That was one wet day! Despite our combined efforts at influencing the weather, apparently hiking that day was not meant to happen. It turns out that we skipped the hardest day – which not everyone was displeased about 😉
Bussing options were obtuse as we would need to return to Salzburg to get to our next hotel town. After much deliberation, we (being Kaylon) arranged for 2 taxis to pick us up in Mondsee to take us to St. Gilgen. As we drove off the rain stopped for a brief 5 minutes making us think we had made the wrong decision. But it was a short respite and it returned in droves for the rest of the day till about 3 or 4 pm with tornado like winds at that point, so absolutely no regrets on opting out of the trekking.
St Gilgen is a lovely little town even in the rain with fantastic woolen sweaters and coats and very nice shoes. But all resisted purchases as it means carrying whatever you buy for the rest of the trip – too early! We found a very nice church there with a well manicured cemetery attached. There were even watering cans which you pay a deposit to withdraw (like a shopping cart). From there we took the ferry across Lake Wolfgangsee to the town where our luggage was already awaiting us.
The mountains were fog covered but so green. There were flowers everywhere with no garbage to be seen; every property is so well maintained. The town is full of window-boxed, fresco’d chalet homes. With the mountain backdrops everywhere it is postcard view overload.
St. Wolfgang town had more touristy shops than St. Gilgen. Lucy did splurge and bought an umbrella; which immediately broke. And when she tried to exchange it she was severely reprimanded and denied an alternate. Some Austrians can be very brisk and brash!
In the end, even our alternate plan short hike didn’t transpire. We split up – Sue had the restaurant selection task this night. It will be our turn tomorrow when it will be Paul & Lucy’s 40th wedding anniversary so lots of desire to select well. Sue has arranged for a surprise at breakfast tomorrow also – should be fun.
I would be remiss not to rave about the fantastic wine stop us ladies found. It was a shop with mostly Italian shoes and woolens but also a wine bar. The girl serving us was lovely and made a recommendation for dinner which we ended up switching to (with much thanks to Lucy for daring to push the ‘Franz & Marta’ buzzer to ask for a reservation!)
After dinner we came across a large ‘oompah’ band in the town square, right outside our hotel. It was Saturday evening and Harvest Festival time. A group of 4 ladies in costume were offering schnapps shots for a contribution to the band. Lots of fun, although I didn’t get to polka 🙁 Michael was too busy photoing! After they played several tunes, we followed the band thru town to a grand hotel lakeside where the band members retired to the bar.
Back at the hotel the guys played 500 where I subbed for Michael as he was still out shooting. By 9:30 we all dispersed to our rooms – Michael did some yoga and I did some stretching. Tomorrow is a bit of a later start as the first ferry isn’t till 9:30 am to get us to our starting point. Currently no rain in the forecast for tomorrow with only one ascent of about 200m on the lengthy route – so it should be a good day!
