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.

DAY 100 TUESDAY JULY 3 THE GENUINE SOUND OF MUSIC

WE HAVE SCORED A CENTURY of enjoyable days already, and so much more to come.  We feel like we are starting a new holiday every week.  After several days of hot sun,  there was a lot of thunder and lightning up on the bald mountains but we slept comfortably.  The day turned out to be misty, cloudy and wetter as the day moved on.  The Deputy Mayor said that Salzburg has a resident population of 150,000 but 350,000 come because of seeing the Sound Of Music.  The movie was never a hit in Austria or Germany but the rest of the world made it the most popular movie of all time.  So we joined the throng because if we came here and did not do the tour, Deb Holloman would rubbish us on Facebook.  We enjoyed every minute of it, Deb.  We learned that the opening scene of the movie was taken less than a kilometer up the hill from us in Fuschl.  We chose Panorama Tours and they had the gaudiest of all the coaches going the rounds today.

There were more than 20 different locations around Salzburg that were used in the film, despite the fact that most of the indoor shots were done in Hollywood with mockups.  The bus took us first to Leopoldskron Palace which was used as the von Trapp home and the lake (dug out manually for the archbishop) was where they fell out of the boat.

The dance scene where he proposed to Maria was on the balcony. We next went to Hellbrunn Palace where the replica of the gazebo is kept:

It was at this palace that the children were filmed climbing trees in playclothes made of curtain material.

The bus drove past Fuschl Lake and Wolfgangs Lake (named after the saint, not the composer, but his mother grew up there) and dropped us off at Mondsee which had been on the route of our bike ride last Thursday.  This is the largest of the local lakes.  We visited St Michael's Basilica in the town of Mondsee and found it very different from the sombre English Cathedrals. Bein in the Baroque style it was more colourful and bright but just as reverence-inspiring.

This was the church used for the wedding and it was perfect for that purpose.  The bus dropped us back in Salzburg at 1.30pm and we wandered through Mirabell Gardens where we saw the Pegasus fountain where they sang do, re, mi.

We could not remember which of the ugly dwarf statues was used. Was it this one?

We saw the house where Mozart lived for 7 years and crossed the Mozart pedestrian bridge to Mozart Place

and admired the Hohensalzburg fort that dominates the city

We wandered through the crowds in the old city and many were enjoying a horse and cart ride

We found a picture of the real live von Trapps and finally a statue of the young man himself

We found it strange that we could hear no music in this part of the town and no standard afternoon Mozart recital.  All we found was a clever gravity defying ghost of Mozart.  How did he do it?

DAY 99 MONDAY JULY 2 BACK TO FUSCHL

After another super (that's a favourite Austrian word) breakfast, we dragged all our luggage and the two bikes to Klagenfurt Hauptbahnhof, which was 1.8km from the hotel.  Bevan and Vanessa seemed in good spirits and their only issue from the IM was a sunburnt back that Vanessa got from the bike ride.  We boarded the 10.24 train to Frankfurt am Main which was passing through Salzburg and found some  unreserved seats in First Class.  The guard told B&V that they would have to wait for the next train in two hours time because all the bike racks were booked and there was no luggage van.

KLAGENFURT STATION

  We enjoyed the scenery through the Alps just as much on the return journey and saw a plaque bearing the name of Emperor Franz Joseph which dated the construction of this railway with many viaducts and tunnels to 1903.

 We arrived back on the 150 bus at 3pm and were given a different room in the Hotel Mohrenwirt Annex.  This one had a balcony so we quickly caught up on clothes washing and spread things out behind the flower boxes on the balcony rail so they did not spoil the ambience.  We had no lunch up to that stage so we went to the restaurant that Vanessa recommended and ordered Apple Strudel.  They brought us each a large plate with a huge piece of Strudel along with cream and ice cream.  Very filling.  We booked a table for four at 8pm while we were  there and had a very enjoyable farewell dinner with them as well as a celebration of their super performances in the IM.

DAY 98 SUNDAY JULY 1 IRON MAN AUSTRIA

The clock radio went off at 4am and we ate breakfast provided by the hotel for all the IM people.  A fleet of taxis arrived at 5am and dropped everyone at the transition area so they could pump up their bike tyres (?) .   We went past the hundreds of sheds near the beach that people keep their beach chairs in.

There were two hot air balloons being prepared just behind the Start Area. We found a spot on one of the three piers that jutted into the lake and watched the calm water turn into a washing machine as the swimmers came past us.

There were 2,700 entries in the race but Bevan heard that some hundreds did not start because of the wetsuit rule. After they swam past us we funneled out of the beach gates into the park and headed over to the canal where they would emerge from the swim and found a good spot to sit and watch.  When the first swimmer arrived (he was a protege of B&V's coach, Woody) the only thing we saw was this:

We realised that the traditional Aussie call of "Sit down ya mug" was not appropriate in Austria so just waited impatiently till they moved on and then we were able to get front row seats and snap Bevan coming out of the water.

That's him being helped out of the water by a lady in green. He took 68 mins which was a slow time but they found the course was wrongly measured and they had done an extra 300 metres.  Vanessa had blue lips and was very cold with a time of 105 mins and could easily have withdrawn but pressed on.
We sat on a comfortable park bench under a tree reading a book for 4 hours while the bike leg continued.  Then we settled on a shady spot next to the running pathway where we could see them go past four times.  Last year the winner from Germany set a world record on this course.  The first runner to arrive was not him, as expected but an Englishman, although the German overtook him not long after.  He was tall with long bouncing strides.

WORLD RECORD HOLDER ABOUT TO LAP A GOOD RUNNER

BEVAN IS SECOND FROM LEFT, RACE LEADER IS COMING TOWARDS US BEHIND THE WHISTLER

Bevan came into view at 1.50pm and ran his hand across his throat as he went past us.  He only did about 6km of the marathon before dropping out.  He had lost energy in the second half of the 180km ride and his time was way out.  Perhaps it was too soon after the Regensburg day.  Two weeks is not  long to recover.  He also had a croaky, phlegmy throat.  Vanessa came into view at 2.40pm, only 50 mins behind Bevan and she is usually between 60 and 90 mins after him.  She appeared to be running strongly as we cheered her on.


  We moved to a spot closer to the Finish and when she was halfway through the marathon we saw her come into view with Bevan running beside her in his street clothes. We guessed he had withdrawn because we had not seen him for over an hour.  Bevan stayed with us while Vanessa struggled on.  He ran with her again until she only had 8km to go, when she decided she would be able to finish although the temperature was 41C, she was sunburnt on the back and very down.  It was very moving to watch her run up the chute and over the finish ramp as everyone cheered.

WHAT A GUTSY EFFORT BY VANESSA

Her time was about 11 hours 50 mins and we see her as a very brave lady to persevere to the end.  They gave her a double drip in the recovery tent as her blood pressure was down and she had trouble drinking.

THE IRISH SUPPORTERS SAT RIGHT BEHIND THE COMMENTATOR

 We jumped on our no. 10 bus at 7pm and followed the slower competitors along the canal as they did their final loops all the way into and out of the town, turning around only 200 metres from out hotel.  We slumped into our airconditioned room feeling tired but wondering how 2000 people could all possibly finish the race in such heat.