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Thursday, February 05, 2004
Poetry in motiong
By Evelyn Regner-Seno
It was in the Attersee, where, one summer, we watched the roses bloom - big, fat roses such as we had never seen and with such rare colors - which persisted in blooming even as winter came. The rose “which imagines the snow carefully everywhere descending” of poet e.e.cummings reminds me of this huge “late” rose I saw, steadfastly clinging to the vine as the first snow fell around it - poetry in motion.
The Attersee is completely surrounded by mountains, the most prominent of which are the Hollengebirge (1861 meters) and the Schafberg (1783 meters).
The more adventurous can travel up the Schafberg on a special mountain train and be rewarded with a glorious spectacle of the surrounding lakes and mountains from the Schafberg Hotel at the top.
On the opposite of the Schafberg is the town of Fuschl with its 500-meter-wide lake and its long stretch of public beach. Just like Mondsee, Fuschl is also barely an hour’s bus ride from Salzburg at the same price and frequency. From Fuschl, the bus goes on to another lake, the Wolfgangsee, around which the towns of St. Gilgen and St. Wolfgang are situated.
St. Gilgen takes pride in its cable car, which goes up to a mountain station 1500 meters high. It is also the birthplace of the mother of Mozart.
Aside from the typical well-run hotels and restaurants, St. Wolfgang, on the other hand, is known as a pilgrimage site. Here the Bishop Wolfgang, a hermit-saint, established a monastery with a magnificent church dating back to the tenth century.
This church is famous for its exquisite works of art, especially the altar piece sculpted by Michael Pacher. And, walking around the really quaint buildings in St. Wolfgang is just like having entered magically into your child’s story book.
From the Wolgangsee, the Postbus goes on to Bad Ischl, a major town in the district. Bad Ischl has a famous old Kurhaus (cure house) or spa, with its healing waters and mud baths, for which the Alps is famous. One only has to take the hint from the name “Bad... “ which means “bath”, to know that such places should be a spa. And, of course, Bad Ischl, just like the major towns, also has the inevitable Chinese restaurant.
From Bad Ischl, you can also choose to spend another hour on a bus to finally see the glacier in Gosau, which is 2400 meters high. In the midst of it, the Dachstein Massif stands majestic, crowned with “eternal” snow even in the heat of summer.
This is the “mother” of them all in the region, providing the water to all the lower lakes. You can walk around Gosausee, the small lake at the foot of the glacier, and bask in a peculiar, eerie silence typical of high mountains, like in another planet, until the Postbus comes to take you back to Bad Ischl.
Aside from all this, in most towns, one can also hike or bike up the convenient mountain paths through thick pine forests and wide pastures and surprise oneself with many a gurgling brook or mystical waterfall - and an occasional chapel to remind us that life ought to be a pilgrimage.
The other general direction of the Postbus from Salzburg, aside from the one to Salzkammergut, is towards the Alpine regions of the province around Salzburg. This region has higher mountains and less lakes compared to Salzkammergut. But, here you will find just one other large lake resort, Zell-am-See, a traditional playground of the rich and famous around the world.
From Zell-am-See, you can get awe-struck at the sight of the great mountain range, the Steinernes Meer, looking exactly like its name - a gigantic sea of stones. From a point in the lake, you can also catch a glimpse of the Hohe Tauern mountain range, in which the Grossglockner, the highest mountain in Austria, stands at more than 3000 meters.
And, as you may have guessed by now, yes, you can also take a Postbus to the Grossglockner from Zell-am-See. Costing around US $80 one-way, it travels up a very modern highway, the Hochalpenstrasse, for several hours before reaching the top. All in good stride.
From Zell-am-See, you can take a two-hour train ride to Innsbruck, a major Austrian city in another part of the Alps called Tyrol. From Innsbruck, a Postbus will surely be found to take you around its remotest corners on schedule.
And, finally, the best service the Postbus can give is take us to places where it is so quiet we can hear our old wounds healing away softly...
(February 5, 2004 issue)
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