A WALK DOWN MARKT STREET - Phil & Jill

The beauty of having a few days stopping in one small village is that you can quickly get to know the place by strolling shop to shop. St Wolfgang has intrigued me. It has the biggest collection of quirky shops I have ever seen.

Two things stand out. A soap shop - for centuries, varieties of soap were produced in the Salzkammergut region. The ancient tradition of soap boiling was picked up by the Benedict monks. One specialist soap shop stands out in Markt Street with so many perfumes in soap as well as sonmuch ornamentation in soap.

Then there is the Apple shop with a wide product range of all things apple - strudel, jams, chutneys, home made apple bread, cider, natural apple juice and cooking classes with apples of course as the main ingredient. My friend Margie K at home would love this shop as she loves cooking.

There is Reiza from Iran doing funny art cards of the cog train, water colours of local scenes. I bought some of his cards as I thought it was different and as his art is original he asks that you don't photograph it. I agree with that.

There was a lolly shop selling home made bon bons; bio products, sausage delicatessans, sheep skin product, local dress shops, quirky antique stores, lots of Christmas stuff and generally any knick-knacks you can think of.

I will give you a pictorial shopping tour of Markt Street snd some of the adjoining narrow lanes.

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You can easily see how this cute village gets under your skin.

Also for two nights at 8.30pm in the square there has been music and dancing by local teenagers in local dress. A At last night's performance of the band two girls mingled in the crowd selling schnapps.

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Then tonight there was dancing in the square but we lingered on a very romantic dinner on the terasse of the Seebickenhotel on the lake that we missed the most of it. Hard to get it all right.

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If you are observant you will see the same girl photographed twice. I spoke to her and found out her name was Kristina.

It is truly wonderful to see a village so alive. People wander up the lit street at 10pm feeling safe, happy and part of a community. They don't charge just give their talents freely. Many locals were watching but the numbers are swollen by tourists who certainly would want to return. Wonderful feel.in the village and great for the summer joy. Wevwere talking to Sylvia the owner of our apartment who said that the winter is very different. Heavy snow covers the village, the lake freezes and on the meadows of Postalm therevis fabulous cross country dki-ing She was passionate about her skiing and how beautiful winter is. Mine you she said.you.have to shovel snow a lot!! They consider October the start of winter and usually the Schafbergbahn starts again on the 1st May but this year because of the heaviness of the snow, it didn't start until the 23rd May. She said it was terrible that they couldn't go up to the top. After a 33 degree day and a pink sunset over the mountains tonight, it was hard to imagine what it would look like in a blanket of white.

Happiness at its prime.