Salzburg and Vienna, July 1966
Salzburg and ViennaJuly, 1966
Don Winter
5 11/29/02
Salzburg and Vienna, July 1966
Brough, again, 1965-1966
By the last couple of terms at university, in 1965. I have a car of my own, bought with 21st birthday money. Returning to Hawker-Siddeley Aviation, Brough, as a Graduate Apprentice, I am thus able to commute by road rather than by train (although the latter mode is utilised when the car is being repaired). In October 1965, a colleague and I make a business trip to Edinburgh, to visit Ferranti Avionics, using the train from York to Edinburgh one evening, returning the next on the North Briton. All diesel-hauled, of course, since steam has disappeared from the ECML passenger service by this time. (How strange that seems after the continuing full steam operations on the Waterloo-Southampton line that I have observed so frequently over the last three years.)
On the way to Austria, July 1966
In spring and summer 1966, I make a number of train trips from Hull to London, in connection with the interviews and then US immigration arrangements in connection with my planned emigration in late September, once the apprenticeship contract is fulfilled. However, one such trip is for the purposes of joining an organized party visiting Salzburg and Vienna, also by train, including boat trains between London (Victoria) and Dover Marine. Most of these trips have Deltic diesel power between Doncaster and King’s Cross.
Once in London, I drag my suitcase on the UndergrounD to Victoria Station (Circle Line around to the west), where I drop it off at the Left Luggage office for the next morning. Than, I take the suburban EMU from Victoria to Orpington, where I will spend the night at the home of my university lodgings-mate. This is the first time I’ve been on a Southern Region suburban EMU. I’m intrigued by the internal layout, which has an external door for every row of seats, but a narrow internal passageway (within, not between, each carriage) permitting efficient location of available seats after, rather than before, boarding. The train runs over the former London, Chatham & Dover as far as the Bickley Junctions, where it takes the west to south connecting line and then runs to Orpington on the slow line of the former South Eastern Railway, where the train terminates. The route crosses the Thames adjacent to the Battersea Power Station, then runs through Brixton, Herne Hill, Sydenham Hill, Beckenham Junction, and Bromley South before reaching Bickley, then stops at Petts Wood before reaching Orpington. This entire trip is in the dark, so I don’t really get to see the lineside surrounding, but effectively the entire route is through the urban and suburban environment of Greater London.
I walk over to my friend’s house over the route familiar from my previous visit. My friend isn’t actually here, at present, because tonight is the 21st birthday party of another great friend of his, but I’m made welcome and supplied with a comfortable bed. (The house will be full, later, because other 21st birthday party visitors are sleeping here.)
In the morning, I greet my friend over breakfast, then leave for the station, where I take a train to Charing Cross. (There are no trains between Orpington and Victoria on Sundays!) This is a more familiar type of EMU, on a service from Tonbridge (and perhaps Dover). This train runs straight through the ex-SER lines at the Bickley Junctions, then through Hither Green, Lewisham, New Cross, London Bridge, and Waterloo (East) to Charing Cross. Again, the entire route is through the urban and suburban environment of Greater London. At Charing Cross, I walk down to the Embankment station and take the Circle Line to Victoria.
At Victoria, on this Sunday morning, I meet up with the tour party going to Salzburg, and at the appointed time we board our reserved accommodations on the boat train to Dover Marine (another EMU apparently like all others on the Kent Coast services). This train also travels through the Bickley Junctions (but gets there by a more direct route??) and Orpington (on the fast lines, without stopping), then through the tunnel under the North Downs, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge (where the line joins the original SER line from Redhill), Ashford, and Folkstone, then turning off at Dover to enter the Marine station. East of Orpington, the lines emerges from the suburban environment and passes through the landscapes of the North Downs and then rural Kent, finally passing below and through the famous chalk cliffs to reach Dover.
Here, we board the ferry for the cross-Channel trip to Ostend, Belgium. During the crossing, I take the opportunity to buy something for lunch, and eat it. (I have something with me for the evening meal.) The sea crossing is not really very interesting except in the immediate vicinity of Dover and Ostend harbors. After passing through immigration at Ostend, the tour party gathers together again, and is escorted to its reserved compartments on the train to Salzburg (which continues beyond our destination to the Adriatic Sea coast and Trieste).
The train comprises (at this stage) a set of first and second class carriages containing daytime seating, along with at least one food service car. There is a Belgian Railways electric locomotive on the head end, at least for the segment of the journey across Belgium. The tour party takes up several compartments in one of the second class carriages; however, many of the members (not including me) will be moving to couchette space for the might, when those facilities are added to the train.
The route across Belgium runs across the coastal plain and similar lowlands to Brussels, where it passes under the centre of the city in a tunnel, stops at the Central station, and emerges to the east on the line to Liege. East of Brussels, the countryside becomes hillier, with more trees at locations other than along hedgerows. By the time we reach Liege, the line is partway up a hillside in a wooded river valley. The station at Liege overlooks at least part of the town, alongside the river below. The time is now after 6 pm (Central European Time), so those in my compartment eat our packaged food. A girl about my age offers me part of hers, but I have already had enough, so I politely decline.
The rolling and hilly wooded countryside continues to the German border at Aachen (Aix-la-Chappelle). All the way along this train journey, border formalities are no more than waving our British Passports at the officers passing through the train, with no questions asked once passports are seen. The same sort of countryside continues as the line head northeast to Cologne. Just before reaching the Rhine, the train turns southeast into Cologne Station (Hauptbahnhof). Here, the sleeping cars are added to the rear of the train and most of my companions depart. I will see them again in Salzburg. From here on, at least, we will have German State Railways electric locomotives at least as far as Munich, and possibly into Salzburg. (I don’t get the chance to look in that last stretch.)
It is dark outside as the train leaves the south end of Cologne Station, passing the famous Gothic Cathedral (with a clear view from my window). The train then runs southeast along the left bank of the Rhine, through Bonn, to Heidelburg, then crosses the river into Stuttgart. I sleep through much of this, waking only at lengthy station stops, and will continue to do so until after Munich. Stuttgart is one of those stub-end stations so common on European lines, even in cities that should have through stations, so the train reverses and departs with a locomotive (still electric) on the other end of the train.
Munich similarly has a stub end station, so we reverse again. As I wake for the morning, the dawn light allows me to see south to the ramparts of the Bavarian Alps, the first mountains higher than Ben Nevis that I have ever seen. By breakfast time on Monday, the train arrives in Salzburg (just across the Austrian border from Germany), where we leave it and are bused over to our hotel on the outskirts of town.
In Austria, July 1966
While we have breakfast, the tour leader explains what will be happening during the weeklong stay here, when we will have group activities, and when we will have free time. We have tickets for two operas and one symphony concert at the Salzburg Festival (our reason for coming here), but all other evenings are free. Most of the days are free, also. There is a tramcar service along the road between our hotel and the centre of town, but it is also quite reasonable for the younger members of the party to walk this distance, so mostly we do just that, once we’re sure we know the way.
After breakfast (or perhaps more correctly, brunch,), the entire group heads out of the hotel, walking towards town until we reach the nearest tram stop. Here, we board the tram and ride into the centre of Salzburg. We take a walking tour of the town centre, led by the tour leader, including stops at the Mozarteum, the Belvedere palace, Mozart’s birthplace, where we tour the museum, and the cathedral and its plaza. (The Belvedere was where the garden scenes in The Sound of Music had been filmed, the year before—the film had just been released to great acclaim.) The town is fascinating, especially in the areas of baroque architecture. A number of the churches here, and in the surrounding area, have both design and ornamentation (sculpture and ceiling paintings) by Fischer von Erlach, a famous sculptor and architect of the late 17th and early 18th century.
One of the things I notice as we walk around the town, and as we relax on the balcony at the hotel after riding back on the tram is how hot the weather is. This is my first experience of a ‘continental’ climate, so air temperatures in the shade of 90ºF and above are quite new to me (and to many of my companions, I gather). By dinnertime, the weather has turned to thunder storms with heavy rain, so all plans for leaving the hotel after dinner are scrapped.
The hotel has offered to make us up packed lunches so we can have an entire day out without the need to return to the hotel for lunch. I take them up on it for Tuesday, and walk into Salzburg for the day. I spend the day visiting as many of the local museums, churches and historical buildings (in the town centre) as I can. I spend a lot of time in the Fischer von Erlach churches, including the cathedral, but also another major church nearby. I eat my lunch in a park alongside the river Salzach. After dinner, a group of us goes into town to sample the possibilities for evening entertainment, led by the tour leader.
At breakfast on Wednesday, the girl who offered me her sandwich on Sunday has saved a place for me at the table; her name is Joyce Tittman, and she’s a flautist from Buxton, studying at the Royal Manchester School of Music. For the rest of the trip, Joyce and I do things together, each finding something of interest in the other’s company. On this Wednesday morning, we walk into town and attend a concert of the Camerata Salzburg taking place at the Mozarteum. In the afternoon, we explore more of the old town centre.
This evening is the first of our scheduled performance at the Salzburg festival: Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro in the small festival house, with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Karl Böhm and Reri Grist as Suzanna. The performance is lively and well sung, the scenery and staging quite interesting. The acoustics are marvelous, in this traditional shoebox hall.
On Thursday the group visits a salt mine located in a town further up the valley of the river Salzach. We have a group reservation on the aerial tramway that will take us up to the top of the mine, so we have to wait for our turn to arrive. In the meantime, there are food stands at which we can buy Austrian sausages for lunch. The ride up in the aerial tramcar is magnificent, with vistas of near and distant mountains (some of the latter in Germany), cascading streams down side ravines, and forested hillsides. The mine provides a guide for each group of people who explains the functions of the mine in days gone by, and then takes us on a mine-railway trip through the various adits and descents between them, showing the working faces of the mine, as well as the difficulties of working those faces and of transporting the salt away from them. In the course of this trip, we descend all the way from the hilltop to the valley floor. At the conclusion, a photograph is taken of each group of half a dozen or so people. I buy a copy showing Joyce and me together on the car.
That evening, Joyce and I visit the beer cellar run by the monks on top of a hill west of central Salzburg, called the Monchsberg. On Friday, we visit the clifftop castle that dominates the town centre, touring the interior including the dungeons. Later, we walk along the mountain until we reach the gardens laid out on the Monchsberg. While we’re sitting there, what seems like all the church bells in the city start to peal, an even which continues for some twenty minutes or so. The reason for this baffles us.
After dinner we return to the town centre to the large festival house, for our scheduled performance of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and Nicolai Ghiaurov in the title role. The second scene of the Prologue is the Coronation Scene, and as soon as it starts the reason for the afternoon’s bell ringing becomes obvious: the sounds of the bells of Moscow in this scene are the very sounds we had heard from the Monchsberg in the afternoon. The performance is excellent, and the extra-wide stage of the large festival house (hollowed out of the mountainside) is well used by Karajan’s own production.