Graz–Jun. 24, 2025

Schloßberg

Now that the weather is better (30°C instead of 4°C), I went back to Schloßberg and climbed up the stairs. Here’s a video.

On the way back down, I took a different path (mostly a ramp with some steps), and was stopped by a man who wanted to know where the funicular was. I knew we had to get back to Sackstraße, which was basically halfway around the mountain. I asked a couple that was passing by if they knew how to get there. They were Swiss, and the man (and his wife) whom I was helping were from Belgium and spoke French. I was acting as an interpreter, when I said, “If you’re from Switzerland, then you speak French and I don’t have to translate.” However, the Swiss couple were Swiss German and didn’t speak much French.

The Swiss couple showed us a path that goes into a tunnel through the mountain and got us out on Sackstraße at the ticket counter for the elevator. I asked the clerk (in German) where the funicular was, and they told me to go out to the main street, turn right, and go 200 meters. I told this to the Belgian couple in my best French (which is not that good, but they understood me) and I walked with them to the entrance to the funicular. So that was my strange but fun encounter for the day.

One interesting note: it was really hard to make the switch over to French. Whenever I wasn’t sure what a word was, I would go back to German instead, and I’d have to make an effort to switch back to French.