At the end of another successful term we bid farewell to A. M. Headlam, our Head of House, who apparently prefers the sun, sand and sin of the Continent to the joys of Study 4 and also to C. L. Brown.
SCHOOL TOUR TO AUSTRIA After a lapse of two years, there was a School tour to the continent during the Easter holidays. It differed from its predecessors in that, instead of using a fixed centre, it was based on walking, post-buses, local trams, and youth hostels. This has the great advantage of bringing closer contact with the country and the people and provides much more of an "experience", at any rate to those, like the members of this party, who have not tried anything of the kind before. As far as we were concerned, it carried three major risks: organisation, the weather, and "out of season". As it turned out, the first was no risk at all. We had an Austrian student with us, Miss Dietlinde Muhlgassner, who arranged everything for us with an efficiency possible only to someone who knew the country and its ways intimately. The weather was very mixed, but we were never called upon to use our wet-weather kit, and the main interference was from heavy snow-falls on the mountains, which restricted our plans somewhat. Three of the days were really excellent, and, luckily, these were amongst the most important. As for "out of season", this proved the main difficulty, for while it meant that other tourists were not encountered, too often we found notices "Opening 1st May", and found our plans thwarted. It is curious that more information on these points does not seem to be available in England. The area selected was the Salzkammergut, and for this type of holiday it can hardly be bettered. We stayed at hostels at St. Wolfgang, Bad Ischl, Bad Aussee and Obertraun, and also had a night in a mountain but at Hiitteneck Alp. The hostels vary enormously: none had all the virtues, all had some. In retrospect, one remembers St. Wolfgang for comfortable bunks but biting cold (it was partly new and opened specially for us, and felt really chilled), Bad Ischl for primitive conditions but a useful woodburning stove, Bad Aussee for warm water, but an icy dining room (the stove had broken down), Obertraun for its fine modern planning and furnishing. As for the mountain hut, it was in some ways best of all, except for those who object to a thick atmosphere—it is not really a feasible proposition to open windows at 3,500 feet with snow outside up to the roofs of the "alms", the homes of farmers in summer when cattle are brought up to the mountain pastures. The main walks were from St. Wolfgang to the Schwarzensee, a small mountain lake which we found frozen over, from Bad Goisern to the Hiitteneck, and next day from Hiitteneck to Steig, from Bad Aussee to Grundlsee, and from Obertraun to Hallstatt. This does not represent a vast mileage but suited the tastes of the party very well, and all the walks were of much interest. The best was up to the Hiitteneck. This took four hours and was favoured with ideal weather, which enabled us to enjoy to the full the distant views of Lake Hallstatt and the mountains, and the nearer ones, first of farms and pastures, then of the forests. The last 1,000 teet or so was in snow about four feet thick. It bore the weight of a man well enough, though the front walkers found it fairly heavy going, but it had the peculiarity that every now and again it would collapse and someone, very likely near the back of the party, would find himself knee-deep or more. 9
