I woke up to sunshine over the alps from my window, how perfect!
It as an incredible breakfast, they really excel at food here and offer such a wide selection even the pickiest person will find something they love. I'm just glad I'm not staying very long I'd gain weight they just never stop feeding you here. They are known for their spreads and they had lots of choices of them this morning with a wide variety of breads and jams as well as fruits, meats and cheeses.
St. Wolfgang's Church - In the 10th Century a great saint
felt he was called to build a church at Abersee, as Lake Wolfgang was formally
known. Saint Wolfgang, Bishop of Regensburg, who, as the legend tells, lived an
ascetic life in a cave at the Falkenstein Rock, was tired of the hardships of
such a life. He threw his axe into the air and decided to build a church and
make his home wherever he found his axe. There must have been good winds that
day, since the axe made it from the Falkenstein Rock to the place where today’s
pilgrimage church of St. Wolfgang is situated! It was the beginning of a
success story: the Abersee lake was renamed Lake Wolfgang, the church was built
and the town of St. Wolfgang started to bloom because of the popular worship of
Saint Wolfgang. The many pilgrims who visited St. Wolfgang in Austria in the
Middle Ages were the beginning of tourism!
Well that explains the angel sculpture with him holding an
ax. It did strike me as odd when I first saw the sculpture since it just seemed
so out of place for an angel to be wielding an ax and especially in a church.
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| St. Wolfgang's Church |
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| St. Wolfgang's Church |
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| St. Wolfgang's Church |
I went to the spa for a short time before heading across the street to the bus terminal to get the public bus to St. Wolfgang, a small town on Lake Wolfgang which was recommended to me by the young man at the train ticket office yesterday.
It's a beautiful town which celebrated it's 1,000 year anniversary in 1976 so it's been around a while you might say.
It's mostly I imagine a summer resort with the beautiful lake and mountains all around as it's real draw. There were only a hand full of tourists walking around with me today and the Schafbergbahn, a scenic tour train that goes up 1782 meters in the mountain and was originally opened in 1872. It looks like a lot of fun although I'm afraid of heights so maybe it was a good thing it was still closed for the season or I may have been tempted to do it.
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| St. Wolfgang's Church |
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| Cute Toy Store from the 15th Century |
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| Sign above a 14th century old Schnaps dealer |
The town opens for the higher season starting the 28th of March so the town was a bustle with activity from construction workers, painters, carpenters and general people sprucing up their hotels, stores and homes.
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| Pizzaria with the name of my families home town in Italy |
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| Lake Wolfgang |
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| Tour Trains waiting to go into action on the 28th |
The lake is gorgeous but is an odd color green. I imagine it's from the minerals in the water since I can't imagine pollution here. The air is so clean and fresh you spend the whole time outside taking deep breaths.
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| Town next to St. Wolfgang's on the Lake |
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| Pretty Austrian House |
I got the public bus going back to Bad Ischl and was in the spa by about 1:30pm which was perfect. I am here only one more night as I leave by public bus tomorrow morning for Salzburg where I get to walk around a little for a few hours and then catch the 2:15pm to Slovenia which I'm sure with be beautiful.
I'm so glad I decided to stay here instead of finding a hotel in Salzburg because this spa is more incredible than I first thought. Last night I didn't get to enjoy all the sauna/steam rooms and today I've done just about everything and will go back after dinner for a little more.
They have an old fashion steam room where a large cast iron kettle with stones in it is heated on one side of the counter and then every 5 minutes it is lifted and placed in a container of hot water which then produces the steam. To circulate the steam I had to manually turn a lever that operated the small fan above. Fabulous!
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| Sculpture in the park near the lake |
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| Sign for the ferry boats that will begin operating tours next week |
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| Housekeeper at my hotel spraying a happy parrot wit water . the Parrot was going crazy he was so excited about the shower |
And they have this large sauna outside where you have to go at a designated time usually 45 minutes past the hour and a Sauna Master (yes that's his title and it's written on his bathrobe) brings all of us in, there where about 17 for the 2:45pm session and he shuts the door and all 17 of us both men and women of all shapes and sizes and naked sat on our towels and sweat for 15 minutes. It was getting so hot and one man left around the 10 minute mark but I stuck it out and was looking at the timer when one of the men tried to tell me what time it was and when I answered in English everyone started to chat and talk and laugh because they all felt compelled to explain to me what was going on. Basically after you sit and sweat out toxins we all have to go outside and get sprayed with what they translated as Franks Vodka water which is basically some kind of alcohol mixed with other ingredients, all over your body but not your face and then you go back in the sauna for 5 minutes max where the Sauna Master adds water to the coals (which were sitting in what looked like a huge version of a cast iron truck) and then with a green and yellow flag that whirls around when he waves it he moves the now scorching heat in all directions around us. The alcohol mixture makes your skin cold but then your so hot at the same time. Wow, what an experience and something that now that it's over I must admit was invigorating. It was very funny to see them all get so animated when everyone started talking in English. Up until then you could have heard a pin drop.
I look forward to moving on tomorrow but can truly say that if Bad Ischl also had healing drinking water it would be may favorite spa so far.
I went to the spa for a short time before heading across the street to the bus terminal to get the public bus to St. Wolfgang, a small town on Lake Wolfgang which was recommended to me by the young man at the train ticket office yesterday.
I'm so glad I decided to stay here instead of finding a hotel in Salzburg because this spa is more incredible than I first thought. Last night I didn't get to enjoy all the sauna/steam rooms and today I've done just about everything and will go back after dinner for a little more.
And they have this large sauna outside where you have to go at a designated time usually 45 minutes past the hour and a Sauna Master (yes that's his title and it's written on his bathrobe) brings all of us in, there where about 17 for the 2:45pm session and he shuts the door and all 17 of us both men and women of all shapes and sizes and naked sat on our towels and sweat for 15 minutes. It was getting so hot and one man left around the 10 minute mark but I stuck it out and was looking at the timer when one of the men tried to tell me what time it was and when I answered in English everyone started to chat and talk and laugh because they all felt compelled to explain to me what was going on. Basically after you sit and sweat out toxins we all have to go outside and get sprayed with what they translated as Franks Vodka water which is basically some kind of alcohol mixed with other ingredients, all over your body but not your face and then you go back in the sauna for 5 minutes max where the Sauna Master adds water to the coals (which were sitting in what looked like a huge version of a cast iron truck) and then with a green and yellow flag that whirls around when he waves it he moves the now scorching heat in all directions around us. The alcohol mixture makes your skin cold but then your so hot at the same time. Wow, what an experience and something that now that it's over I must admit was invigorating. It was very funny to see them all get so animated when everyone started talking in English. Up until then you could have heard a pin drop.