second impressions of Salzers

Eating out really is poor, you'd do better with a supermarket picnic in the room, thank goodness for Lidl.

The TV has over 100 channels of crap, which makes it even worse than German telly, not a phrase I thought I'd ever say. At least they only have 20 channels.

But the place is picturesque, and dramatic like Edinburgh, with at least one castle soaring above everything else.

There's a tour party of Japanese ladies staying at the hotel. This morning at breakfast, I nodded to one of them as she left, and she bowed in return, I think it was just a level 1 bow. But then each of the other ladies in turn had to bow too, so we were at it for some time while my eggs got cold. Not my personal eggs. In German, the word for eggs is also a slang term for goolies.

One of the official sights is a tour of the local weissbier brewery, with sampling. So maybe I won't boycott all the tourist stuff after all.

And I found out that tomorrow night there's actually a serious concert (rather than a face-stuffing cabaret for people who'd like to like music if only it wasn't so boring without food). So I'll go to that. Better still, it's in the Michael Haydn (Josef's bro) Museum. I've always liked what little of his I've heard. A chum of Wolfie's.

While I'm here I should acknowledge my wee old Scots spinster auntie, whose vices included chain smoking and tea. When she was alive she used to holiday here every year. She loved me unconditionally, a great thing to do. She refused to wear a seatbelt in my car because she trusted my driving.

- iPhone post