violist

The MARC train from Union Station is a lovesome thing, God
wot. Gets you to the BWI rail depot in half an hour in
relative comfort. As I detrained, an odd little middle-aged
woman (I was going to write "little old lady" but reflected
on that she was about my age, perhaps younger) appeared out
of nowhere with one of those scooters that used to be
popular among kids in the '50s and were revived, I think, in
the energy-conscious '90s and '00s. She proceeded to weave
her way around everyone and proceed to parts unknown.

The rest of us obediently trooped on the shuttlebus
(perhaps she did as well, but I didn't see her - I suspect
she scooted all the way to the airport) and got off at our
respective piers. I tried checkin via Mr. Chicken and his
passport reader, and it worked fine; I got all the day's
passes at once, including for the international leg.

Security took mere moments, despite there being a fairly
long line.

No RCC any more, as we know, and someone has taken down the
protest notes that were springing up last time I was here
a couple weeks ago, but the T-Mobile still functions, with
the extra feature intact. I was so engrossed in FT that I
missed the boarding call and boarded fairly late. In the
meantime, guess who scooted past down the hall?

We emplaned through 1L.

UA 641 BWI ORD 0945 1047 752 2A Ch9^^ Empower

Breakfast: coffee, juice, or water and a 1/2 oz pack of
Biscoffs. The quite decent FA crew was quite forthcoming
with stuff to augment the coffee, juice, and water; I
passed and had a nice hour snooze. Flight came in about
half an hour early; about 15 of that advantage were eaten
up by the airport grand tour.

As we wandered about, the list of connections was announced.
The guy hardly skipped a beat when he read "flight 950 to
Washington Dulles, Gate C10."

Oh, guess who was in 1C: Ms. Scooter. When I left she was
chewing off the ear of the very patient FA about something
or another.

I had plenty of time to get the earlier flight to Dulles,
but I decided to sit tight and keep my beautiful 777,
despite the greater chance for a misconnect. So I sat
at the club munching Werther's Original dark chocolate
with caramel and the new Love and Quiches cookies 'n cream
brownies; both of these are quite acceptable but don't
really make up for the meal cutbacks on the flights.

The usual run of granola bars, Kit Kats, big croissants,
little bagels, boxes of raisins, apples and oranges, and
Sun Chips. At some point some brown pastries came out. I
asked the attendant what they were, and he opined that they
were either bran muffins or chocolate or both; turns out
they were incredibly unbelievably stale pumpernickel rolls.
I know that's a redundancy, but that's how stale they were.

The wi-fi worked exceptionally well, no dropped signals.

UA950C ORD IAD 1315 1614 777 9J Ch9 ^ Empower ^

The flight was checked in at 163 with 25 standbys and 8
hopeful upgraders to F. That's what the big screen said.
The little C cabin had 4 empties, so I guess everyone was
accommodated eventually.

A rather officious, by the rules crew: the downside, a
rather brusque and not forthcoming appearance; the upside,
playing by the old rules, including multiple predeparture
OJ/water services as we sat waiting for our clearance - how
there can be congestion at ORD on a crystalline clear day
I don't know.

Walter the purser kind of melted down when some guy in row 3
had the gall to stay on his phone during the no-cellphone
spiel; he came over and hissed "I'm not doing this just to
hear my own voice" and went on about how rude the pax was.
"I don't want to have to call the FAA on you," he said.

My FA refused to call the cockpit to inquire about Ch9. Some
attitude on these folks! Ch9 did come on without prompting
after takeoff, though.

Premier snack mix did not seem to be a promising snack; but
eventually the dreaded fruit and cheese plate came out: the
canonic 5 fruits (let's see, blueberries, strawberries,
cantaloupe, pineapple, grapes; all surprisingly good) and
two cheeses: a rather peppery Pepper Jack and a Cheddaroid
substance that didn't taste like Jack. Courvoisier helped it
all down.

We landed at C27; the connection was at C1. Luckily we came
in early. I went to the C7 club and tried to find gvdIAD;
turns out he was in C17. At C7 drink coups gladly given. It
was unbelievably crowded, as was the entire concourse.

SFO777

Bravo Walter! ^

violist

UA902 IAD MUC 1728 0740 777 12F was 9F/9J Ch9^ Empower^

Met up with gvdIAD on the plane; had a bit of a chat, and
then I went to my seat, 9F. I don't know where my 9J had
disappeared to. Ah, well. 9E had a spouse or spice who was a
late upgrader, and in the interest of amity I switched with
12F, which is a perfectly okay home for those of us with
legs shorter than Magic Johnson's.

Ch9 was on during all the time I was awake, with plenty of
chatter even on the overwater.

Warm nuts, predeparture Champers, which was actually okay,
a fairly attentive crew: largely Black, though there were a
very tantalizing young blonde and a cute, age-appropriate
brunette working as well.

to begin
Smoked salmon, Genoa salami and vegetable crudite with a
sun-dried tomato dressing

Fresh seasonal greens - classic Caesar or balsamic Dijon
vinaigrette

main course
T Mustard thyme scented chicken - with warm horseradish
potato salad

Braised short rib of beef with red wine demi-glace -
potato pancakes and oven-roasted root vegetables

Boursin lasagna - Alfredo and marinara sauce

The appie and salad were unexceptionable: my only comment
being that my piece of salmon, though tasting appropriately
salmony, was white!, and the vegetable crudite looked like a
cruddity, with the dehydrated look of a carrot that had been
cut sometime last week and left to molder in the fridge.
A couple nice grape tomatoes; I guess they're in season
somewhere in the world.

I'd told the brunette FA that my first choice was the beef
and my second choice was to not be wakened up for supper and
I wouldn't die for want of food. She thanked me and said,
that's better than some pax ... . I did get my first choice.
Another FA served the stuff, calling it "filet mignon."
It was neither filet nor short rib: about six ounces of
perfectly okay pot roast in a brown sauce that might have
seen red wine at some point in its youth. The sides were
negligible. What can one say: it was palatable food, didn't
make me retch, didn't make me shed tears of joy.

The "root" vegetables were zucchini, yuck.

Real butter on this flight, molded in the shape of a flower.

dessert
International cheese selection - Kerrygold vintage
Cheddar, Port-Salut

Eli's caramel tiramisu

I was asleep before dessert came out. Normally, I ask for a
Courvoisier or a glass of Port, just to make sure they keep
stocking these things, but, what can I say, I shirked my
responsibility.

featured wines

Champagne
Duval-Leroy Brut NV Champagne - Duval-Leroy is a Champagne
house that consistently creates an easy-going style of
Champagne; fruitier in style than some, and very, very
fleshy and rich.

Pol Roger Brut NV Champagne - Pol Roger makes its umpteenth
appearance on our wine list; and that pleases us very much.
Pol Roger's style is classic but rich, and full-bodied but
balanced. When we blind taste our wines each year, Pol
Roger always comes out at the top.

White wine
Fevre Champs Royaux 2006 Chablis (Chardonnay) - Chardonnays
from Burgundy can taste very unlike Californian Chardonnay;
where California goes for the richness of buttered toast,
Chablis (a subregion of Burgundy) is poised, earthy, and
tart with orange and green apple aromas.

Estancia Pinnacles Chardonnay 2006 Monterey - California's
reputation for buttery Chardonnay doesn't come from Napa
Valley's wines; it comes from the Central Coast of
California. Estancia's Pinnacles Chardonnay is cut from
that cloth, with pear, spice, buttered toast and green
apples.

Salmon Harbor Chardonnay 2005 Columbia Valley - While
California has built a reputation on buttery Chardonnay,
Washington's best Chardonnays have even better balance
between richness and crispness, combining spiced pears
and buttered toast and Salmon Harbor hit it in 2005.

The Chablis was in fact pleasantly tropical fruited and
an okay wine. There was a hint of the butter that the
description denies, but one forgives the overwrought state
of a copy writer whose job is probably on the line every
day. I was not displeased.

Interesting about the Pol Roger. The bottle sat on the
cart unopened through the entire service.

Red wine
Domaine Santa Duc Vieilles Vignes 2005 Cotes du Rhone
(Grenache) - France's greatest growth in red wines is
emanating from the Rhone Valley, where Cotes du Rhone
wines represent some of the world's best values. This
spicy and intense Grenache is laced with some rich
black cherry tinged Syrah.

Warburn Barrel Matured Shiraz 2007 Barossa Valley -
Warburn offers an ideal example of the character of
Australian Shiraz, with coconut, blackbery and cassis
flavors. It has the voluptuous richness that typifies
Australian wines.

Fabre Montmayou Gran Reserva Malbec 2006 Mendoza - this
is lush red wine, full of plums and spice, and proof that
Argentine Malbec is on its way to becoming the next big
thing. This Malbec has roundness, jammy fruit, dusty
spice and layers of complexity.

The CdR was actually kind of okay - I found red cherries
rather than black and old shoes rather than spice, but
whatever. Switched to the Malbec, which was pretty much as
advertised, though with a bit of vanilla oak smoothness.
Both these wines were decent but no doubt available to the
airline at an attractive price.

prior to arrival
Continental breakfast featuring a fruit appetizer,
yogurt, breakfast bread and fruit preserves

Slept joyfully through this.

Arrival was easy, though I did annoy the immigration guy
when he asked me how long I'd be there: I said, uh, about
five hours. He gave me this exasperated look and said, nein,
in Europe. Uh, four days. He snorted and waved me away.

violist

Saw gvdIAD off at the Hbf (he went direct on the IC; I built
a few hours in Munich to wander around and drink a few
beers) and trekked eastward by degrees. In contrast to my
rosy memories, no Brauhalle was open at 8 am (they open at
9), so I hotfooted it through the giant pedestrian mall and
to the Marienplatz, the Rathaus, and the Viktualienmarkt,
where I annoyed numerous vendors by sniffing at their
chanterelles (uniformly beautiful - it's season) and giant
fresh figs (it must be season in Italy or someplace) but
not buying. I was tempted to pick up a bottle of Enzian to
torment my friends with back home, but then I reflected on
having to check a bag and said, neh.

Took Maximilian's bridge and marveled yet again at the
edifice at the end of it.

Found a violin shop on Franziskanerstrasse. Poked my nose
in but didn't see anything special.

Got to Ostbahnhof unconscionably early and found a Maierbrau
house, the Brunnstein, where I had roast pig and a dark and
then a light beer; both brews were clean, good, unmemorable.
The pork was an ample serving from the leg, complete with a
nice piece of crackling; it came with a really gluey
dumpling with a tiny insufficient bread cube in the middle
and a pretty good salad (lettuce, tomato, and cucumber in a
strong vinaigrette with a dollop of potato salad on the side.
A mediocre gravy was enriched by a stock cube or some Maggi.
E11 plus a tip. Partway through my lunch (I arrived before
noon, and the place was busy but not jammed) all the tables
ended up used, and a little old lady asked if she could sit
at mine. Turns out she's a monolingual, and as my German is,
as I never cease to tell people, schlecht, we didn't
communicate effectively but had a great time doing so.

Around this time the horrible discovery was made that I'd
left my bottle of lactase pills on the plane. It wasn't so
much the $20 wasted but that lactose intolerance is so rare
in Europe that no market exists for lactase pills, and they
are thus impossible to find, especially for someone whose
days were filled for me. Okay, no fondue or cheese plate
or gelato or (worst of all) Schlag for me. Later on I found
a handful of them in my sport coat, left over from another
trip, so I had limited access to dairy products.

RB 30017 to SZG Hbf 1250 1442

A fine trip, the train being clean, fairly comfy, and more
important than anything else, on time, well, within five
minutes anyway for the whole trip.

There's a stop where many teenagers got off: it's called
something like "... in a sling" - henceforth to be known as
"the town of heartbreakingly beautiful high school girls."
Let that be a hint to those of you who are 40 years younger
than I am.

So I got off at the Hauptbahnhof and (with the map in mind
but not hand) walked to the hotel, only I made the wrong
turn and ended up going way north ,,, screwed up my courage
and in a horrible mixture of German and English asked some
girl where the Renaissance Congress Center was; discovered
that I'd made this wrong turn ... in five minutes I was at
the hotel. At reception I inquired about boxo, and they said
that she wasn't there (disappointment). I went on FT (E9 for
2 hours' internet from the hotel) to leave messages, to
which totmode responded; turns out that when boxo checked in
they must have spelled her name wrong, hence the confusion.

Room 219 was quite nice. Not big, not much of a view (just
a building across the street and the street itself), but
nicely appointed and with a fine bathroom. Also the comfy
king bed was adorned with 6 pillows.

It turns out that boxo's room had a worse view than mine,
and totmode's, I'm told, was worse yet.

We met in the lobby at 1830 for transportation to dinner.
A bunch of us took the #2 bus to Hangar 7: boxo, totmode,
MikeMpls + Kathy, melville, the_happiness_store. Others
took a rental car. We actually all encountered each other at
the last bus stop, where monitor offered some of us a ride
in the rumble seat of his rental behemoth, but being hardy
souls, we refused, all opting to walk from the main highway
to the facility, a couple hundred meters.

A lot of oohing and aahing about the admittedly spectacular
building. A bunch of picture-taking by friends who shall
remain nameless ensured that we'd be a tad late for the
opening ceremonies.

Welcome Drink (our own Flyertalk cocktail) at hanger 7 -
7 pm

This was a sort of whisky sour with passionfruit - quite
palatable, actually: the accompaniment was a quite classy
mix with cashews, almonds, wasabi peanuts, and macs.

It did do the job, along with the effects of recent air
travel, of rendering ineffective my memory, with the result
of my having forgotten and/or mixed up the names of everyone
whom I'd met for the first time. With the consequence that I
continue to forget the names of many of the German-speaking
contingent and that I operated for a day or so without
realizing the lili-Pat equivalency, so there was some
misalignment going on. For example, I ended up asking KLC her
name at least three times, sorry about that.

Those who know me, though, do realize that if I encounter a
friend who has changed a little thing - cut her hair, or put
a tie on, or trimmed his beard - it might be a good while
before I figure out his or her identity.

violist

==

Welcome Gift* - a four-pack of Mozart liqueur minis; an FT
luggage tag; and some Austrian Airlines souvenirs. Very
nice, and thank you, szg!

* this term appropriate given the end of my day

The setting, a balcony overlooking the main dining area,
was intriguingly twenty-first-century.

After a few minutes of socializing here, we were led
downstairs to a room in which three big tables were set
up for us. The main dining room was taken up by some
kind of gala opening of some kind of exhibit.

- 5 course Dinner at hangar 7 (cooked by Guest chef Gaston
Acurio, Restaurant "Astrid y Gaston" Lima, Peru and
Executive chef Roland Trettl) - 7.30 pm

Regular Menu

Amuse Bouche "Pisco Sour"
Bloody Mary with grilled mussels with garlic butter

The Pisco sour was a sour, I don't know what the big deal
was or why it was paired with the first course, which was
pretty good, though misdescribed: no gin noticeable in
the "bloody"; the grilled mussels were steamed baby clams;
and I could not detect any garlic butter. The presentation
was one of those odd modern things - a long thin canoe-
shaped white porcelain dish with a couple ounces of "bloody
Mary"; the Pisco sour, another couple ounces in a straight-
sided shot glass, lurking behind.

Cebiche of sea bass "traditional" - quite well done, the
fish somewhat underpickled so still translucent and
somewhere between ceviche and poke.

Hotpot of shrimps, poached egg and bean seeds "arequipa
style" - I didn't care for the shrimp, finding them a bit
mushy. The egg was an odd but interesting counterpoint,
and the bean seeds - baby favas - delicious. As a whole I
think the dish went together decently.

Roasted sucking pig with potato-ragout "peruvian style"
and stuffed peach - this was presented as a ballottine type
thing, the outside crisp pig skin, the interior the boned
meat. Very nice, though I found it salty. The peach was
stuffed with black pudding, a combination I enjoyed but
perhaps others didn't. Potato-ragout was creamed tater
cubes. Good dish.

Sweet delicacies from PERU

These were small 2-3 bite servings of confections that I
found a little subtle and fugitive.

A custard with banana was fine, the fruit lurking at the
bottom of the little dish.

I rather enjoyed the coconut mango mousse.

To my taste, a flaky pastry with passionfruit and ginger was
the winner, the ginger subtle but transforming the fruit
flavor.

Corn ice cream (somewhat salty), with some vanilla substance
and popped corn kernels seemed a little overtextured and
underflavored;

a Kahlua plum dessert with lime froth was interesting but in
the last analysis didn't fork for me.

Wine
2007 Sauvignon Blanc, Michel Torino, Argentina - your
typical SB, with notes of lime, grass, tropical fruit, and,
yes, just a touch of cat pee.

2002 Nebbiolo, Reserva Privada, L.A. Cetto, Mexico - quite
quite nice, very ripe fruit with that aroma but not the
sweetness. Quite expertly made. I've had this before, I
think, but not this year.

Vegetarian Menu

Potato-cannelloni with braised leek
Tacu tacu of beans with mango and red onion
Braised pumpkin with edamame beans and chanterelles
Spinach-ravioli with sauteed ceps and kefir
Aubergines and pimientos de padron "alla parmigiana"
Milk chocolate-arlettes with pears and caramel ice cream

boxo had this, I believe. I didn't get a report.

In between, bunches of conversation, much laughter, and an
overindulgence of wine. Tablehopping. Only one toast, oddly
enough.

A bit of confusion on leaving - who was going on the bus,
who needed a taxi, who was going to stay there forever and
take photos. I was with the taxi crowd.

Went to my room and proceeded to solve the liquid in
carryon issue by draining all four of the Mozart minis.
Slept only until about 7, though.
==
Saturday:

Exclusive Flyertalk Sightseeing Event

- Meeting point - Hotel Renaissance 09:30 am

szg had actually arranged with Panorama Tours to start at
10, but knowing how difficult it is to herd cats, gave an
extra half hour, every minute of which was needed. Still,
I believe that a few people never showed up.

Eventually we boarded our luxury motorcoach (many jokes
about first class, exit rows, legroom, pretty much to be
expected) and took a tour of the city. Our guide was the
energetic Martina, who appeared to be well-informed but
who had the odd characteristic of saying the same things
at the same places whenever we got to them. At least she
was consistent.

- Castle Hellbrunn with the tricky fountains - the tricky
fountains would have been more fun if the temperature had
been 10C/18F more, as the Archbishop who had the castle and
grounds built was a bit of a card, and the tricks built into
the fountains involved getting people wet. The first one we
visited was the dining table, in a replica of a Roman
amphitheater. The guests would sit there, and at some
prearranged signal by the Archbishop, some servant would
turn a tap, and, ecce, wet guests, the head of the table
sitting in the only seat that didn't have a nozzle in it.
After this hilarity, you will understand that there was a
certain dubiety among the tourists, who are as you know of
a higher order of intelligence than the average bear. The
trick was pretty much the same at all the fountains. There
were some cool things to see, though, a mirror room, a
floating crown, a clockwork village, mythological scenes:
all of them fine, but one might have one's enthusiasm
dampened at any time. The Schloss itself was open to
visitors, and that was kind of interesting.

- Visit a Salt Mine with a miners welcome ceremony - which
involved coarse bread, salt, and a little glass of rather
raw schnapps. After which we took the miners' railroad into
the mine, then walked a couple of kilometers underground,
crossing the border twice (no passport necessary), taking
two slides (totmode was our only casualty - she negotiated
the dangerous part just fine but turned her ankle getting
off the slide; she was a terrific sport, walking the rest
of the tour in pain but keeping a smile on her face most of
the time) and a boat trip across a brine pool.

There are pictures I believe somewhere on the Internet of
various FTers in silly white miner costumes doing silly
miner things.

There's a canteen and gift shop at the end: I had a local
beer, clean, rather yeasty, but otherwise nondescript. I
think it was called something like Konigsbrau.

- Visit the Celtic Village - which is essentially part of
the mine tour; this is a reconstruction meant to give us an
idea about the lives of the miners back in the prehistoric
days. It appears to be something to do for people waiting
for their tours to start, which is in fact what we did.

- Return at the Hotel Renaissance at 5 pm

Yep.

violist

- Dinner at Stieglkeller - with Salzburger Nockerln -
overlooking the old city from Salzburg -

I wanted to walk (looked like about half an hour) but ended
up taking the bus with all the folks. The Keller is off in
old town across the river, and the bus trip went past all
sorts of historic sites ... it let us off a few blocks away,
and all we had to do was make our way through St. Rupert's
Fair and halfway up the hill. I'm sure the view over the old
city is wonderful, but I'm also sure that it would have been
crowded and noisy and hard to carry on a conversation in. We
had a semiprivate room with, again, three big tables.

The food:

Smoked trout with raifort sauce - quite good, hot-smoked,
with a rich whipped-cream and horseradish (light on the
latter) sauce. Unfortunately the

salad of tender lettuces with radish sprouts and a balsamic
reduction - was on the same plate, and unfortunately boxo
doesn't do fish. So having informed the waiter, he offered
a salad with mushrooms. boxo doesn't do mushrooms, either.
So. How about the mushroom salad without mushrooms? Okay!
She pushed the appetizer aside, and shortly a salad came.
It looked okay. Within a few minutes, another salad came,
a much bigger one, otherwise I believe the same. Three
plates of food in front of boxo. Someone came by, and after
a bit of discussion, one of the salads (I think the small
one) went away. Shortly to be replaced by a salad with
mushrooms on it. I thought it hilarious; I'm glad that
others, especially boxo, were amused as well.

Soup with pancake strips - a rather ordinary broth with,
in fact, julienne of crepe. The whole did a reasonable
imitation of Knorr's chicken noodle soup.

Pork loin escalope stuffed with breakfast food - (bacon,
egg, mushrooms), sided with parsley potatoes. I think that
this was billed as "nach Salzburgischer Art" or something.
I guess the locals like their breakfast. It was a perfectly
okay plate of food. I don't know how boxo finessed the
mushrooms in the stuffing.

And ... the famous Nockerln. When I've had them before,
they've been egg white clouds in strawberry or raspberry
sauce. These were pancakey things with what QFguy
identified as cranberry jam. Not impressive: I prefer the
perhaps neo versions I've had elsewhere, though some of us
(totmode) lucked out and got gorgeous souffle-like things
that were browned on top and tender in the middle the way
I remember.

Beers. I asked for a Mass of Dunkel, and the waiter said
that they didn't have dark on draft. He was pushing the
dark wheat beer (something I am not fond of) but eventually
sold me two half-liter bottles of Konig Ludwigs Dunkel,
which I thought was sort of native to Munich, where I've
had it before (at twice the price). Eventually I had a
small light Stiegl, which was fine.

The grumpy waiter was pretty good to us, especially to boxo,
but apparently was merciless with those who wished to switch
places or pay with a credit card. His immutable procedure is
to figure out who has to pay what based on position at the
table: he makes this little chart for himself, and any
movement of diners causes life to be unbearable for him. And
apparently each time a credit card is to be charged, he has
to laboriously write out the slip the way credit cards would
have been handled in the nineteenth century if there had
been credit cards. I think we left him out of sorts. I have
a suggestion for future events: there should be only one
credit card per table, with everyone else paying the lucky
one in cash. That way most of the irritation can be avoided.
If people feel themselves cheated of their miles, maybe they
can be given a 1% discount or something to shut them up.
This method has worked (minus the discount) at various DOs
in years past.

There's a freight elevator: the maitre d' took boxo down in
it, while the rest of us took the steps.

Monitor found a taxicab, and some lucky souls got back to
the hotel earlier than others.

A nightcap of Remy with monitor, restlessinRNO, totmode,
the_happiness_store, and boxo.

boxo

Looking forward to reading in depth, the rest of your report... and, errrr, further embarrassments (re-living and laughing all over again).

violist

boxo: No more embarrassments - for you, at least.

violist

Went to bed relatively early (1ish) but woken twice -
quite soon, then at 0245, by sounds resembling cleaning
or maintenance: something similar to water running
followed by the clanking as of the handle of a pail.
These stopped around 0330. I thought at first that it
was someone fussing with a defective toilet. Then I
wondered if the Ren gave rooms on a haunted corridor to
Priceline guests (I could see no obvious cause for the
noise). Finally got back to bed at 4 something and was
rudely awakened by the alarm at 9.

Sunday:
Exclusive Flyertalk Sound Event - The sound of music tour -
Martina met us at the hotel again at 9:30, and at 10 we
were off to tour the sites of various scenes of the famous
movie, which some of us had not seen, and others had seen
numerous times, myself being in the former category, though
I do know who Julie Andrews is, having played in her pit
orchestra in the 1980s and having seen Mary Poppins (for
the first time) last December. Apparently, the von Trapp
home was not an appropriate setting for a Hollywood film,
and the Swiss border not conveniently placed for a Hollywood
film plot, there were some fast and furious inaccuracies
both geographical and historical. Be that as it may, the
consensus (among those who have seen the movie) is that it
is a sweet thing and perhaps good enough to have become one
of the two great engines of Salzburg tourism.

We started off at some Prince-Archbishop's palace or another
(there are so many of them, most of them, apparently, used
at one place or another in the movie, if the commentary is
to be believed), proceeded on through Herbert von Karajan's
home town (pointed out several times in the two days by
Martina, who seems to have a thing for him), to Schloss
Hellbrunn, which we had visited the previous day in another
context. Here we saw the famous "I Am Sixteen Going on
Seventeen" gazebo, which is tttt underwhelming, but the
dahlia garden across the path garnered much attention and
more than a a few photographs.

A bit of a wander out of the Salzburg district and up into
the lake country to Mondsee, where resides the church of
the Sound of Music wedding scene. The historical event had
taken place in the Benedictine abbey church, but as no
commercial use of the abbey was allowed, this quite
majestic and beautiful substitute was found by the Hollywood
people. Turns out that in this picturesque town overlooking
the gorgeous lake, a local fair was in full swing, with
bands playing, food and craft stalls, and best of all,
schnapps being sold by cute girls in quaint local costume:
restlessinRNO got one to pass around so that he could get a
picture of himself with them. I wasn't thrilled with the
girls, who gave me a funny look, like, what's an Asian
tourist doing drinking schnapps out of a glass that has
touched purebred Aryan lips, but I liked the schnapps,
so I got one of my own. I also got a couple open-faced
cold smoked bacon sandwiches, one of which I shared around
with the few FTers who can stomach raw cold smoked bacon.
Oh, yes, monitor had a French toast filled with jam (ok,
but would have been better if it had been filled with ham),
and totmode had one of the local doughnuts (good, not too
sweet). I really liked the bacon sandwich and could easily
have had my whole lunch from the stalls here. But there was
another FT stomachic event in store, so I saved my pennies
and a little room in my gullet for that.

The trip back on the Autobahn took very little time, and
we arrived at brunch shortly after the meal began.

monitor

It's always great reading what violist has to say after an event. I do a bit of reliving when I read him.

His memory certainly is excellent because I have never seen him taking notes.

Thank you for the effort, violist. It certainly is appreciated here.

violist

thanks for the kind words ...


- Brunch at the airport (Airrest restaurant) - 1 pm

We were greeted by a jolly FT group and a surprisingly
appetizing spread given that it came from a facility that
has a captive audience and didn't have to be as good as
it was. The buffet a volonte included breakfast food -

various omelets and breakfast breads

sausages (I commented to flyingsaucer+1 that these reminded
one of what one might get in a cheesy motel in the Midlands)

bacon (good but not so good as at Mondsee)

chicken in cream with capers (not bad but kind of cold)

prosciutto and melon garnished with a physalis (ground
cherry, lantern fruit, other names)

smoked salmon (good)

and real food -

grilled eggplant with tomato slices, basil, and cheese,
quite pleasant, but then I love eggplant;

strudel of sandre and salmon, rather nice but very heavy on
the dill, served with a thin cream that was billed as
Riesling sauce and buttered spinach;

veal in cream sauce with chanterelles; quite nice, with a
generous hand with the mushrooms (thank goodness they are in
season; otherwise the price is out of sight);

mixed vegetables (too much zucchini, but nicely al dente);

pumpkin schnitzel, an odd concept but not bad;

roesti, parsley potatoes, and steamed barley.

The table I sat at:
Seoulman and Gisela
flyingsaucer and Michael
boxo
melville
myself

Several others faded in and out to socialize - boxo and
melville are quite a draw, as well they should be.

Desserts:

fresh fruit, nice.

Buchteln or Wuchteln, kind of coffee roll with vanilla sauce
- Gisela said that she hadn't been able to find this in
forty years; apparently it's an old-time Salzburg specialty
that has been eclipsed in popularity by the Nockerln. I
raised my brow when I saw her with two of the rather big
things on her plate. She said that she could eat four of
them but didn't want to be piggy, and that I should try one.
So I split a small one with melville, and, though it was
good enough, it was enough. The notable thing about this
dessert is that, as Gisela described, after the rolls have
been baked, they are injected with a filling of apricot jam.

There was a sour cherry Bavarian cream on offer that some
were very enthusiastic about, so I used up one of my
precious remaining lactase pills to try. It was decent, not
too sweet.

Also a cheese board, but I didn't have the pills to spare;
and melville gave me a lukewarm report on them anyhow.

Jassy-50

I'm with you on this, violist. I was quite surprised at the pix from everyone of the Nockerln you had that night. It is not like the Nockerln Mr.J and I had in Salzburg 9 years ago, which was like this one. From what I've read, Nockerln is supposed to look like peaks of the Alps. Perhaps the restaurant makes them differently for large groups?

Love your trip report. Am living vicariously through it.

monitor

We did, in fact, once get served with the type of Nockerln that Jassy-50 described. This was at a country restaurant recommended by szg south of the airport in Wals. It was triple peaked but the flavor did not impress any of us and we were not about to order it again. The example at Stieglkeller did nothing to change our opinions about its virtues.

I am waiting on violist's report on the Sunday evening concert (on which we completely agreed about the music) and about our peregrinations down to and across the river to the Getreidegasse where we found the restaurant Zum Eulenspieglel. He and I ended up at different tables and IMO the geist was completely different at each. I am interested in hearing his take on that evening's late stop so that I can describe the table at which I found myself, in the company of four delightful women.

violist

Monitor, I finally bagged the late night dinner and ended up doing
beers with newbierunner only. So in fact I didn't experience that
meal with you. As far as the concert, see below.

violist

- SZG Airport tour - 3 pm

We paid our meal tabs and waited to be herded by an official
airport guide, who showed up fairly promptly. We went down
to security, where szg and szg+1 issued our ragtag group
with visitor passes (which some of us managed to lose
immediately) and went through the checkpoint. monitor's
hardware caused some amusement, as he thought it would.

The operations manager met us and gave an overview of his
job and the airport's functions. Then, it was off to ATC
for the tour - half of us got to see the tower; the other
half watched approach control. An honor to be allowed to
watch the controllers and ask them questions as they worked.
A note: the main airport is named after W. A. Mozart; but
the general aviation terminal, in which the ATC facility is
located, is named after von Karajan - after all, he was a
famous and infallible Dirigent.

After this, we got to see the fire department (some of us
got to sit in the big fire engine with the foam pumper -
I forget who it was who started directing the foam nozzle
all around (perhaps weero), but we had a few anxious moments
here (tho no foam was foamed). And finally, a visit to airport
operations, after which it was well after 5 pm, so we were
denied the chance to watch baggage manhandling, and the tour
and the Do were declared closed. Thanks, goodbyes, and hugs
all round, and some of us went back to our hotels and others
to our flights, cars, or trains.

We got a big old taxivan to the Renaissance, where I planned
to take a nap before the concert. But as I was ready to head
into the welcoming sheets boxo came by for a friendly visit,
and I must say that seeing boxo one more time was as welcome
as bed would have been.

At 7 a few of us set off on foot for the concert site;
others took other modes of transportation, but we all got
there with plenty of time (it's a 10-15 minute walk).

This was the advertised concert at the Schloss Mirabell
Marmorsaal: "Lukas CHUN - Violin, Claudius TANSKI - Piano;
pieces by W.A. Mozart a.o." It didn't happen. What we
got instead was the Salzburger Solisten, led by Luz
Leskowitz in a mixed program:

Mozart duo in G for violin and viola

Beethoven Spring Sonata

Mozart piano quartet in Eb.

I was not thrilled thrilled by the performances, which
were competent but nothing I couldn't do myself, he said
modestly. The fault, I believe, lies in the leader, an old
guy even older than I whose music-loving days are perhaps
past. The others were young folk, probably recent Mozarteum
graduates, who were as competent as he but ever more
enthusiastic and perhaps less inclined to let their ego
overshadow the music.

The duo was a bit of a mess: Leskowitz (the violinist in all
the pieces) was inclined to go off on his own tempo, and the
violist, a young Russian girl, though a good player, wasn't
up to the task of keeping him in line. There were several
places where they were up to a couple beats off from each
other: not ensemble playing of a high order, although it was
in general a technically facile performance.

The pianist in the sonata was a young, forceful Japanese
woman who was able to keep the violinist in line most of
the time, though he did tend to wander off a bit. He also
was playing with a glazed look as though he were reliving
his senior recital fifty years ago. But the pianist saved
the day.

Leskowitz was by necessity more discreet in the quartet, as
he had to shepherd three others through a beautiful and
somewhat tricky score. This turned out to be a pretty good
performance all told, though tentative as if the three were
wondering if they were going to be able to keep up with
the old man.

After the concert, most of us opted to try to find supper,
which is a story that perhaps one of them will choose to
tell; but a few of us went straight back to the hotel as
we had an early day in the morning.

I stopped by the hotel to have a beer or three with
NewbieRunner. The bar has draft Gosser in two versions, the
regular, which is your run of the mill characterless
International lager, and the yeasty somewhat citrusy
unfiltered, which carries more interest. I finished off
with a clean, pleasant Reininghaus Pils, then off to bed.