36yearsago.com

Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing & friends.

Day 19 — Oom-pah-pah bands, yodelers, and folk dancers
21-August-1971 (Sat.)

TRANSCRIPT

Salzburg
2nd day in Salzburg.

• Went sightseeing…to Hellbrunn Palace…the water-garden tour was very humorous. I’m glad I got wet, otherwise I would probably have to go back again.

• Mirabell Gardens, various other buildings. Salzburg is a beautiful city.

• Met Miriam and other Fairlawn [NJ] students; her horn teacher got us into a rehearsal of a Mozart matinee concert—excellent.

• Got a dumpy room and then went to see Fairlawn students. Found them and we had a nice little talk. Joan F. [a classmate at my college] was even there.

* Went to Steingarden—a beer hall—just like in the movies. Gigantic. They had Salzburg entertainment. Oom-pah-pah bands, yodelers, folk dancers, and even the guys who hop and slap themselves. A lot of fun.


REFLECTIONS

Salzburg sightseeing. This is my second day in Salzburg. It’s filled with sightseeing. I take a “water-garden” tour at Hellbrunn Palace (photo left), then see Mirabell Gardens (photo below). I remember Salzburg as being beautiful. I’ll be able to prove it to you once I get my pictures back. (I’m a little nervous about the “color” quality of the slides holding up for these 36 years. We’ll see.)

I hook up with the students from Fairlawn, NJ that I met yesterday. Joan is a classmate of mine from college. I can’t remember the connection of her to Fairlawn, was that her first teaching job and they were taking a “music” trip to Salzburg, or was it a choral group she was in that was traveling. [I’ll be conjecturing a lot in this journal—I just can’t remember the “fine” detail. Lost too many neurons up there.]

Flute concert. Sounds like another nice concert experience, even though it was just a rehearsal. Many times, sitting in on a rehearsal is even more interesting than the concert itself.

Memory leak. Here’s a puzzling fact. I mention that I found a “dumpy” room today. Well, where did I stay yesterday? I mention a dumpy room, yesterday, but that was just conjecture, I didn’t actually write anything down in that regard. Perhaps it was reversed, and yesterday I had to stay in a more expensive place? Who knows. Time is the enemy of memory.

Austrian beer hall. Oom-pah-pah. The highlight of the evening was a visit to a real, live “German,” or in this case, Austrian, beer hall. Obviously, a tourist spot, but a fun one. I was impressed with the Austrian folk dancers doing that famous, and totally cliché, “hop-and-slap” dance. If you haven’t seen this dance, revisit one of the Chevy Chase National Lampoon movies—I think it was European Vacation—to see a parody of the dance.

1971 video? Wouldn’t video be great? In 1971, there were NO video cameras for consumers. Only very expensive 8mm and Super-8mm film cameras. Too bad, it would have been a blast to see some videos. So, if you’re traveling now, take videos and pics so that 36 years in the future, you’ll be able to see what your journal says.

Austrians and Europeans–join us. If I can get readership up on this blog, and some Europeans or Austrians join us, it would be great to have them comment and contribute to my sightseeing adventures.

Oom-pah-pah bands, yodelers, and folk dancers. What more can you ask for? Nothing. A great day.

Post editing
[Once again, I may be misspelling some of the places that I visit. I also want to expand on these sightseeing places. All of this “post-editing” will be after-the-fact. So revisit these pages in the future. I am also considering a sightseeing-pages section to provide more tourist and historical information on these places. Hey, but “now” I’m on a deadline. Take care.]

[Aren’t you proud of me, I’m actually keeping to my calendar-date schedule. Every day there is an entry in the journal, I post the transcript and my comments. Yay!]

John

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Tags: Salzburg, Hellbrunn Palace, Mirabell Gardens, beer gardens