 As a secretary in the State Department's Foreign Service, my job requires me to live and work overseas. One of the benefits is the opportunity to visit places I've only read about. My current job, in Zagreb, Croatia, has me within easy driving distance of Italy, Hungary, Slovenia and Austria. Over Memorial Day weekend I drove to Salzburg, Austria. My purpose was to not only re-visit a favorite city, but hopefully to find some of the locations used in The 10th Kingdom. Thanks to the IMDB, I knew the names of the places in Austria which had been used -- for Snow White Memorial Prison, Burg Hohenwerfen; for Snow White Falls, the Krimmler Waterfalls; for Rivertown and the lake used for the escape from prison, the town of Hallstatt and the Hallstattersee; and for Dragon Mountain, the area around the Tauern Kraftwerke near Kaprun. All were within an easy drive from Salzburg. I left Zagreb on Friday, traveling via Ljubljana, Slovenia to get to the Austrian border. Just after I crossed into Austria, I had to drive through a very long tunnel -- over 8,000 meters! It seemed to take forever, but I finally emerged, and was awestruck at the marvelous scenery surrounding me. I went through several more long tunnels as I traveled through the mountains. As I got closer to Salzburg, I began to see some mountains still covered with snow. I was about 30 miles from Salzburg, when I suddenly saw ahead of me a fortress perched on top of a small mountain. I got a very strong feeling of déjà vu -- I was sure I'd seen the place before. As I got closer, I saw a sign indicating that Burg Hohenwerfen was off the next exit. I smiled, realizing I just had my first glimpse of Snow White Memorial Prison. It was a magnificent sight, seeming to loom over the highway.
Saturday was bright and sunny, so I decided to make the journey to the Waterfalls that day. The trip took a little more than two hours, taking me along the floor of a spectacular wide valley. Just about everywhere I looked I saw snow-covered mountains, and beautiful alpine cottages seemingly tucked into the mountainside with no visible means of reaching them. Finally, just after noon, I arrived at the village of Krimml, where the falls were located. I parked my car and started walking toward the park entrance. As I walked I looked up and saw in the distance a portion of the falls, high up on the mountain. The Krimmler Waterfalls are 400 meters (approximately 1,312 feet) high and fall in three stages. There is a well-marked path that winds its way up the mountain along the right side of the falls, and, above the middle falls, a road runs up along the opposite side of the falls. Deciding to save the lower falls for last, I began to make my way up the trail. There are various places along the path where one can get a very close view of the falls at the middle and upper stages. At one spot by the middle stage, it was possible to see a beautiful rainbow as the water tumbled down the rocks. Another spot was so close to the falls that people came away drenched. Just above the middle falls was a small restaurant and souvenir shop, which provided a nice respite from the sometimes arduous hike.
After a short rest, I continued along the river, heading toward the upper falls. The footpath became very steep at times during this part of the hike. Finally, about 1 1/2 hours after I started my ascent, I made it to the top. The view was spectacular! I decided to continue walking for a bit, taking advantage of walking along level ground for a change. After about 20 minutes I stopped and sat on a rock along the river and just enjoyed the beautiful scenery surrounding me. As much as I wanted to continue on and see where the road led, it was getting late, so I returned to the top of the falls and began to make my way down. The hike down was only slightly easier than going up. Finally, I found myself by the souvenir shops at the base of the trail. Finding the path to the lower falls, I made my way there. If anything, the lower falls were even more spectacular than the other two stages. The lower falls themselves were in two parts, and were so powerful, water sprayed at least 5 feet from the edge of the river. It was here where Tony and Virginia emerged from Dragon Mountain and then walked through the trees along the river discussing their discovery of Christine's presence in the Fourth Kingdom. (continued...)  |
