Haydn Tour - April 2016 - Mozart Page

Saturday 23rd April 2016

It was a dull day with spots & worse, of rain, which was disappointing, as this was the day with the best views, if you got them, which we didn’t. Rather to my surprise, the road had been considerably improved, more or less to motorway standard, as far Liezen. In fact, we came off it to go over the Semmering Pass to try to get photos for Bruckner’s 8th but it was really too dull. At Liezen, the road is normal but when the turn-off for Bad Aussee came, we carried on past Schladming to the A10 motorway, as it was still too dull with occasional showers, to go the pretty way.

Semmering Pass East side

Semmering Pass West side

From the Semmering Pass

Dachstein

Dachstein

Salzburg

Consequently, we were in Salzburg (left) in 4.5 hours & booked into the posh but cheaper-than-Hilton Hotel Bristol, as it was on the Marktplatz with Leopold Mozart’s House & a short walk to Wolfgang's birthplace. In the square there, we had dinner at lunchtime in the Restaurant Eulenspiegel(!)

The bridge from the Marktplatz

Up the Salzach

Across the Salzach

Both Mozart museums had stairs to discommode Avis but were quite interesting, although one was rude about Franz Zaver (one of his two surviving sons, who was also a composer, albeit more in the style of Beethoven) about which I protested.

The Birthplace (Yellow house)

Plan of the Birthplace

Main room

Kitchen

Score of the Dies Irae (K626)

Painting of the room Mozart died in

Litho of Constanza Mozart

Room still furnished

View from the birthplace

They had sets from some of the operas as little models:-

Old painting of the birthplace	Original 'Don Giovanni' set	Modern 'Phony Gardener' set (K195)
	Three 'Magic Flute' sets

In between, we went to the Dom, a dismally dark building inside, where they more-or-less demanded a donation & did not get one. We had a coffee, to go to the loo & did the Mozart House on the way back. The room in the hotel is more-or-less the height of luxury. So, we settled in the lounge. I edited today’s meagre haul of photos & included some in my Mozart show, which I was soon due to give, twice.

Dom from the North-West

Dom front

Dom interior

Fiacres	Provincial Theatre	Hotel Bristol - nice place to stay

Going Home. It rained like fun last evening & through much of the night. Up at 07:30. It looked overcast out. Breakfast was suitably splendid. We did not get going until after 9 & had a few surprises straight away. The Obersalzburg were covered in extra snow. Some was down to motorway level & then, it snowed on us, on & off & quite a lot. The rest of the day was scattered showers & some actual Sun, although pretty cold out most of the time. I drove as far as Arlon but not without incident. Several roads-up & one big traffic jam towards Luxembourg for no apparent reason. A big road-up near the A3 meant that I went off West on A13, then managed on little roads to join the A6, so we stopped at Arlon & booked into the Hotel Arlon, a Best Western on the motorway. However, the proper restaurant was closed, so we had to have cordon noir in the motorway café. The actual scenery on the drive was quite good to superb. Next day, the restaurant was still closed but, in the reasonable price of the room, we were allowed to loot the self-service, which we did to great effect & it made a jolly good breakfast. This services is odd, as there is no fuel but we stopped at the weird Wanlin services for more diesel. On the way, there was snow on the Ardennes. Not a lot but not just frost, as it was stuck on the trees. There was the odd shower but the weather improved by time we got to the E42. We arrived at Dunkirk about midday for the 14:00 ferry to Dover.