DAY 101 WEDNESDAY JULY 4 THE COGWHEEL STEAM TRAIN

Another big outing today.  We caught the 150 bus to Strobl on the far side of lake Wolfgang and another bus to the village of St Wolfgang where hordes of people were waiting to take the little steam train ride up Sheep Mountain.  It is called Schafbergbahn and it climbs 1100 metres above the lake with inclines up to 26 degrees.

SCHAFBERG SEEN FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LAKE

We bought combined tickets for the train and the ship tour of the lake and had a look at the entrance to the train ride.

The axle at the front shows how the cog wheel operates, and the picture below shows a section of the track.

The next train was full so while we waited for our turn we sat next to the water at Lilli's Cafe on a beautiful warm, sunny day.

We are starting to feel like movie stars or jetsetters in these surroundings.  Our train was a diesel rail car but there were two steam trains which we passed on our way up the mountain.  This lady had great difficulty with the high entry steps and needed a push from her friend.

The guard has to work the points at the crossover sections

This was the first train we passed:

The steam trains were made in Switzerland and seemed quite new.  They weighed 16 tonnes.
There is a hotel at the top of the mountain at a height of 1782 metres.

We climbed up the path to the hotel

 We saw many beautiful wild flowers up at this height that were not around at lake level

From the hotel we looked down on the top station for the tracks.

The views were obstructed by the cloud wafting around the top of the mountain.

We inspected the steam engine at close range while waiting for the train we were booked on in the queue to come down.

At the bottom again we boarded the ship named "Oesterreich" (Austria).  It belongs to the Wolfgangschifffahrt Service.

We had lovely views of the mountains and cliffs as we returned to the town of St Gilgen.  We could see the Schafbergbahn going up the hill in the distance.

The Fuschl band was due to give its weekly concert at 8.30pm so we sat in the Church Square and watched them march down the street to their places on the stage, playing Austrian music.

The 15 year old Aleksander Bramstetter stole the show again with his rendition of the William Tell Overture on the Xylophone.  They announced that he had won first prize in the Austrian Competition for Percussion. They played the Stars and Stripes as it was July 4.  Another great night's entertainment.