September 17, 2012
One last castle report--the commanding white castle we see on the road from Bruck to Salzburg.
The Hohenwerfen castle is an 11th century castle that has undergone numerous remodels, enlarging, fortifying and updating to protect against the evolving weaponry. This is where, in the torture chamber, our friend, Wolf Dietrich met his end after falling from grace.
We enjoyed a guided tour of the chapel, torture chamber, the dungeon, the bell tower and the state rooms. The torture chamber was complete with instruments of torture, full descriptions and some demonstrations of how they were used. Again, the views from the bell tower down the Salzacktel were beautiful. I have used every adjective I can think of 7 times over, trying to give you the idea of how fabulous the scenery is, but my words do not do it justice. Thank goodness for Don's photos, which do a better job.
After the tour of the castle and keep we went into the yard for a falconry show. Falcons were kept here because this castle was used as a hunting lodge. The falcon master brought out several different types of birds of prey, including a vulture and a bald eagle. Of course they came out one at a time. Each time the trainer would ceremoniously march out into the yard, huge bird mounted on his gloved hand, and then he would untie the bird's leg, send the bird flying, and using a long leather thong with a lure on the end, would have the bird fly low to try to catch the lure. The birds could not really fly far because they had some bells and weights attached to keep them from escaping.
The falcons would soar up into the sky, and dive down toward the lure and the falcon master would swing the lure just out of reach as the birds swooped in for the kill. Finally he would allow the bird to catch the lure and reward it with a mouse or gizzard of something, and take it away before coming back with yet another bird. The old brown buzzard was so tame he was just like Petros the pelican from Greece. He would follow the announcer around the yard like a puppy dog and she would occasionally toss a little white mouse toward the audience so the bird would come close and we could see him well. The show was about 45 minutes long and finished up with a dramatic demonstration with the bald eagle. These are BIG birds.
As we strolled backup the hill to the museum we stopped to look at the drawings and photos of all of the falcon masters from the 11th century monk to the most recent falcon master, who retired in 1989. The guy who did the demonstration is a young guy--maybe in his early twenties, and he wasn't in the picture gallery.
Next we visited the extensive weaponry display, tracing the history of weaponry from early man using spears, all the way through cannons and firearms from the middle ages and on to weapons and uniforms from WWI. There was an interesting display of armor and medieval weapons set up on life sized stick figures who were positioned as if they were in a battle.
After leaving the fortress we drove across the canyon and up the mountain to the famous ice cave. Since Don is still hacking and sniffling with his cold we decided not to take the two hour tour in sub-zero temperatures. But, we drove back down the mountain a short distance and set up our tablecloth and had a nice picnic lunch overlooking the beautiful river valley.
One last castle report--the commanding white castle we see on the road from Bruck to Salzburg.
The Hohenwerfen castle is an 11th century castle that has undergone numerous remodels, enlarging, fortifying and updating to protect against the evolving weaponry. This is where, in the torture chamber, our friend, Wolf Dietrich met his end after falling from grace.
We enjoyed a guided tour of the chapel, torture chamber, the dungeon, the bell tower and the state rooms. The torture chamber was complete with instruments of torture, full descriptions and some demonstrations of how they were used. Again, the views from the bell tower down the Salzacktel were beautiful. I have used every adjective I can think of 7 times over, trying to give you the idea of how fabulous the scenery is, but my words do not do it justice. Thank goodness for Don's photos, which do a better job.
After the tour of the castle and keep we went into the yard for a falconry show. Falcons were kept here because this castle was used as a hunting lodge. The falcon master brought out several different types of birds of prey, including a vulture and a bald eagle. Of course they came out one at a time. Each time the trainer would ceremoniously march out into the yard, huge bird mounted on his gloved hand, and then he would untie the bird's leg, send the bird flying, and using a long leather thong with a lure on the end, would have the bird fly low to try to catch the lure. The birds could not really fly far because they had some bells and weights attached to keep them from escaping.
The falcons would soar up into the sky, and dive down toward the lure and the falcon master would swing the lure just out of reach as the birds swooped in for the kill. Finally he would allow the bird to catch the lure and reward it with a mouse or gizzard of something, and take it away before coming back with yet another bird. The old brown buzzard was so tame he was just like Petros the pelican from Greece. He would follow the announcer around the yard like a puppy dog and she would occasionally toss a little white mouse toward the audience so the bird would come close and we could see him well. The show was about 45 minutes long and finished up with a dramatic demonstration with the bald eagle. These are BIG birds.
As we strolled backup the hill to the museum we stopped to look at the drawings and photos of all of the falcon masters from the 11th century monk to the most recent falcon master, who retired in 1989. The guy who did the demonstration is a young guy--maybe in his early twenties, and he wasn't in the picture gallery.
Next we visited the extensive weaponry display, tracing the history of weaponry from early man using spears, all the way through cannons and firearms from the middle ages and on to weapons and uniforms from WWI. There was an interesting display of armor and medieval weapons set up on life sized stick figures who were positioned as if they were in a battle.
After leaving the fortress we drove across the canyon and up the mountain to the famous ice cave. Since Don is still hacking and sniffling with his cold we decided not to take the two hour tour in sub-zero temperatures. But, we drove back down the mountain a short distance and set up our tablecloth and had a nice picnic lunch overlooking the beautiful river valley.
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