After a week in Italy, my dad took the train to Verona and proceeded north over the Brenner Pass to Innsbruck. Before leaving for Austria, he had to check in at the office of the Allied High Command in Rome to secure the appropriate visa. Although it was five years after World War II had ended, Austria was still under joint occupation by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union.
Salzburg, Austria
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| Bürgerwehr fortification on the Mönchsberg mountain, Salzburg |
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| View from the top (from Hohensalzburg Fortress) |
Salzburg is such an interesting and historical town. These scenes probably do not look all that different than they do today. The Europeans manage to preserve their historical architecture and use it for day-to-day life. Compare and contrast with many ghastly American cities with their crumbling strip malls.
I traveled through Salzburg in 1979. Time to return.
Vienna
In 1950, Vienna was still a divided city. My dad toured in the International Zone (the Innere Stadt) and possibly the US and British zones. I am sure he did not try to enter the Soviet zone, which would have been dirty and largely unrestored.
Watch the superb film noir movie, The Third Man, directed by Carol Reed, to get the flavor of 1949 Vienna. It covers some of the issues of a divided city. Even better, read the novel by Graham Green.
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| Johann Wolfgang von Goethe outside the Burggarten Gate along Goethegasse |
Goethe (1749–1832) was one of Germany's most influential writers and poet (as well as being a geologist). His masterpiece is the drama, Faust. I started to read an English translation but did not get too far. It may be easier to get the flavor of the story by watching a performance of Faust, Charles Gounod's superb grand opera in five acts.
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| The Votivkirche on the Ringstraße |
The church was badly damaged in the war, but I do not know if this picture shows it after or before renovations.
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| The Wiener Staatsoper with wartime damage still being repaired |
This is one of the most active performance houses in the world, with opera, concerts, dance and other functions every day of the week. I remember seeing Tristan und Isolde in 1979 with a student ticket - I stood in the top balcony for over four hours.
Jungfrau, Switzerland
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| Helping with maintenance on the Jungfraujoch (elev. 3454 metres) |
Zurich, Switzerland
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| In the November sun, Zurich |
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| Zurich |
Zurich is in north-central Switzerland. If you have flown to or through Switzerland, there is a good chance your flight passed through Flughafen Zürich (ZRH). This was my dad's last stop in Switzerland before taking the train to Paris.
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| TWA Lockheed Constellation, Genève Aéroport, August 1952 |
This 1952 picture is from a later trip to Genève, but I could not resist showing it here. This is a Trans World Airlines Lockheed Super Constellation L-1049. TWA had just introduced it to their transatlantic service, and this would have been one of the early stops in Switzerland. The flight would have required refueling in Goose Bay and Gander en route.
I scanned these Kodachrome slides with a Nikon CoolScan 5000ED film scanner. I adjusted the color of some frames with Photoshop Elements 2024 and manually cleaned some scratches with the heal tool in Photoshop CS6. There is no Ai manipulation or "restoration" of these pictures. They were taken by a real human with a Leica camera.
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