Ian enjoys visiting castles, and we’ll be visiting three big ones in a row – Salzburg’s Hohensalzburg in Austria, and Cesky Krumlov and Prague Castles in Czech Republic. Thumping great European fortresses layered ever upwards over the centuries on top of conveniently big lumps of rock next to strategically significant rivers. It’s all about money and power, really.

We started with Salzburg’s mighty 900 year-old Festung Hohensalzburg, chickening out of the long, arduous climb up in favour of a whizzing 2-minute ride on the funicular, and spending absorbing hours at the top. The weather had suddenly turned gloriously warm and clear and the surrounding mountains were serenely beautiful. Life’s tough.

But then, there’s lots of other things to do in Salzburg as well. Wolfgang Mozart is Salzburg’s favourite son, and almost 50 years ago I’d had the unforgettable experience of attending a Mozart Mass – by sheer, lucky accident – at Salzburg’s Dom Cathedral, Mozart’s home church. So, I’d twiddled with the timing of our visit to include a Sunday in Salzburg, when the city’s big churches still offer Mass with music.

So along we went to the mighty Dom, along with a mixed congregation of locals (many in dirndls and lederhosen, a lovely tradition that Austrians appear to be keeping) and a mixed cohort of awestruck visitors. Just as I remembered, hearing a big choir with accompanying orchestra and organ in a great Baroque domed church is an experience of sublime beauty. The solemnity of the service counterpoints music that lifts and soars all around you. No wonder people were so devout over the centuries – you simply can’t ignore the transcendental power of such beauty. We were lucky enough to have a man with a lovely baritone voice sitting behind us. He knew the music well, so his voice added yet another layer of gravitas to an already glorious experience.

We packed a lot more into our couple of days in Salzburg, including visiting the Mirabell Gardens, going to a vaguely disappointing concert in the Mirabell Palace, and trekking out of town to the Hellbrunn Palace with its famous trick fountains. We even climbed Salzburg’s second ‘inner city mountain’ – Kapuzinerberg, smack in the centre of the Altstadt (Old Town). It was worth it for glorious views of the city, but also for its woodland walks, barely 200 metres from the centre busy centre of the Altstadt.

I’m quite pleased with myself over all of this, because I did it with three days of awful hay fever, accompanied by my old enemy, asthma. Being capable of sheer bloody-minded determination helps sometimes. I suspect our little Salzburg home-away-from-home was the culprit. We had a lovely, cheap little apartment next to a farm (and with a great view) in a rural area outside Salzburg, catching the trusty No. 21 bus in and out of town free-of-charge thanks to our worthwhile Salzburg cards. But it was a farming area with horses and hay … allergies free-of-charge and guaranteed!