Austrian Untour, Summer 2001
by Patricia Hutt, St. Jacob, IL
Here’s some things that are fresh in my mind...First of all, Kuchl is pronounced “Kookal”, Werfen is “Verfen” and Pfarrwerfen is “Farverfen”. Golling is pronounced just as it is spelled.
Kuchl is a lovely little one-stop-light town. Its main street is always lively with people picking up children from school, shopping, eating, or standing around talking to one another. The town is surrounded on three sides by high mountains, the tip tops were dusted with snow during our stay.
Golling is a tourist town , lively with people shopping in the shops that line it’s main street.
We were in Werfen twice and hardly saw a soul on the main street.
We were in Pfarrwerfen once, and nothing is happening there.
ATMs are everywhere. Make sure you take two different cards from two different accounts. My husband’s would not work at all, but worked fine when we got home. You can spend shillings only in Austria, but German Marks are also accepted in Austria.
Take your rain gear! I read our apartment’s little guest book, and 80% of former guests remarked on how much it rained, no matter what time of year. This will not ruin your vacation. It rained 90% of the time we were there and we still had a wonderful time, even with our water absorbent canvas and sweatshirt material jackets. A water proof hooded jacket or cape is a must. Good umbrellas for each person is a must.
If you don’t want to bring attention to yourself as an American, wear dark colored shoes. We could spot U. S. Americans a mile away...just look for inappropriate or no rain gear and white tennis shoes, just like the ones we had on.
We stayed in the Seiwald (pronounced Seevald) apartment in Kuchl. The apartment and the family the apartment belonged to were absolutely wonderful. The big, 3-story house was beautiful with masses of flowers flowing out of all the window boxes. Terri and her family lived on the bottom floor, Josef’s mother and father on the second floor, and our apartment was on the third floor. We had a private entrance to our apartment via the inside marble staircase. The apartment was light and modern and had wonderful skylights. The sound of the rain was wonderful on the roof. We couldn’t have been happier with the accommodations or the landlady. Terri and Hilda left homemade baked goods on our doorstep, at least 5 times. When we returned from our 25th Anniversary dinner, Terri had left a bottle of wine and two yellow roses on our doorstep!
We bought food at the nearby grocery store, Billa, or bought roasted hendl (chicken) from the chicken man out in front of the store. Condiments are sold in tubes. Crackers, as we know them, are not available at the store. Diet coke is Light Coke. An inexpensive place to eat is the deli on main street in Kuchl. You can buy “Bosna” there, which is a round sausage or other meat on bread. Delicious! If you eat at McDonalds in Hallein, a combo is called a “menu” and they charge extra for condiments. Also, you don’t clean the table. We ate there twice and both times my husband didn’t get what he thought he had ordered! We also ate out in the restaurants in different towns quite often. Try the “Ice Cafes” for a cappachino or ice cream dishes. Yum!
Laundry. We had access to the little washer in the basement. However, clothes dryers are not common in Austria, because of the high cost of electricity. We dried our clothes by laying them out on a drying rack. Jeans took 2 ½ days to dry. Denim jackets and jeans are worn widely in Austria. The climate reminded me of western Washington state, raining and 60 – 65 degrees.
We rented a car from Europecar, and upgraded to an Opel Astra diesel. Great little car. Driving in Austria is just like driving in the U.S. My husband had never been to Europe and had no trouble driving at all. I read the map and navigated and he went where I told him to go! We were glad we rented a car because of all the rain and we were able to go many places the train pass would not have allowed. When we went to Munich for the day, we drove to a little town about an hour out of Munich, parked the car at the train station and caught the train to the big city.
Take the taxi up to the castle at Werfen from the parking lot. We walked the hill and I was wringing wet with perspiration when we got to the top. It is a very, very strenuous walk. Don’t worry, you’ll still get your exercise because once you are in the castle, there are several steep hills and two or three steep flights of stone stairs to walk. This castle is fabulous. Don’t miss the falcon show.
Our favorite things were the Werfen castle, the drive from Innsbruck, via St. Johann, to Salzburg, the drive to Hallstat, the Koningsee, the evening we spent with the Seiwalds having strudel and coffee and two bottles of wine, Saint Wolfgang and St. Gilgan, the zoo and the gardens of the Hellbrun castle, daily life in Kuchl, the friendly Austrian people (you can tell Austrians from Germans by how they greet you...Austrians say “Gruss Gott” and Germans say “Guten tag”), and the beautiful countryside and mountains.
One other thing, we were delayed four days in our departure after the terrorist attack on America. Our hosts and Untours were very concerned and made every effort to make things easier for us. They knew we just wanted to go home. Terri opened her house to us and let us use her computer to send email and her phone to call the airlines every day (at 4 a.m.). Here’s to the wonderful, marvelous, caring people of Austria!