Salzburg, Austria
I arrived in Salzburg, took a wrong turn, and was pleasantly surprised by an inexpensive internet cafe that had working dvd burners.
Here at the Strawberry hostel I ran into the Canadian from Vancouver that I met in Vienna. We briefly checked out the city center of Salzburg, then went to the infamous beer hall. It was massive and busy, beer came in old fashioned think ceramic mugs in 1/2 L, 1L, 2L and 4L steins. This is the traditional ceramic beer stein that I would imagine they use. Everyone was washing their mugs, so we did the same. Afterwards, I even found lipstick on it, but hey, that´s not a big concern there´s better things to worry about. Later into the night I got some dvds burned that I`ve been meaning to.
Day Trip, Werfen, Austria
Worlds Largest Ice Caves
The next day, I headed out to the worlds largest Ice Caves at Werfen. Train, and bus to the mountain, then walk, tram, then walk and that was the journey from Salzburg. The tour guides around this region all seem to speak 4 or more languages, and this time I was the only not “normal” person who did not speak German. That meant I got to be at the very front where he would translate in English as we walked. That also meant I had a hard time getting photos because of the cameras verboten signs. The ice caves are a 42 km stretch of caves and only discovered in the late 1800s, with about 1 km of ice formations of stalactites, stalagmites and various other walls, blobs and coverings. The ride and hike also afforded an incredible view of the valley and the Werfen castle, the most beautiful castle in central Europe (according to pamphlets). After the 1.5 hour tour in the sub zero caves, I head to Werfen castle.
I had to see this because the castle from the outside looks close to the idea castle. Its a fairly small castle, with an elevator built in so that you don´t need to walk up to it. It has a courtyrad inside where they have arranged lots of children’s games. It has little furniture, but a really nice reconstruction in a room, lots of original weapons, and a giant garden. They also have predator bird shows, but I was not in time. They did have a huge (like 12) number of birds sitting in the garden on stands. Some were enormous, like small children.
Day Trip, Hallen, Austria
Salt Mine
I asked the tourist office how to get to the Bavarian salt mines. She replied why? we have some here, and gave me info on how to get to these. Today I headed out to see the salt mines that were operational up until 1989. Salt mines in this region have been going since people have been in the area. It looked much like a normal mine, the biggest differences is that in many places there are no supports as its under a hill not a mountain, and that there is a giant salt lake in the mine. Once they figured out to use water to dissolve the salt, then pump the water out, they were able to better mine the salt. It´s no longer profitable though. Part if the entrance was for a Celtic museum as well, a little village contracted of how they determined things used to be.
I heard from a Canadian that there was a rail sled ride near here, so afterwards, I hiked the 1 km up to this sled. If you can imagine those sleds on concrete, same concept except this sled ride on a rail. It was very busy. I waited near the top for space to clear up because Vancouver guy said he caught up to the person in front of him. After a few minutes of waiting, someone coming up told them to stop, and pointed out a jam, one of the sled jammed up a little ways down and there was a queue of sled behind it. I went, ate lunch, hike the trail up there that crossed to Germany, then came back. It was pretty fun. I rarely ever braked only at a couple of corners, never applied any decent pressure to break, and in doing so was worried about all those brake signs I was flying by. I think its designed to not go too fast, because it really did´t go heart stopping, adrenaline pumping fast, just jerked you around on the rail. I would recommend those going on it to never brake, and hold on tight.
The Grossglockner and National Park
Day three, i´m up before 6 to go catch a train. The day trip to the grossglockner, the highest peak in Austria, and a high mountain road that they market well as a high alpine road. Train then bus, to the best lookout point, Franz Joseph Bahnof in Hohe park. More than 5 hours later we get there, and there are way too many clouds. Its raining, and we cant see a thing. With the time waiting for the bus to go back, only one bus every day, eventually you could catch sight of the valley with its enormous glacier. Sadly, it never cleared up and sitting in the clouds never had the chance to see it.
Last day, well maybe its time to go see Salzburg the city. I had changed hostels, and the Vancouver guy I met in Vienna was here, then at the last hostel we were in the same room and he told me he was changing hostels the day after I was. So I ran into him, and we planned to go see the city. He chose the eagles nest that day instead of the Grossglocker, and same story for him. Funny enough, we ended up in the same room.
In the morning we spent hours at the castle. It was quite impressive, in the top half as per my ratings. Stopped by the catacombs where there were no bones laying around this time, only tombs, and then a park that might be famous from The Sounds of Music.
On to Munich.
Tags: Travel
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