You only see what you know (Goethe)
Huge sundial seen at the Ankerhaus in the city of Salzburg. The house is named after the insurence company DER ANKER (engl. the anchor). In earlier times the building housed the hotel ‘Erzherzog Karl’ where famous persons like the Austrian Empress Elisabeth of Austria (‘Sisi’) or the German Minister President Otto von Bismarck used to stay.
In the period before photos were invented, there was a different method of learning something new about the world. Landscapists created huge paintings of cities and sceneries. Inside the Panorama Museum, visitors find a depiction of Salzburg dating back to 1829.
The Hellbrunner Adventzauber is a Christmas market with a splendid atmosphere. It is situated on the grounds of Hellbrunn Palace (Schloss Hellbrunn) in Salzburg. About 400 trees decorated with 13,000 red Christmas balls make the market special.
Scalaria is a hotel as well as an event location located next to Lake Wolfgangsee in Austria. Ready for hosting and entertaining large companies with their staff or clients. For tourists, it is open during several summer weeks and Advent season. I was invited by the resort to stay there for a night and to learn about the best moments the place has to offer.
The steam locomotive Z11 was built in 1992 as part of the class 999.2. It is operated by the Schafberg Railway (Schafbergbahn). The railway leads from Sankt Wolfgang up to the Schafberg. This metre gauge cog railway is pretty steep. At a total length of 5.85 km, it gains 1,200 m height difference.
High over Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut a hiking trail named The Painter’s Steep (Malersteig) leading up to the Kalvarienberg Hill offers a fine view of Sankt Wolfgang and lake Wolfgangsee. The name origins from the fact that many famous landscapists used to paint their works standing on those meadows.
A shop sign I haven’t seen for ages: In former times a shop for colonial goods (Kolonialwaren) sold goods generally delivered from far away. E.g. coffee, tobacco, cacao, spices, tea and so on. Today there is no need for such specialized shops so I was glad to see such an old inscripiton while walking through Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut.
An interesting detail of the Christmas market in Sankt Wolfgang (Wolfgangseer Advent) is a Christmas crib created by the wood carver Matthäus Mayrhauser. The crib consists of about 40 life-size sculptures scattered over a larger area. Everybody is invited to walk betCeen the figures so in the evening it is difficult to decide who is a real person and what is a wooden figure.
While staying at the event location Scalaria in December 2005, I saw many photos and posters of this great water plane: the Dornier DO24 TT. It reminded me that the Scalaria Air Challenge takes place in the sky above lake Wolfgangsee every year.
The Christmas market of Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut is part of three markets (Wolfgangseer Advent) which are located around lake Wolfgangsee. So people can move from market to market by crossing the lake by boat.
The emblem of Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut, seen at an old building in the centre of the place. It was awarded by Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian II in 1567. The emblem shows a flat-bottomed boat named Zille, which was not only a traditional boat type of this region but also an important means of transport for people and goods.
This mural in Bischofshofen was created by Ferdinand Kubitschek in 1967. Besides the big scale of the mural I was also impressed by the beautiful decorated soffit you can see in the upper right corner of this picture.