As for Salzburg, total enchantment can be yours at the Mozart Dinner Concerts offered in the beautiful Baroque Hall of the Stiftskeller St. Peter (mozartdinnerconcert.com). The "dining hall" of this 18th-century abbey is so magnificent--all gold, chandeliers, and stained glass, that it might have been designed as a ballroom. Chances are your tablemates will be music lovers from around the world--a piano teacher from Montana, an opera singer from Romania. A chamber troupe performs Mozart between courses and, wonder of wonder, the food and the wine are deli-schloss! Across the river lies the Mirabell Gardens (famed for its role in The Sound of Music) and the Mirabell Palace's most gilded room, the Marble Hall, is now the glittering setting for lovely chamber concerts (salzburger.schlosskonzete.at). As for bargains, just check out the many concerts often offered in the historic churches of Vienna and Salzburg--hearing a Mozart mass in the church where he first performed it can be an ascension-into-heaven experience.

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Reston, Va.: We are planning a driving drip from Salzburg to Croatia. We want to drive across the Grossglockner range. We understand that the road is opened from May to November. Can you give more specific dates when it opens & closes? Also, how much time should be allocated for the drive from Salzburg to entering Solvenia?

Thanks,
Gary

Robert Fisher: The drive from Salzburg to Split, Croatia is 809 Kilometers and will take about 8 hours. It's about two hours to the border with Slovenia, then on through Lubljana and into Croatia. This is a DIRECT drive to Croatia, and of course, a drive over the Grossglockner is another matter. This could be best accomplished by exiting the Autobahn A10 going south at Bischofshofen, then going west on Hwy. 311 to Bruck, the northern terminus of the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse. At the southern end of the GHS, the drive is east through the lovely but highly traffiked Drautal to Spittal, where you again pick up the Autobahn south to Villach, Slovenia, and on to Croatia. As for the hard facts about the spectacular, sky-kissing Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse highway (grossglockner.com), it is open April 28 to June 15, from 6 am to 8 pm; from June 16 to September 15, it is open 5 am to 8:30 pm; from September 16 to the end of October, it is open 6 am to 9:30 pm. Happy travels!

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Falls Church, Va.: I've spent time in both Salzburg and Vienna but would really like to explore the surrounding scenery near Salzburg. Do you have any suggestions for a town that would make a good touring base for exploring the Salzkammergut area? Do you have any suggestions for a hotel and sites of interest?

Robert Fisher: The Salzkammergut (or Lake District) is Austrian Heaven. Austrians consider it their "Disneyland" and when they get dreamy-eyed for an idyllic vacationland, this is where they head. Salzburg is a city whose architecture comes "mit schlag" (with whipped cream); nearby meadows are just made for Julie Andrews to prance in; and the region is filled with towns so picturesque they practically click your cameras for you. As for the best base, geographically, it would be Bad Ischl: right in the heart of the district and the transportation hub for the rail-lines that run north-south (due to the mountain ranges) and the many bus lines that thread the villages. Ten miles to the north is the area around the Attersee, so beautiful it inspired some of Gustav Klimt's greatest landscapes. Ten miles to the south is that postcard icon, Hallstatt, "the world's prettiest lakeside village," which precariously perches on the shore almost ready to tumble into the dark waters of the Hallstattersee: You'll use up all the pictures on your Compact Flash Card by the time the ferry pulls up to the pier. And five miles west is Gosau, am Dachstein, where the snowy mantle of Austria's "Matterhorn"--the Dachstein--is mirrored in three pristine lakes (a sight which inspired some of the greatest passages of Richard Wagner's Parsifal). However, Bad Ischl, while famed as the summer home of the Habsburg emperors (don't miss its gilded 1880s Kaiservilla or its sumptuous Villa Lehar, where the composer of The Merry Widow once lived) has grown a bit too big for comfort, or beauty--parts of it that won't win any charm prizes--it is too "touristic." The same might be said for Mondsee, the town famous for St. Michael's Church, where Maria finally wed her Captain von Trapp (and where Julie Andrews and Chris Plummer recreated the event)--a rather flat, boring largish town seemingly surrounded by large shopping centers. Many people love St. Wolfgang, and the church and lake ride are wonderful--the tourist tat shops are not. For my money, the most beautiful base is St. Gilgen, famous as the birthplace of Mozart's mother but most astounding for its splendid panorama of mountains and lake. As the car comes over the hill, you practically scream at the first sight of the town, set on the banks of a sweet lake which is borders by five of the most soaring, picturesquely shaped mountain peaks you will ever see. While there are tourist shops, there is an impressive array of soignè and charming hotels--the ultimate hotel here is the Hotel Hollweger (hollweger.at), which is atop a hillock with the most sublime panorama vista of St. Gilgen and its mountaineous backdrop. Six miles to the north is Fuschl, home to the hyperluxe Schloss Fuschl, which has hosted many of the world's great and good. Set on a promontory over Fuschl lake, with historic salons lined with Old Master paintings (thanks to a famed Munich-based gallery), a spectacular lake terrace restaurant (you can go fishing with Tyrolian fishermen in the morning for your lunch), and the best that money can buy. This hotel has a series of smaller houses on the grounds that probably are cheaper than the main castle and, even better, you get to see the castle from your hotel room balcony!

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Atlanta, Ga.: I would like to know where to look for the best fares and where would be the best airport as well as an inexpensive hotel to stay in Vienna/Salzburg? Is bus the best transportation when you arrive there? Also, what is the best time of year to go--less crowds, etc.?

Robert Fisher: I'm afraid I can't give you the best advice about air fares--all I can say (from the trip I just took to the Amalfi Coast), is that the discounter web sites are not all they are cracked up to be--I found the cheapest fare was offered to me by Air France NYC to Naples, and they gave flawless service. Speaking of flawless service, the two flights I've taken on Austrian Airlines were the best I've ever experienced--the food is way above other options. Most everybody flies into Vienna's Schwechat Airport (phone 01/7007-0; viennaairport.com). You take the double-decker CAT, or City Airport Train, into the Wien-Mitte (center of city), a trip that takes only 16 minutes and costs about 8 euros one way. As for getting around Vienna, the U-Bahn, the city's Metro, services the center, with seven stops in the touristic areas, including Stephansplatz, at the very heart; there's another stop south near the big opera house (with an easy connection to the Belvedere palace at the very southern edge of the city). Herrengasse stop is right by the Hofburg palace and Schottenring is on the Ringstrasse avenue, offering quick tram connections. Speaking of them, these street cars (Strassenbahnen) are fine, with famous No 1 traveling the Ringstrasse clockwise, and No.. 2 which travels it counter-clockwise. Where streetcards don't run, buses do. Inexpensive hotel? Perhaps you might like the Pension Nossek, where Mozart worked on the Abduction from the Seraglio while he lived here in the early 1780s. Front rooms have great views of the great Graben square (pension-nossek.at). I love the Zur Wiener Staatsoper for the money; John Irving set one novel here and it's got real 19th century style (zurwinerstaatsoper.at). And just behind the grand Rathaus town hall is the Graf-Stadion, set in the charming, lowkey, real Viennese nabe of the Josefstadt (graf-stadion.com).

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