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The pen went dry

Writer's picture: Zanna WhiteZanna White

12 January 1977 - Wednesday

Had to replace the cartridge in my pen; the other ran too dry.


Up early this morning and had breakfast in the semi-elegant dining room of the Metropol. At that time, we made, rather quickly, the decision to move on, possibly even to catch the 9:22 to Salzburg. We checked out and did manage to catch the 10:10, a more local train but still quite comfortable. It was snowing some when we walked to the station and snowing very hard as we sat in the train. We wrote a few cards, and I ran back to find a post box, not easy to do in Germany (they are yellow, usually with a post-horn symbol).


Our ride was uneventful; we had the compartment all to ourselves for the whole trip, which lasted about 2 hours. After Rosenheim we could see Alps, but not well, because the sky was cloudy for the most part, with the sun breaking through occasionally.



Austria


It was shining when we got to Salzburg. Customs clearance was a little more formal. We lined up and went through a section where an Austrian official looked at but did not stamp our passports.


We got some Austrian schillings in exchange for the Deutsche Marks we hadn’t spent. Then we sought out the Hotel Information stand. The man there gave us a hotel list. He spoke English, but not well. We wanted something close to the center of town (the old part) and close to a pension.


He called and we made a deposit to him 150 schillings + 10 sch. for his commission. When we looked more closely, we realized he had given us a hotel without bath rather than a pension. We decided to let it stand. We got a taxi to the Weisse Taube (White Pigeon) Hotel and checked in. It’s a small place, but okay. According to the handout, the hotel was mentioned in a 1365 town chronicle. It has been remodeled recently. There is solid wood (pine?) paneling all around probably covering old plaster, but a large enough beam shows in the ceiling. The German style electric outlet is not here, so I’ll be able to return to my electric razor tomorrow.


Weisse Taube on the corner.


The German is recessed so that any plug not of the right shape cannot go in. The Austrian is flush with the outside.


When we left the hotel for a walk, we were surprised to find we were just around the corner from the Mozart Statue (at Mozart Platze) and from the Cathedral. We had lunch at the Glockenspiel (overlooking Mozart) and then visited the cathedral.


1977 and from Google Maps side-by-side. I couldn't get the exact angle because of the construction awning. Salzburg Cathedral is just past the arches.




Mozartplatz

While not really impressive from the outside, this one is enormous on the inside and filled with paintings on the ceiling and in the huge dome. Also, carvings. Much of this has been rebuilt after serious damage by American bombs in WWII.


One event of our train ride was leaving Susanna’s boots on after we got off. She was asleep and in the rush to get off we forgot about them under the seat. Thus we looked for and found a shoe store and bought her a nice pair of red leather zip-up boots (steifels) for about $20.


We rested for a while then looked for a restaurant. We ate at the Golden Duck, a pleasant, homey place. When we got back, we had a brandy and coffee in the hotel lounge and watched part of an Italian movie which was dubbed in German.

I called Jane Frazee (had tried in the afternoon but she was out), Ann Depta’s friend. And had a long talk. We tentatively agreed to meet for dinner tomorrow. She told me a number of things we should try to see or do if we have time. There is still quite a bit here even though much of the city has closed for the winter.


 

12 January 2022 - Wednesday

Don't worry. The green ink gets replaced tomorrow. I just thought it would be fun to make the text green as it is on this day in the journals. I should note that yesterday I had a couple of typos. I said that the bilingual girl "Interrupted" for us, but in fact she "interpreted" for us. Also, I typed that Dad dropped my "book" out of his pocket, but it was indeed my "boot". Obviously, from today's entry, the boots were not meant to be with us.
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