Isaac Chun Hai Fung
Newsletter 2002
Issue 09
Central European Highlights E (Part II):
Ramsau,
the Eagle's Nest and the Salt mine
It was a bright
and sunny day.
The sun radiated
diagonally on the small white church in Ramsau as the bell on the tower was ringing. Dressed in
traditional Bavarian costumes, the faithful villagers walked to this parish
church for the Sunday morning Catholic Mass, and so did we. After a walk of 45
minutes, we found our way to this church which was featured in nearly every
postcard of Ramsau.
Tranquil and
peaceful, simple and traditional, I enjoyed the atmosphere of the
"Sprechen Sie Englisch?" I
asked an old gentlemen.
"Nein,"
he replied.
One after another,
"Nein" was the answer. It was only until I met a couple in their 30s
with two young daughters, who could talk to me in English. To my surprise, we
found that the young children spoke English even better than their educated parents.
Perhaps the following saying is true: in twenty years' time, most citizens of
the European Union will be able to speak in English. It is always my pleasure
to meet up with local people in my travel because it is my belief that
travelling is not just taking photographs of beautiful sights and historical
monuments, but to know the people and their ways of livings.
Our main objective
of the day was to visit Kehlstein
and the Salzbergwerk. Kehlstein,
also known as the Eagle's Nest in
the English-speaking world, was the summer retreat house of Adolf Hitler. It
was on a mountaintop of 1837m above sea level. On a bright and sunny day, one
can have a very good view over
I think the most
interesting thing of Kehlstein is how you get there.
The road to the Kehlstein is closed to public
transport and one has to get on a special bus in Obersalzburg
to go to the mountain. The bus brings you to the car-park of Kelstein. Then you walk through a tunnel into the mountain
rock, in which you will find a lift which takes you up 120 meters to the
mountain top. The Nazis finished this in 13 months in 1938 as a gift of the
party to celebrate Hitler's 50th birthday. I think it was really a
difficult task for the German engineers.
My only piece of
advice to anyone who would like to visit the Eagle's Nest is that the bus
connection downhill is really disorganised and complicated. The bus from Kehlstein (mountain top) to Obersalzberg
is much more frequent than the one from Obersalzberg
to
After spending 3
hours on the mountaintop and having lunch in the restaurant there, we went
downhill to go to the Salzbergwerk.
It was interesting to see how the Germans can turn a salt mine into a tourist
attraction. We put over ourselves miners' protective clothes and joined a group
of around 30 people on a train journey down into the salt mines. The train was
really small and the gear was narrow. It was indeed one of those by which the
miners go to their workplace. There were different zones of exhibitions in the
salt mines in which the history and structure of salt mines, the method of
mining, and the way they extract brine from the rock and produce purified salt
today were explained.
Perhaps the most
exciting thing in the trip was the slides. The way we went down from one level
of the mines to another is by sliding down a slide. Its length was about 6
meters long and it was about 60 or 70 degrees to the horizontal. We had to go
in groups of 2, 3 or 4 persons, each embracing the one in front of him/her. It
was really quite scary.
After a day of
walking and sightseeing, once again it was the time for me to leave, leaving
behind a memory of beautiful landscape and invaluable friendship.
Table of Contents of
‘Central European Highlights’
Catholic church
at
德國蘭騷的天主教堂
馮儁熙
通訊二零零二年第九號
二零零二年八月一日
中歐拔萃 戊 （二）
蘭騷、鷹巢與鹽礦
是日也，陽光普照，天朗氣清。
晨光斜射進蘭騷（又譯藍梭）那細小的白色教堂裡去，鐘樓傳來陣陣鐘聲。穿上傳統的拜仁服飾，虔誠的村民走進這天主教牧區教堂做主日清晨彌撒，我們也去。走了四十五分鐘的路，我們找到這間在每張蘭騷的明信片上都見到的教堂。
安靜詳和，簡單傳統，我享受彌撒的氣氛。雖然彌撒以德語進行，我聽不懂，但能夠在我的旅途上花半個小時親近主，還是很好的。彌散過後，我嘗試在會眾中找一些人我可以跟他們聊聊天。
"Sprechen Sie Englisch?"（你會說英語嗎？）我問一位老先生。
"Nein,"（不）他答道。
一而再，再而三，答案還是「Nein（不）」。直至我遇到一對三十來歲的夫婦和他們的兩個小女兒，他們就會跟我用英語說話。令我驚訝的是，我們發現那些小朋友說英語比他們受過教育的父母。也許以下這句話是真的：二十年後，歐盟的大部份公民都會說英語。在我的旅途上，我總愛與當地人接觸，因為我相信去旅遊不是單單的在名勝古蹟前拍拍照而已，更是要去認識當地的民風民情。
那天我們主要目標是去參觀Kehlstein和Salzbergwerk。Kehlstein，在英語世界裡又叫「鷹巢」（Eagle’s Nest），是希特勒的避暑山莊。它位於海拔1837米高的山頂上。在陽光普照的日子，你可以清楚的看見貝希特斯加登、國王湖和四周的阿爾卑斯山巒。本來它是納粹黨在山腰的上薩爾斯堡（Obersalzberg）的整個建築群的一部份。然而，大部份的建築群都在盟軍的空襲中遭受破壞，並在一九五二年整個的用火藥爆破，給移為平地。只有在山頂的渡假屋保留了下來，改建成餐廳。
我想「鷹巢」最有趣的是地方是你如何上去那裡。去「鷹巢」的路是不對公眾交通開放的。你要在上薩爾斯堡乘一輛特別巴士上山去，它把你送到「鷹巢」的停車場。你下車後，要走進一條隧道去，從那裡一輛升降機會上升一百二十米把你送到山頂上。納粹黨以十三個月的時間在一九三八年建好它，作為希特勒五十歲的生日禮物。我想這對於那些德國工程師來說，也的確是件困難的任務。
對於如欲前往「鷹巢」的朋友，我唯一的提醒是下山的巴士是很混亂和複雜。從「鷹巢」（山頂）下來上薩爾斯堡的巴士比從上薩爾斯堡到貝希特斯加登火車站的巴士班次要密得多。你可能要在上薩爾斯堡等上一個小時才有巴士下山。所以最好問問巴士司機，因為有時候時間表會很複雜，對不會德語的人有一定困難。
我們在山頂待了三個小時，並在那裡的餐廳用過午餐。之後，我們下山往Salzbergwerk鹽礦去。見到德國人如何把鹽礦改成旅遊景點，也蠻有趣的。我們穿上礦工的保護衣，一行三十多人乘坐火車下鹽礦去。那火車真的很小，車軌很窄，就是這樣的火車送礦工進礦場的。在礦場裡有不同的展覽區，介紹鹽礦的歷史與結構、採礦的方法，以及解釋如何從岩石中抽取鹽水以製造提煉純鹽。
也許在這參觀中最刺激的是滑梯：我們從鹽礦的一層到另一層，是滑滑梯下去的。滑梯的長度有六米長，與水平線成六十或七十度。我們兩三四個人一組，每人都抱住前面的人，然後衝下去。蠻恐怖的！
步行與觀光了一整天，又是告別的時候。美麗的山水與珍貴的友誼，留下心中一段回憶。
原著為英文，中譯本完成於二零零六年四月二十六日