On the rails again: On my way to Anatolia (4)

Welcome to Austria

For a long time southeastern Europe was a conflict zone between eastern and western power. For many centuries the Habsburg Empire played a leading role in these conflicts. From their Austrian homelands they first were at the front line of the European defense against the increasing advance of the Ottoman empire towards central Europe. When the sick man at the Bosporus slowly lost his power, the Habsburgs increased their territory far to the east, as far as what now is western Ukraine, northwestern Romania, big parts of the Balkan states, Bohemia and of course Hungary.

Arrival at the station of Bad Ischl

The undisputed center of their empire of course was Vienna. However, the emperors tried to escape from the hot Viennese summers to more pleasant retreats. During his long life (1830-1916), emperor Franz Josef I spent 82 summers in the little town of Bad Ischl in the Salzkammergut, south-east of Salzburg.

The town hall where the imperial family spent their days before the villa was bought

Franz Josef was crowned Austrian emperor in 1848, when he was 18. In 1854 he married Elisabeth, princess of Bavaria, his first cousin, who at the time was 16 years old. As a marriage present, the couple received a villa and the surrounding gardens in Bad Ischl. Before, when young Franz Josef had spent time in Ischl, the royal family stayed with the mayor in the town hall. Altogether, Franz Josef spent 60 summers, usually the month of July and August, in the villa, which was extensively rebuilt and enlarged.

Entrance to the imperial villa across the Traun river

Only 10 month after her marriage Empress Elisabeth gave birth to a daughter. Sisi, how she later became affectionately called by her subjects, not only was a very young mother, the child also died when Sisi was only 19 years old. It was not her fault: her mother in law, who distrusted her maternal abilities, took all her children away from her to have greater influence.

One of the reasons her husband liked to come to Ischl was his affection for hunting. It is documented that Franz Josef, during his life time, shot around 65000 animals, of which 18000 were pheasants. With his hunting affection he probably contributed to the near extinction of the grouse in Austria. He has killed more than 600 of these highly endangered birds. The walls of the mansion are decorated with the trophies of his passion. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of antlers, his rifles are still there, ready for use, and there is a room which was exclusively used for discussing hunting excursions. In the restaurant “Elisabeth” where I have dinner, they have a huge print of one of the emperor’s hunting parties. The photo was taken in 1912, when he was already above 80.

Staircase of the mansion decorated with the trophies of Franz Josef's passion

It is not documented what his wives opinion of her husbands bloodthirsty passion was. However, she also loved to stay in Bad Ischl. She gave birth to two more daughters and a son. In the mansion, both she and her husband had their own wings. However, in 1858, she also got a separate cottage in the garden above the main residence, which increasingly became a retreat for her. She hated the court etiquette and felt confined. As refuge, she took to exercise and was obsessive about her looks. She was an excellent horse back rider, did gymnastics and fencing. With 1.73 m she was rather tall for a woman of her time, but she managed to keep her weight at 50 kg. As soon as this benchmark was passed she responded with desperate fasting.

The Marble Cottage, Sisi's retreat

So far I did not succeed in visiting the cottage. This time they are busy preparing an exhibition of the chinese artist Ai Wei Wei. The individual parts, colored wooden beams, are laid out in the garden. I am eager to meet the artist, but I guess he prefers the company of his fellow chinese in the little town of Hallstatt two train stops away.

Construction of an Ai Wei Wei sculpture in the imperial gardens

In 1889 crown prince Rudolf, their only son and male heir to the throne, committed suicide with his lover Mary Vetsera. Elisabeth was assassinated by an anarchist in 1898.

The emperor's rooms

Old Franz Josef, who had still very much loved his extravagant and introvert wife, kept coming to Bad Ischl. Here he also received foreign rulers like the kings of Portugal or Bulgaria, and the former US president Grant, In the guided tour visitors can have a look at his study and next door at his bedroom with a rather sober one person bed. Franz Josef got up every morning at 3.30 am. He then went to his desk in the study next door and started working. He went to bed at 9 pm. The last document he signed in Bad Ischl was the declaration “Manifest an meine Völker”(manifest to my people) to explain the need of declaring the first world war.

Desk of emperor Franz Josef with the "manifesto to my people" and, to the right, his cigar lighter

In their will the imperial couple had bestowed the villa to their youngest daughter Marie Valerie. Her descendants still use half of the building, the former wing used by Sisi.

Pavilion in the garden overlooking the mansion

It is lovely to enjoy the English landscape park above the mansion on a sunny day. In contrast to the palaces in Vienna there is hardly anybody. There are a couple of pavilions where you can sit down and enjoy the view of the town and the mountains hovering above.

In the streets of Bad Ischl

With the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire the visits of important people to Bad Ischl stopped. Like similar resort towns it started a long decline. However, now, on a sunny White Monday evening, the streets are lively and the many cafes are full. The atmosphere is friendly and quiet.

The congress and concert hall and ....

... the drinking hall of Bad Ischl

The town center of Bad Ischl is built into a horseshoe bend of the river Traun. The area became rich from salt mining. In the early times the narrow valleys and steep slopes above the lakes did not allow the building of roads. The salt was shipped down the Traun in wooden boats. Ischl had a shipyard to build them.

Nepomuk, the saint guarding European bridges

I walk into the garden of a restaurant to have dinner. The friendly waitress offers me a table at the edge of the river. The current is murderous. It is unbelievable how anybody could have been able to go down that river in a wooden boat. The boats had to be unloaded at some rapids and waterfalls on the way. But salt was such a precious commodity that it was worth the effort.

Many of the big old hotels of Ischl have been converted to apartments. At least none is an empty ruin, as far as I can see, like in almost ghost towns like Badgastein or Semmering.

Old Alpine style houses in Ischl

To go to Bad Ischl by train, I had to change from the high speed train from Munich to Vienna to a local train in a place called Attnang-Puchheim. I board a train which is basically occupied by Asians with enormous roller cases. I am reminded of the beginning of the movie “White” by Krzysztof Kieślowski, where the protagonist, Karol, travels in a huge suitcase from France to Poland because he couldn’t afford the airfare. All these people go to Hallstatt. Not to see Ai Wei Wei, I guess.

Visitors to Hallstatt in line for their ferry ticket

Hallstatt, a little town perched between its namesake lake and the sheer cliffs of the Dachstein mountain range, was the center of salt mining in this area. For unknown reasons influences started to ravel about the town in their posts and now it is on the “bucket list” itinerary of chinese visitors.

The approach is charming. From the little railway station, the crowd tries to control their roller cases down a narrow footpath to a ferry. Across the quiet dark water of the lake you can see the town perched between the steep slope and the shore.

The boat’s crew try to sell return tickets to everybody. When I ask for a single because I want to continue by bus from Hallstatt, they tell me there is no bus. That is a crude lie. I don’t mind paying the 7 €, but you should be glad to have visitors and not treat them badly. Looks like the Balkans are not very far from Austria.

There are lots of complaints about the number of tourists visiting Hallstatt and their behavior. The mayor sees the character of the village changed. There are “private property” signs everywhere. Posters warn of pickpockets, a thing previously unheard of in a quaint alpine village like Hallstatt. I get the impression that everybody is very well behaved, for the sheer number of them. It is a tiny town, but the visitors concentrate in the main street and hardly anybody ventures on one of the hiking paths up the hill or back into the valley where the salt mines are.

For sure the main street is full of restaurants and tourist shops and most of the houses either are hotels or rent guest rooms. The main point of attraction for most of visitors is to make a selfie at a famous overlook point to the east of the village center. You get the impression they come, take a selfie and leave. There is a group of really beautiful women from Vietnam. It turns out that they have especially dressed up for the occasion of that selfie. Later I see them changing to more proper traveling gear secretly behind cars on a private parking bay. I guess this is the kind of behavior the mayor is afraid of.

The visitors from Vietnam

I drag myself up a steep hill to the church. I am the only visitor. It has a beautiful hall type nave and a double altar. Outside it is surrounded by the towns little graveyard. The cemetery is so tiny that graves have to be emptied regularly. It was the tradition to get out the bones after about 20 years of rotting, clean the skull, paint it with the name of the deceased and beautiful decorations, and then store it in the bone house. There are 1500 skulls there at the moment. The habit got out of use in recent years. Most of the dead are cremated now. I wouldn’t mind to have my skull on display there.

The cemetery

Very few of the selfie-makers visit the bone house. When I get there, the other visitors are an Austrian school class. I take profit because I can listen to the teacher, who patiently reads out the information pamphlet to them. So I do not have to read it myself. The lady selling the tickets at the entrance tells me to get in quickly before the school class follows. But they are very well behaved. No noise. We even have a friendly little chat.

Inside the bone house

Inside the church

When I continue walking up the steep hill I come to a little bench. A couple from Penang in Malaysia is having their packed lunch while they enjoy the panoramic view of the village, the lake and the mountains. They are traveling around Europe for 3 weeks. Previous stops were Munich and Salzburg, next will be Prague. They have organised their own trip to Europe. Yet, it is astonishing how little they now about European history. But OK, I have visited Malaysia a long time ago and did not know a lot about their history. They have never heard of an Austrian emperor and his wife, Sisi. They were a bit surprised that they see the name so frequently here. Nobody talks to the visitors who come from far. They are seen as a useful object for making profit but better not as intruders. Why don’t they have people in the streets who give information or offer free tours to explain what these people see? After visitors from Germany, the UK, other European countries, and yes, also Austria, have flooded places like the Balearic Islands, the Spanish Mediterranean coast and cultural hot spots like Florence in Europe, Chichen Itza in Mexico or Gizeh in Egypt and have turned them into a hell for locals and tourists alike, they now complain when people from far away countries come to have a look here too. I guess they should rather stay where they are and serve cuba libres to the thirsty crowd.

Hallstatt is also famous for the Hallstatt culture. There is a museum and it is a UNESCO world heritage site. But most visitors do not even bother to read the information panels in front of the building.

The majority of visitors come by tour bus, either on an organized tour or on the scheduled day trips for tourists visiting Salzburg or Vienna. While the swans on the lake behind me float gracefully like a swan usually does, the bus station in front of me is like a bee hive. I am afraid that the public bus, which I want to take to my next destination will be full. But besides me there are only a handful of passengers. The boat crew has done a convincing job.

Base station of the cable car to the Dachstein caves

Part of the Dachstein UNESCO world heritage site, the Dachstein mountain range has numerous and extensive cave networks. These are limestone mountains. The rock is readily dissolved, forming the well known phenomenas of a Karst landscape. One of the caves is the Eishöhle, around 3 km long and partially filed with ice. There are guided tours covering a 800 m circuit.

3D model of the mammut cave system under the Dachstein mountain. Red is what is on the guided tour

National Geographic recently had an article about these ice caves. There are several in the Alps and they are seriously endangered. Like the glaciers above, the ice is melting. Go there before it’s gone. None of the foreign visitors I was talking to, know about these caves. Most of the people on my guided tour will be Europeans, mostly from Germany or locals from Austria. There was a talkative Chinese couple, but they live in London.

Musseled dog in the cable car on his way to the cave

The bus brings its few passengers to the base of the Dachstein cable car. The caves are at the intermediate stop. There is the ice cave and the so called Mammut cave, an enormous network of caves they are still busy exploring. However, most of the visitors take the cable car all the way to the summit. There is what they market as “five fingers”. It is a structure of five metal, glass bottom fingers, where you can get the thrill of hovering above a precipice of 1500 m deep. I am not a fan of such artificial attractions. It is one way to give the area additional attractivity in summer. In winter the cable car gives access to a ski area which used to be snow save year round since it was on a glacier. The glacier has retreated to such an extent that skiing in summer is not possible any more.

View of the valley, the intermediate stop of the cable car, Hallstatt lake and in the background, the Schafberg, destination of a steam operated cog railway

After I leave the cable car I get an assignment for a guided tour starting in 35 minutes. It is a steep 20 min climb to the entrance and I arrive there covered in sweat, watching all these other visitors in their nice mountain gear, padded jackets, hats and hiking boots. I did not anything like that; my intention was to take a train to Anatolia, not to explore a cave.

Little dog in its back bag

Eventually the tour starts, to the relieve of three couples with 5 children who were constantly busy to prevent their off spring from rolling down the mountain side. Others pack their little dogs which they will carry around the cave on their back. I think the dogs are very pleased with the chance to get that excursion. They are exceptionally quiet.

Parzifal ice statue in the cave

The guide does his best to break his personal record of running a tour group through the cave in as little time as possible. In addition, he switches off the light behind us just early enough so that the last of us get the grisly impression of how it is to be here alone, in the dark, in the cold.

This time of the year the mean temperature in the lower part of the cave is a couple of degrees above zero, in the icy part of the cave it is around zero. It feels much warmer since we have to run up all those stairs behind the guide – the exit is 70 m above the entrance. There is no time to enjoy the view of the ice and meditate about its disappearance.

It is obvious that the opinions about how the inside of such a cave should be enjoyed are widely different. The operator’s opinion is that you have to provide a light show while Wagner’s Parzifal is blasting through the space of the cave. I don’t hear any positive comments about that. There is one giant ice-stalactite in the first cave, called Parzifal. The little dogs in their back bags and the little kids are scared to death. The shaky suspension bridge which we can pass (there is an alternative way around, but nobody takes it) at least gives a good view of the mass of ice from above.

Suspension bridge above the ice

When the cave was first explored in 1910 Parzifal was 3 m high, now he has grown to 8 m. But that is not typical for the entire mass of ice in the cave, which, in agreement with the article in National Geographic, is shrinking. There is an interesting exhibition at the station of the cable car where they show a movie. It shows lots of fragile ice structures, thin icicles growing down from the ceiling. Did not see any of them. But maybe we just did not get the time to carefully look.

The cable car

The exhibition has a lot of information about global warming, the influence of the climate on ice caves and glaciers and the changing climate. They leave no doubt that glaciers and ice caves will be gone from the Alps by the end of the century. But they also argue that the most recent earth age was a rather cold one. Glaciers in the alps were not always there. However, the current degree of warming is taking place in such a rapid pace that this is unheard of. The contrary, rapid cooling in a very short time, happened more frequently. The impact of a small celestial object can be enough to turn the earth into a ball of ice and cause the extinction of the majority of species. There were about 60 impacts of bodies of a 5 km diameter or more in the last 600 million years. The one about 60 million years ago caused the total extinction of the dinosaurs. I think the exhibitions wants to make us believe that such an event is a far more serious threat than this bit of global warming melting away their glaciers.

Profile of the earth temperature. See the current temperature increase all the way to the right

On the way down and back by bus I meet a girl from Somalia in her traditional dress covered with a headscarf. She is a pharmacist in London and is on a tour around Austria. On her own. She had been visiting the five fingers. Like myself she stays in Bad Ischl. She did not realize that they have got an imperial villa there and that his last inhabitant was the emperor who started a carnage that killed millions of Europeans. Nor is she aware that there was much more ice and snow up there just 50 years ago.