Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER’S HOMETOWN. HOW TO GET TO.

Speaking about the Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum, we mean his birthplace in Thal, Austria. Thal, a small rural village near Graz city, is a part of the Styria Bundesland in the southeast of Austria. The bus is the cheapest way to get there from Vienna. I took FlixBus from Westbahnhof station in Vienna at 8:30 a.m. (the earliest one). You cannot miss this big green bus on Felberstraße Street, just near the railway station. The Vienna-Graz destination is daily. The journey will take you 2 hours and 25 minutes.

The bus from Vienna arrives in Graz 200 meters away from the main city square, called Jakominiplatz. You will just need to find the local bus № 40—it stops just in front of McDonald’s. It runs approximately every 20 minutes. You go inside the bus and buy a ticket from the driver—the appropriate one is called a Stunden Cart—it means that you can use and switch transport within one hour. It will be enough to get to Thal, Austria, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s hometown.

We run till the final stop, Goesting (with this bus №40)—about 20-25 minutes away. Ten meters ahead, we see another bus stop, №48. It runs approximately every 40 minutes. This bus route has two versions. They both go to Talersee. In one case, as a final stop, and in another one, transit. In any case, to get to Thal, we need to make a stop at Talersee. You can’t miss it—you will see the Talersee lake twenty meters ahead. So, we have already gotten to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s hometown birthplace and are just 5 minutes from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum.

TALERSEE LAKE AND ARNOLD’S EARLY YEARS

Talersee is a beautiful lake in Thal, Austria, where Arnold Schwarzenegger grew up. We can see the tree-store building just next to the bus stop and on the very bank of a lake. It includes a hotel and the “Talersee” café-restaurant with a magnificent view over the lake and forest. Another site of the place is a boat rental station on the right-hand side, where you can take a boat and ride over the lake. The most well-known tourist site here can be noticed from a distance. In 1985, Arnold Schwarzenegger took a boat here and moved to the center of the lake with Maria Shriver, his girlfriend, and proposed to her to become his wife. This memorable boat is called “Boot des Verspechens” (The Boat of Promise). There are some small benches to rest and take in the picturesque panorama. Most tourists and locals prefer an on-foot walk.

It is a real pleasure to walk all around Talersee Lake—such a tour will take you a lazy hour. Stunning views, a calm and peaceful atmosphere, benches, people of all ages, and dogs. At the beginning of this route, local authorities have once again renewed an old training site on the bank of a lake. This open-air site was passionately described by Arnold in his books on bodybuilding and particularly in his “Total Recall” memoir. He used to perform workouts here with local guys and even with Kurt Marnul, former bodybuilding champion of Austria. They competed with each other and tried to make an impression on the girls. The road around the lake is circular and will lead you back to the restaurant and boat rental station.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER MUSEUM 

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s birthplace, his home in Thal, is just five minutes away from the Talersee lake. A kind of serpentine road starts next to the rental boat station. In the first corner, we may see a giant yellow robot that looks similar to Bumblebee from “Transformers.” Picturesque Austrian rural atmosphere seems not to have changed in the last fifty years, except for modern cars and solar batteries on the roofs. This walk with only two road corners makes a strong impression, and it is easy to visualize how Arnold used to walk here years ago. The Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum and a former house are located on a kind of hill. A small, clean parking place with three bio-toilets and a few memorable billboards and flags. Just in front of the entrance, tourists from all over the world can try a triceps cable machine inside a box, which looks like a telephone booth, covered with photos of Arnold in his shape. You can choose an appropriate weight and pay attention to the caution for children. The former Arnold Schwarzenegger house of yellow color, which he and his family used to accommodate the second floor, is now completely turned into the Arnold Museum.

Once you get inside the Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum, you will face multiple souvenirs for tourists that may become a notable personal reminder of a trip. Movie posters with Arnold, Frisbees, t-shirts, shower towels, cups, beer steins, pens, bottles of wine, trinkets, and Terminator T-800 plastic models. And also Arnold’s books, both in English and German: “Evolution of a Bodybuilder” and “Total Recall: My Unbelievable True Story.” It’s enjoyable that all purchases here are packed in a symbolic package with Arnold’s face. A ticket to enter and visit the whole exhibition of the Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum now costs 9 euros (September 2017). Exposition occupies both the first and second floors of a building on Linakstraße 9.

The Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum in Thal, Austria, is symbolically divided into topics and periods of Arnold’s life and personal development. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Birthplace and Youth. We can visit the former kitchen where the family gathered and where Arnold used to have his calories to gain muscles in the first years of training. Arnold enthusiastically described their first fridge in his book. An authentic toilet of the 1960s as part of a museum exposition with an old newspaper. Rooms with beds and some lifting equipment with exceptional rarities of Arnold youth. Multiple photos now cover the walls—the same ones that used to be covered with strongmen and bodybuilders of the past, which had motivated Arnold Schwarzenegger to become the greatest bodybuilder of all time. For example, posters with Reg Park.

We also see the school board with some thematic markings, depicting Arnold’s school period in Thal, Austria. An open locker with an army uniform of the same period when Arnold served in the 1960s. The Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum in Thal is also famous for its full-size statues. One of them, made of wax, depicts Arnold in a competing shape in the 1970s, in posing trunks with the well-known front double biceps pose. Thus and so, this particular part of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s House describes the youth and bodybuilding past of Arnold—from a burning desire to build muscles when he was fourteen to the title of Mister Olympia and the status of a sports icon. It is of additional interest to observe Arnold’s real prizes and medals. Rare tablets for tourists ask not to touch such important exhibit items.

A few rooms of the Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum are devoted to Arnold’s movie career. TV screens show fragments of famous movies: “Pumping Iron,” “Conan the Barbarian,” and “The Terminator.” The exposition includes rarities—stage properties from the real sets—which will be given to Arnold as a gift. The wooden box keeps the sword of Conan, the very one used in a famous movie. The manikin wears a leather sheriff jacket from “The Last Stand” (2013), and a revolver and t-shirt are stored nearby. You will be impressed with two full-size models. T-800 skeleton made of plastic and metal. Of course, Arnold’s iconic model from “Terminator 2” after all the injuries he received. Another significant artifact of the Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum is a bike—the same one we saw in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” Arnold, an icon of this museum, sometimes visits Thal, Austria, and his former house.

The third subject of the Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum in Thal, Austria, is devoted to his political career and public activities. It is a matter of great interest to find oneself in the décor of the governor’s cabinet. It includes real Arnold’s furniture, brought here from Los Angeles. Big screens demonstrate fragments of public interviews and speeches. Another vax manikin depicts Arnold as the governor of the state of California in the USA. You can take as many photos as you want.

WALKING AROUND THAL

After visiting all the rarities of the Arnold Museum on Linakstraße 9, I’ve decided to walk around Thal between rare homes and green fields. Just 100 meters ahead, I noticed two young deer that crossed the field to the forest, and this scene symbolized magnificent nature. A circular route can be fulfilled in about one hour with a few authentic Austrian rural streets. I’ve visited the local Thal cemetery but failed to find Gustav and Maynard Schwarzenegger’s graves—they were probably buried in Graz. The next memorable site is St. James Kirche, which Arnold used to attend with his mother, Aurelia. Thal Volksschule across the road—the place where Arnold spent his youth. Then the road alongside the forest will lead you back to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s birthplace, his home, and Talersee Lake. These 4 hours spent here were exceptionally emotional and memorable. It motivates us to move forward and to develop, to think outside the box, as Arnold likes to say.

After finishing my planned routes and one more look at Arnold’s house, I waited for the same bus, № 48, which previously brought me here, and then № 40 in Goesting. It was one of the best days of my life, and I’m looking forward to coming to Thal again.