched a heavily pregnant girl hiring out motor boats to tourists...

From here we could also see the building way up at the top of the mountain where we'd been lunching a couple of hours before...

We walked back up through the town taking a different route - the town has a Mozart connection in that his grandfather worked in St. Gilgen, his mother was born here, and his sister moved to St. Gilgen after she got married...

We drove on to Mondsee - a bigger town but less touristy than St Gilgen - we parked at the North End and quickly found the Mondsee Schloss or palace, where there is a large Music School. A choir was singing some works by Schubert tonight but the tickets, at 40 Euros a pop, were a bit on the expensive side, so we passed...

The Mondsee church above is the one used to film the wedding in "The Sound of Music"

Again we walked down through the town to the lakeside and had a relaxing seat on the water's edge while a child had fun jumping into the lake...

We could see the top of the mountain again...

We decided not to stay in Mondsee but to continue on round the lake taking a different route back "home" to Traunkirchen, where we would eat...

So we drove back via Attersee then up via Ebersee and reached Traunkirchen at 7pm, parked and made our way into the restaurant of the poshest hotel in town...

I had a Weissbier while Anne had a large glass of local wine. We each had soup - Anne had chicken while I opted for mushroom. Anne's main dish was a schnitzel with potatoes and salad while I enjoyed Gnocchi with Creamy Mushrooms and green salad (mushroom overload!!)

We were accidentally overcharged for drinks but the staff were very apologetic when we brought it to their attention...

Back home, whilst drinking more wine and beer, we watched some football, Germany beating South Africa 4-2 and Hungary losing to Sweden 1-0 - although we missed 3 of the 7 goals while flicking through the channels...

Finally, we got the results from around Europe tonight. We saw highlights of England losing 1-0 to N Ireland and then, after 3 hours of watching, we saw highlights of Italy beating Belarus 4-1, after which they showed the table - Scotland beat Norway away 2-1 - but we're still 4th in the table.

Off to bed happy nonetheless...