This is part three in my series of stories from our recent vacation in Germany and Austria. You can read part one here, and part two here.
For my money, great cities have lots of fountains, and the five we visited on our trip (Frankfurt, Berlin, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich) didn’t disappoint.
Among the best was Vienna’s Hochstrahlbrunnen, which was erected in 1873 to celebrate the pipeline that brings fresh water from the Alps into the city’s high-quality public water system. The fountain boasts 365 small water jets around its perimeter, several islands in the interior with larger sprays, more in a central ring, and a giant burst in the center which sends water hundreds of feet straight up. Spectacular!
Oddly, right next to the Hochstrahlbrunnen we spotted a statue of a soldier on a tall column, with a backdrop of words in the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. What the heck was that doing in the middle of Vienna? It turned out to be unrelated to the fountain — it’s a Soviet war memorial, honoring the Red Army soldiers who liberated Vienna in 1945. But how bizarre to come across that now, when Russia is waging war in Ukraine.
We also saw a dazzling display of fountains and other water-powered attractions at Schloss Hellbrun, a palace about a half-hour bus ride east of Salzburg. They’re all part of the Trick Fountains, which were designed and built at the behest of Prince-Archbishop Markus Sittikus in the early 17th century. Some of them were intended as pranks on unsuspecting guests, who didn’t know they’d get soaked from below during a meal. Others are grottoes and mini-theaters with characters moving around, powered solely by the water system (no electricity!). When we first arrived, I expected to be disappointed, but the further along we went, the more I enjoyed the whole thing.
So, count that as a big recommendation, which I can’t give to Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. I stupidly got tickets to a tour of the interior of this behemoth of a building. It was a waste of time and money, completely my mistake considering how much I hate costume epics and couldn’t care less about what members of royalty did, who they slept with, how long their reign lasted, etc. To make it worse, there were at least a half-dozen other tours moving through at the same time, making it a pain to move from room to room following our rather boring guide. I wish I could have those two hours back.
But I do have one other water-related must-see in Austria. It’s in the tiny town of Hallstatt, built on the shore of a magnificent lake and framed by the Salzkammergut Mountains. We spent a beautiful sunny afternoon there, walking through the Alpine-like village with its tourist-friendly shops and bars. I’m a sucker for waterfalls, so I had to climb up a couple hundred steps to get an up-close view of the Mühlbach Waterfall, which takes water from melting snow at the top down to the lake at the bottom. Just lovely!
I’ll have more stories from our trip tomorrow.