Salzburg

Castle overlooking the Salzach River
see all photos »

Saturday. We are staying in what is, I think, one of three Hotel Salzburgs in the city, which makes for some confusion in finding it from the train station. This hotel was reserved for us by Austria Radreisen and is on the north end of town and a fair bus ride from the Altstadt. I was impressed in Munich by the overall efficiency of the transportation system, since not only subways, but also trams and buses have electric boards at each stop telling you how many minutes until your line arrives. Salzburg has a similar system, but the times seem to be merely notional. Austria, in general, is feeling more Eastern than Germany. At times I feel I’m back in Greece.

Bike Path Near Salzburg
see all photos »

We were very happy to find two very nice, well-equipped touring bikes waiting for us in the hotel garage, and although we didn’t expect to take possession of them until Monday morning, we rode off with them this morning to visit the Salzburger Freilichtsmuseum, a very large wooded park with over fifty historic farm buildings from the Salzburger region. Our route there was not particularly scenic as we went via the airport--or, rather, through the airport since our path went under the runway--but we found wonderfully scenic bike paths for the ride back. The bicycling doesn’t get much better than this: gently rolling hills with the Alps to the south as we ride past farmers making hay just a few kilometers outside the city. I’m going to ask Doug to be guest blogger again on the subject of the outdoor museum, because Doug and old farm buildings and equipment is rather like me with Greek sculpture.

Peasant Life in the Salzburger Region

Open Air Museum
see all photos »

But before he takes over, let me comment a bit on our festival experiences. I mentioned yesterday that we went to an experimental puppet production on life in Auschwitz. When I get a better connection I will post a few pictures I took after the production when the puppeteers visited with the audience. [Now posted on yesterday's site.] It was a powerful piece, with very effective integration of sound and film projection of the small scale action of the puppets. It covered a day in the life--and death--of the camp.

Traditional house
see all photos »

This evening we went to the Marionette Theater to see a production combining two short Mozart operas: Bastien and Bastienne and The Impresario. Not exactly Figaro or Don Giovanni, but stellar singing and a very creative use of puppets interacting with singers.

Here’s Doug: The Open Air Museum is organized by region and gives a good overview of the architecture, home life, and agricultural practices of the various alpine climates over the past 500 years. It demonstrates lots of highly evolved creative use of local resources, mostly wood. It is impressive how beauty and efficiency develop when people spend enough time with one set of problems and materials. To Lisa, the peasant life certainly seemed hard and dark and cold, but I find a solid core of life force that is reassuring. Walking through the old houses and barns reminded me of the various New England barns and farm experiences of my youth, and how they arose from similar forces and are equally now something of the past.