Innsbruck/Salzburg

Sign in Innsbruck's old city
see all photos »

Friday. [I've edited this on Sunday to add pictures. Look at tomorrow's entry for more description of the pictures from the puppet production.] We spent most of today in transit: a morning train to Innsbruck, where we had lunch and a two hour walk in the rain before catching our connection to Salzburg, arriving here late afternoon. We managed to pick up a few tickets to events at the festival, which I'll report on tomorrow.

The festival has half a dozen or so events every day, most of which sell out well in advance. The operas are all sold out, so we walked by the very elegantly dressed crowd in front of the Grosses Festspielhaus (with their 400 euro tickets in hand) and joined more of a blue jeans crowd for an experimental theater production using 4 inch puppets to depict life at Auschwitz. From what I hear about German directorial choices in opera, it may have been a toss up as to which was the more disturbing production.

A Beer Primer

Some of the puppets in theatre production
see all photos »

Although we have certainly seen other tourists throughout the past week, we haven't heard much English. More here in Salzburg, I think, and tonight's dinner menu was the first I've seen with English translations. I came here with about three dozen food words in my vocabulary, but I find that only helps me with about 25% of the menu. I do a lot of guessing when I order, which has led to no real disasters but a few more dumplings than I really need.

We tried some German wine tonight, but we've mostly been trying different beers. A few beer notes:

More puppets
see all photos »

Doug usually tries the local dunkel, or dark beer. He finds that Brattleboro's dark beers hold up very well by comparison. I prefer the lighter beers and sometimes a Weissbeer, a much yeastier version made with wheat instead of barley. It tastes a bit like beer that might have been made from one's bread dough. For something lighter at lunch, it can be refreshing to choose a Radler (half beer and half lemonade) or a Russn (half Weissbeer and half lemonade.)

I've been aware over the years of controversies in France and Italy over EU regulations that override strict country labeling of wines or cheeses. I didn't know there was the same issue in Germany with beer. Germany's Reinheitsgebot, or Purity Law, apparently goes back to 1516 and forbids any of the additives and preservatives common in other countries' beer, but the EU has held that Germany's refusal to import these other beers was an illegal restriction of trade. Not to worry. I have no desire for a Budweiser.

Overall view of stage
see all photos »

The menus always note the sizes available for draft beers: usually .31 or .5 liter, but at beer gardens .5 or a full liter, called ein mass. I have not been here long enough to order ein mass.