Wonderful walking in sunny south slavia

For our second walking day we have decided to walk around most of the Hallstattsee, about 20 kms. It is another bright sunny day and after a leisurely breakfast we set off to catch the funicular up towards the top of the hills behind Hallstatt where we will start the walk. It is Sunday so we are unable to buy a sandwich for lunch and we will rely on seeing something along the way or, if needed the fruit we are carrying.

We head off from Rudolphsturm following a slightly downhill track which winds its' way high above Hallstatt and across several waterways. The forest around us is quite brilliantly lit by the filtered sun and enjoy several hours simply ambling along the pathway. The track follows the pipeline (Soleleitungsweg) which has been in operation since 1607 carrying brine to Ebensee where the salt is extracted. The original 13,000 pipes were made from wood and some can be seen from time to time as we go along.

After about two hours we start heading down towards Steegn where the lake ends and the Traun river recommences its run north. As we go through farmland and walk in the fairly hot sun, we start to slow down and are obviously losing time against our schedule. We have to make a decision soon on continuing or going on as the destination for us is Hallstatt railway station (and the boat which will take us almost to our hotel ) which must be reached around 6.30 pm. Otherwise we are in for an even longer walk right around the lake.

Yvonne takes no real encouragement to stop at a nice looking cafe for lunch as by now we had been walking for over 5 hours and are past the point of no return. Randall had made a slight map error in a small village but we managed to correct this fairly quickly, losing about 1 km and 15-20 minutes.

We enjoy a great salad lunch complimented by beer and appfelsharle but before long we are back into the heat of the day and winding our way south in between the railway line and the lake. On this side of the lake locals have their small summer houses with boat sheds constructed over the water. Bike riding is also popular today with heaps of riders passing in both directions.

There is also a small cafe along the way filled with people enjoying their Sunday afternoon in the sun.

By now it is clear that we will easily make the railway station and boat ride so the pressure to maintain pace comes off and we relax a bit - Randall less so than Yvonne. By now Yvonne wishes she was a swan and could just glide across the lake to home, as the water looks so cool. The last few kilometres along the lakeside include botanical information (which we cannot read) and a then an over water walkway complete our journey to the station.

We wait about half an hour for the next boat and after 7 hours and 20 kilometers we are back in Hallstatt and happy to be there too.

A Slice of Heaven on Earth

The rivers are close to being in flood as the train winds its way from Attnung-Puchheim towards our next stop, Hallstatt. A few fields are flooded and some walkways are underwater. We are on a small local train now but it is fairly new with plenty of bike space, and not too many passengers today. We are reminded on the train run into Chamonix except that this train is winding its way along the glacial lakes.

It has to be said that Hallstatt is a real gem. The train pulls up alongside the lake where a boat is waiting to take passengers to the town itself on the other side of the lake. We drift across the lake towards the salt mining, UNESCO protected town. Lake water levels are obviously up with some lake edge car spaces under water. The lake is lapping at the doors of the garages and boat sheds and covering the landings. The weather is coming good and life is starting to be bright again. It is noticeable that this village suffers from tour groups but it is a very quaint place and we feel that we will enjoy our 5 days here.

The Bruahaus where we are booked in is a fantastic shamble of rooms. Ground floor is a cafe and restaurant. There is a lake side beer garden just over the road. First floor is the reception and breakfast area and we have to wind our way up 2 floors to our quaint room. We have a balcony for two where we can sit and watch the boats drifting across the lake. The swan and her 7 signets pass by and ducks regularly cross the lake.

The many many waterfalls are cascading down the mountains and under the village only to emerge a few metres before it runs into the lake. The birds and singing and the sun is shining through the leaves in the forest. A wonderful day for a walk. Yvonne used to think that the suggested times for a walk were slow. Time has moved on and now she celebrates finishing on or before time. After climbing climbing Yvonne steps out of her comfort zones to don a pair of overalls and walking several hundred metres deep into the mountain to learn how salt has been extracted from these mountains for at least 7000 years. A first slide which was the old way for miners to move between levels within the mine wasn't too bad. Little did she know there was a second longer and faster one to come. She was happy to survive although she could have listened to Randall and watched utube where people have put their home made movies of the journey within the mines and saved herself a bit of a panic attack.!

At one stage we were about 200 metres under the mountain top following a series of sound and light shows as we were guided around the mine. Fascinating! The rulers from Salzburg gained plenty of income over the centuries exploiting the workers until eventually the Hapsburgs got into the act, took over ownership, nationalised the salt industry and took most of the income. Sounded much like the same process that Kaiser Rudd is trying to do with Australian resources right now.

And as for Hallstatt itself, the residents are not happy at the moment as the bureaucrats are trying to introduce new heritage laws to control changes in their houses, including interiors. This means photographing and recording all interiors and furniture and many houses have protest signs up. We signed the local petition and are sympathetic to their concerns.

Old Timers in Salzburg

The rain in Salzburg continues but it looks to be easing today. The river is up quite a bit and we believe that further north in Germany, there is some flooding. So we walked the short distance along the river and into the old town to check out the Salzburg museum. This museum was surprisingly modern in concept and exhibitions and we spent a couple of hours there learning more about Bavarian, Salzburg, Austrian and French history in particular. There were also some interesting local painters exhibited too.

As is often the case when you do not really know what is going on in s foreign country, we emerged from the museum to find a huge old car rally in full swing through and around the town. We also had not realised that the day was a public holiday so that explained why we had a bit of trouble finding a coffee shop open for breakfast.

In any case the car rally was interesting and we were sure that the 4 grandsons would have enjoyed it too. Even a few old minis on show and a kids pedal car driving school was in operation in central Salzburg. To finish off our short transition through Salzberg, we climbed up out of the town and walked part way through the forest. Then it was home to the hotel, a bite to eat at a very popular nearby italian restaurant and then we reviewed our plans for the next five days in Hallstatt.

Dealing with damp times

Somewhat unusually for the season it appears, we are passing through areas where it is continually raining. For us, this rain brings little threats and opportunities. For Randall this travel through Bavaria and Austria is a bit of a joining activity as we head towards Slovenia, a country new to us. For Yvonne it is more about not wasting the opportunity to DO something. So we are having different views on what to do to fill in our wet days.

In Munich, after exploring the city centre, we exhausted ourselves by touring the former royal residence and the treasury. We are not experts on European Royalty so the Bavarian line of Protectors and Kings is still somewhat over our heads. The treasury has some fantastic and priceless items often made by French and German craftsman. But in reality these items were symbols of power and excess and a means of demonstrating what? Having the finest gold crowns, exquisitely carved rock crystal serving and display items and military orders created for only a select few of certain breeding, seems to be obscene. But perhaps that is what we humans are at times.

In Salzburg, we wandered again around the old town with the other tourists, mainly American it appears, after we had a typical Austrian lunch in a beer house. Salzburg has definitely been taken over by tourists since we last visited some years ago. After lunch we walked around in the ever increasing wet town before calling it a day and heading back to the shelter of our hotel.

We are now well beyond our normal comfort zones; we have little German language, of the 30-40 TV channels, we only really comprehend CNN and organising our meals and travel has been interesting. Yvonne is comfortable with the lack of language in that most people here have at least a little English but Randall finds it frustrating at times.

Technology is everywhere these days and we are contributing to its spread. In Munich we breakfasted at perhaps the best internet cafe we have come across. Good coffee and light breakfast, plenty of comfortably spaced terminals and great tables and couches for us wireless types. On the walk, we were getting updates on AFL scores as we wandered through medieval France and a couple had the walk programmed into their GPS telephones so they were able to keep us on track without our paper maps from time to time. Even in the train from Munich on Wednesday, we had continual map progress updates, predictions and actuals on next stops and train speed on screens throughout the train.

But the TV news is pretty much the same everywhere, whatever the access. European and US channels show the same shots of Sam Stosur beating Serena Williams and the Jankovic at Roland Garros as our internet access to ABC news. Everyone now has the same story on the UK taxi driver shooting incident and on troubles in Gaza and we can watch “Midsummer Murders” in at least three languages so I wonder about news items from time to time.

Which leads me to a final comment for this blog. Yvonne thinks I am a bit twisted and perhaps she is right but I cannot help imagining just how many humans are crawling over the planet these days and what it must look like from above. In Paris, the metro was packed with all sorts dashing around under the ground on their way to? All of the railway stations have seemingly masses of business types, pensioners, back packers, school kids, tourist groups and travellers like us towing their bags and setting off all over the continent to what end? What are we searching for?

Slightly damp in Munich

Just getting to the TGV out of Gare de L'est on Sunday morning was a good test of co-ordination and work, or something close to work. Yvonne and I were scheduled to eventually be on the same train into Paris on the following Saturday afternoon, which duly eventuated. But there was just a bit of tension as we grappled with a french rail system in 'perterbation' as Sarko tries to raise retirement ages from 60 to 62, with country rail services which included the odd bus or two and just the uncertainty of being on the move in a foreign country. We then lobbed into Saturday evening Paris metro services to find our hotel and then fitting in an all too brief Paris encounter with Eleanor and Andrew at Bastille to recall some of the good times we had in this town over 26 years ago. It seemed that most of the world seemed to be gathering around Bastille for a long evening or two; people of the streets, a political protest, youngsters looking for a good night out and others looking pretty well lost.

On Sunday morning we managed a hasty conversation over croques monsiers and coffee with Yvonne's sister Jenny and her friend Maureen before ducking back into the metro and heading off towards Munich.

Paris is still a great city but our brief encounter left us with a feeling that it has seen better times and is losing it's French “cool” image-more aggressive, too many people and a bit down on it's former glory.

The change to Germany has been remarkable. Yesterday was very cool in Munich with some persistent showers. The city centre is very enjoyable and rather sophisticated, even if we were cooler than we would have liked. But a couple of treats in comfortable, homely wood lined taverns drinking beer and apple drinks whilst eating sausages and sauerkraut managed to fix things. Last night we ate in a local beer hall just up the road from our hotel and it was very comfortable experience, the food was good and we are looking to similar experiences today.

A quick look at Australian happenings was not that much a source of interest. Rudd and co are now making such a mess of things that we are wondering if we should ever go back down under. The resources tax is just the latest in major blunders being made in policy setting and it makes us wonder where these people are getting advice from. Roll on election day.

Les Trois Chenes-A week in residence

My first adventure in France going solo began with three days staying with friends in Paris. During this time of very pleasant weather I managed to visit the Musee de la Toile de Jouy, an exhibition of paintings of Versailles in the times of Louis XIV and the gardens of Albert Kahn. Together with enjoying the hospitality of our friends Raymond and Genevieve.

Then the challenge commenced with my train journey to Limoges and then on to Chabanais – the train that never appeared, and I still don't know why. But on questioning the station master at Limoges I was put in a taxi to Chabanais where I met my host for the next week, Barbara.

During my week of water colour painting I faced several challenges, commencing with a portrait drawing of Barbara's son ( a very patient young man – earning a euro or two). Not something I have ever drawn before. Each day commenced with a different aspect of painting which was followed in the afternoon with a visit outdoors to explore the method further.

Our visits included Rochechouart Chateau, including the Museum of contemporary art; a return visit to the very picturesque village of Brantome; the lively Piegut Market; Videix Lake; a very beautiful private Charente garden; a visit to a Porcelain factory shop; drawing at the site de Corot, St Junien and the local woods. Many of these venues presented me with new challenges which were enjoyable and sometimes surprised even me with the results in the time constraints. Now I have to put all this into practise. The week of sketching and painting was also complimented by the homely meals provided by Barbara's partner, Dursin.

A cute little country train trip and a bus finally got me back to Limoges where I would have had about 2 minutes to spare had the train been on time!!!! And a rendezvous on the 3630 with Randall!!!

Dordogne Walk 2010

So now we are back together again and we left on the TGV heading from France and into Germany on Sunday 30 May as planned. Time has not stood still of course but the world of Australian politics, global finances and even Australian news seems a long way off. And perhaps these things should stay out of view. When walking in the centre of France with 9 other Australian blokes (well there was the obligatory pommie and also a kiwi), issues reduce to the navigation issues of the day, what might be on the menu for dinner that evening, who gets to share with a snorer and whether the red wine should be from Bordeaux or Cahors. What problems to have!

The weather whilst walking was outstanding, over 30 degrees on each of the early days, and fine weather almost all of the way. Only one morning when we loping along with rain jackets on.

Group dynamics were interesting for this old management consultant. The team has at least 6 strong shapers, a plant, another who adopted team role according to situation and, thank goodness, at least one completer-finisher. Not a shrinking violet to be found anywhere. Perhaps very difficult to find a better walking team anywhere.

Every French country house has at least one dog so it was perhaps inevitable that one of us would be bitten. Add to this the odd blister or two and we were discovering how well the French medical system works. It is a fine system, the envy of many countries I believe.

Fois gras, maigret de canard, Cahors wine, confit de canard, salad quercyoise, omelettes de cepes, Rocamadour cheese, ris de veau, fromage blanc, saucisson de porc, chardonay, sauternes, rhone wines, local beers and perrier menthe fresheners were also enjoyed over the period of this great walk.

In the end, Randall had spent 10 days in heaven. He sat on THAT SEAT in Loubressac where the world issues just disappear. It was perfect to just sit there after a great dinner at the “Lou Pastou” inn, not long after sunset, just watching over Castelnau Chateau, Chateau Montal, St Cere and the villages around. At least two others on the group were happy to share the experience and it was clearly a major highlight of the walk.