Tuesday 1 January 2002 - Train to Linz - first Euro purchase - the bus line 1 loop - Lokalbahn ride
Hi everyone! Grüezi mitenand! Hallo allerseits! Üdv mindenkinek! Ahoj všetci!
Happy New Year 2002! Did you make it through the night, or did you decide to sleep in very late? The guests that were supposed to be in my room, had never arrived and the beds remained empty. I woke up around 8:15 AM and made it just in time for breakfast. The lady downstairs in charge of serving breakfast with her staff, had told me, that of all the guests in the hostel, this morning I was the first one to show up. She thought no one would show up for breakfast. I ate enough to keep me happy until lunchtime, especially coffee. I took a shower and then walked to the Herrnau bus stop, at times where there was a thick drift of snow. The sky was partly cloudy, sunny but quite cold.
I arrived at the Herrnau bus stop about 9:20 AM. The traffic signal that made a bell ring whenever the signal went green to cross Alpenstraße, was still working. I had a look at the ticket machine, and it was still operating with Schilling as opposed to with Euro. A day pass for Salzburg's city zone, was still 40 Schilling. It stood to reason, because the machine was so far away from Hbf, and I did not need to buy another ticket because my Salzburg Pass was still valid until 3:30 PM on Wednesday 2nd January. I caught the bus line 51. It was only after I passed the state courts that I realized that the busses were not being washed, and it was difficult to see through a dirty window. Given that there was much snow and the roads being salted/sanded, it was understandable as to why. About 10 AM I arrived at the Hbf, and was able to take an intercity train to Linz, the state capital of Oberösterreich. The train made its first stop at Attnang-Puchheim. If you do not know Attnang-Puchheim, you might know Bad Ischl and Hallstatt, Attnang-Puchheim is where you would take local trains to those other locations.
After passing through Wels, the train arrived about 11:20 AM in Linz. At Linz Hbf there was a layer of ice on the sidewalk, so it was important to walk safely. In 2002, Linz had only surface trams, so the underground stations of Hbf and Unionkreuzung were not yet built. Before I boarded a tram to Harbachsiedlung, I took my 5 Euro note and paid for my first ever item with the Euro, a day pass for the trams for unlimited travel all day long, with a ticket machine converted to Euro usage, and for the price of 2.80 Euro, which was the equivalent of 40 Schilling. That was the proud moment of the day, I think it might have been around 11:35 AM, as the tram had arrived about 11:37 according to the video I made back then.
I took the tram about three stops to Mozartkreuzung, and in spite of many shops being closed, I walked along the shopping district for half an hour. Then I took another tram to Harbachsiedlung. At Harbachsiedlung there was a tunnel to cross to the other side of Leonfelder Straße and the walls had store ads. There was one Döner Kebab store that was open, so I ordered a kebab. Then I took the tram back to central Linz. I think about 1 PM I took the train back to Salzburg. It arrived about 1:59 PM.
From Salzburg Hbf I took the bus line 1 on a clockwise route through the western side of the Altstadt, going through the Siegmundstor and it ended at the Hans-Schmid-Platz. This is next to the Zeugstatte Maxglan, now a wellness center as per Google maps. I remember the bus stop from a previous visit in June 1998, where the bus sat for maybe ten minutes. At the time, the intersection of Hans-Schmid-Platz had a traffic signal. The intersection has since been changed into a roundabout. I am glad I made a video of sitting in the bus at Hans-Schmid-Platz, watching the traffic signals change, as the traffic signals have long since been removed. After the bus started moving towards Hbf, along Innsbrucker Bundesstraße, then turning left on to Rudolf-Biebl-Straße, it passed the Aiglhof commuter rail station before turning right at the Ignaz-Harrer-Straße. At that stop, I alighted and walked following the trolleybus wires to Hbf so I would not get lost. I crossed the Salzach river before turning left at Haunspergstraße. It might have been 3:50 PM when I arrived at a pet store with rabbits in the display cage.
I think it was 4:15 PM and the sun was going down. I decided to take a ride with the Lokalbahn only as far as Maria Plain which was still in the Salzburg city limits. On Saturday 20th June 1998 on my previous visit, I had rode the entire length of the Lokalbahn from Salzburg Hbf to Lamprechtshausen and also to Trimmelkam after changing at Bürmoos. Since the last few decades, the line has been extended to Ostermiething, which is a ten minute drive from the infamous "F-Word" town. The Lokalbahn itself, has its only underground station at Salzburg Hbf, all the other stations are on the surface. Some stations have a button that passengers are expected to push, to indicate which direction they want to go. There is a flashing red light to indicate to the driver to stop. When I rode the Lokalbahn in 1998 and also 2002, the train was not yet stepless, but in later years they were retrofitted as such. As for electricity, it cannot use the ÖBB mainline 15 kV AC feed, so it has to use the 1000 Volt DC feed.
After the train reached Maria Plain, I took another one back to the hostel. It was getting dark and I had to pack up for the next day. I had supper at the hostel. I used the computers for a fee, as I did not have a laptop at the time, let alone even a smartphone which the Siemens S40 was not, it was more like the infamous Nokia 3310. I managed to get the schedules for the trains. Then I went to bed. It was my third night there, without anyone else in the room.
Tomorrow, I take the train to Vienna Westbahnhof, another to Györ in Hungary, take the U Bahn to Ottakring, and have a not so nice sauna session (grumpy staff) before dinner and watching Hungarian music videos.
Hope you will join in tomorrow’s adventure!
Ich hoffe, Ihr nehmt am morgigen Abenteuer teil!
Remélem, csatlakozol a holnapi kalandhoz!
Dúfam, že sa zapojíte do zajtrajšieho dobrodružstva!