Simon's YouTube Pick o'the Week

(If it cuts the right side off, double click on it and it'll take you to YouTube.)

Odds and Sods

A ride on the funicular up to the Fortress (too big to upload while in Austria):



Proof that the windows are not just dangerous but multidirectional:


Austrian fashions:



For kids, too:


And to make it up to them afterwards:


One more video in town:

Well, it was finally time to go. Perhaps it's just as well that my taxi driver didn't take this sign literally (another piece of evidence of Austrians' love of English phrases):

So, what did I learn? I learned that Austrians are prepared to do graffiti over beautiful old buildings, but will never NEVER cross unless the green man is showing. They all speak English. They don't take Visa in a surprisingly large number of places. They will bicycle even when it's snowing. They're all thin and stylish (even when wearing Lederhosen). And that you shouldn't really visit places like Salzburg when you have to come home to places like Flint...

Toy Museum

How could you resist a Toy Museum? I certainly couldn't, once I finally found it:

This is what happy young Austrians look like:

Turns out it was also a museum of musical instruments. This is what Thomas of an earlier century would be playing:

Or maybe this:

Surely not this? I think they just made some of these up.

When you get to the toys, finally, you realize that it's actually better to be a kid today. They're very well made but rather worthy.

Or depressed/creepy looking:

I saw a great graffito when I first arrived in Salzburg that said "Arbeit ist scheisse!" I think this girl would agree:

Last Day in Salzburg

Last day of the conference, and today I was chair of morning session, so I couldn't skip out in the AM. So instead I skipped out after lunch. It was ridiculously warm (especially given the snow on Monday) and I decided to see what was behind the "The Cat Returns" gate I mentioned earlier in the week. This, it turns out:

And a little further up, this:

Lots of religious iconography lining the road, because at the top was a church that seemed to be attached to a monastery:

There were some wonderful views, and you know what that means:


The way down (somebody actually lives in that house on the left - I saw him peek his head out and scurry back in. I don't think he was a hobbit):

Bit further:

Puppets!

Remember the "high on hill stood a lonely goat" part of The Sound of Music? Well, they really go in for that sort of thing here. They perform entire operas and musicals in marionette form. I know - and people apparently attend of their own free will! In between these horror shows, they store the offending articles in the fortress (behind bars is the best place for them, I say) and here are some:

That big Golden Ball

Apparently, since the early '00s, there's been a tradition of putting up a new piece of modern art statuary every year. Well, this is one of them. As you can see it's in the middle of a big old square in front of one of the impressive churchy buildings that abound in Salzburg. But there it stands, bold as brass, if actually made of something much more flimsy (sounds like fibreglass when you knock on it). And yes, that is just some generic person standing on top of it. For once, it's not Mozart (or Paraselsus, who wasn't actually invented by Robertson Davies, but in fact is buried in a cemetery in town and has a spa named after him):


Big chess pieces, for when you're in the mood for big chess:


I smelled them before I saw them:


They're very protective to a lot of their statuary in Salzburg. So no, this isn't one of those Louvre-esque glass pyramids, it's just a way to keep stuff away from the statue inside.

And this is the tomb of the unknown Ringwraith. Or at least it looks like it. I dunno what it really is, except very creepy:

Hohensalzburg Fortress

Towering over Salzburg is an impressive fortress whose construction was started in the 1100s (I could write guide books, couldn't I?) Obviously I had to visit it. The easy way is to use the "Funicular" (i.e., thing like the one that joins up Lynton and Lynmouth - but unlike that one, they gave up on the water system and it's now electric. Bah, humbug.) Here's where you go in:


Here's a panoramic view from the top. Dontcha just love them? I do!

More spectacular views. If you look carefully, you'll see a golden ball. More on that later.


Falling to your death would be easy. That's Austria for you: life is cheap. I believe that might be an Alp in the background. For the first day, they're actually visible. It's like LA when the wind blows away the smog. Only with Alps.


Feel free to make this your desktop backgroud - I have. Although that person on the right annoys me. Feel free to crop him out.


This is inside (one of) the courtyard(s) - in glorious Panorama-vision (TM).


A place to shoot attackers from. Or cruelly mock them in absurd accents.


And just to prove I didn't just get these pictures from some online tourist brochure (wearing my Xmas present sunglasses from my beloved sister, and hat (and sweater) knitted by beloved mother):


Well, you've got to have cannons otherwise what kind of fortress is it?


I decided to walk down as it was getting a bit crowded:

Last stages:

Where I had breakfast

This is the Cafe Tomaselli (as you can see) which is supposedly Salzburg's oldest cafe, and the place where Mozart used to hang out. Well, if it's good enough for him...

Spinning around in the middle of Salzburg

Again, this was yesterday when it was cold. It's nice and sunny today, as you'll already be aware if you've read the posts above this one.

The Museum of Modern Art

Regular reader(s) will have read the two posts below and realize that this trip happened yesterday and that the thing below is Salzburg's fancy new museum of Modern Art. I think the outside is hideous, and I don't understand Austria's love for English phrases, but it gets better inside.


Thomas has probably forgotten, but many years ago, he and I recreated the following two pictures from an Art book (one of those little paperback ones we keep on the cistern) using Microsoft Paint. (I think it should be obvious why we selected those two rather than, say, Guernica.) Seeing them in the flesh (so to speak) therefore brought a big smile to my careworn face:



See what I mean about the inside being better? It's amazing what you can do with concrete.





I dunno about Art, but I know what I like. And the second one (by Richard Artschwager) is called Kartoffeln II - how could you not love that?



Even the toilets are cool and modernist: