Back to part I
Somewhere between Germany and Austria
Because Google led us away from Geneva via a highway, we have not really enjoyed any views of Alps up to this point, but now that we are driving south, the horizon has certainly become much more interesting. A couple of times we even stop at a rest area and a curb.
The speed limit on Germany’s autobahns, or rather the absence of such, enables us to beat the time estimate, so, although the drive between Munich and Salzburg is anything but short, we arrive and park (again, not at the hotel but a couple of blocks away) and check-in while it’s still early.
Salzburg
The next several days will be the hottest, culminating in tomorrow’s 93F. Among other things it means we should take advantage of the evenings (knowing our habits we won’t take advantage of the mornings 🤣).
And so, as soon as we can, we walk though Mirabell Gardens to enjoy a view of old Salzburg from one of the bridges over the river Salzach.
The geography of Salzburg, with the river flowing among the hills, the town jammed between the hill and the river, the fortress on top, all that makes it a very attractive sight indeed, and the narrow streets provide the much needed shade.
As we noticed it in Switzerland as well, the sides of the houses feature crafty metal signs.
Soon enough we reach Mozarts Geburtshaus, the Mozart’s birthplace. Of course the museum is already closed, we’ll be back another day.
We just pick the closest open restaurant and have a dinner with a view of Mozarts Geburtshaus. Yep, we are eating a schnitzel in Austria. I notice a curious charge on the bill, and Tamara says that happened in Zürich as well: when we sat at the table the waiter brought some bread and butter and I see a charge for this bread on the check. To me this is ridiculous – I didn’t ask for it and they didn’t check with me on it. Why am I being changed for something I didn’t order? I didn’t make an issue out of it, but let’s just say I expected better…
One of the things I wanted to do in the evening is get to Kapuziner monastery on the hill across the river from the old town. I read that the view is good from there, and by my calculations, it should be good specifically in the evening, especially at sunset. Tamara and Anne, however, are violently against it (I believe for the sole reason that it involves walking uphill). We decide to split, with me going to the hill and the ladies going to the hotel though Mirabell Gardens.
The walk uphill is actually very short and I’m there by about 8:40, which is actually almost an hour before sunset, so I have plenty of time picking up viewing spots along the old wall.
I don’t leave until the sunset, making plenty of pictures
Somewhat surprisingly to me, there are not many people around here, just some youngsters watching the sunset and an occasional tourist exploring more that I chose to.
Going back to the hotel took shorter than I expected
The girls didn’t lose much time either, going around Mirabell Gardens and making plenty of photos near the palace. The place certainly looks great in the sunset light.
Day 6
Salzburg, St. Gilgen, Mondsee
Today is not just the hottest day of our trip, but also the one we scheduled some events for. The morning starts with a Sound of Music tour (in an air-conditioned bus 🙂).
It is fairly entertaining and, of course, for true fans, like Toma and Anne, this is an exciting pilgrimage.
We start with a view on Leopoldskron, especially its terrace, a familiar location.
As all of it is surrounded with, basically, an alpine lake landscape, I don’t mind at all.
We continue to Hellbrunn Palace, where the famous gazebo was relocated away from Leopoldskron in 1991 because of annoying tourists 😆.
We literally have 10-15 min at the place, but Hellbrunn is actually a very attractive palace (and a museum), so it’s a pity we can’t spend more time here.
Apparently, there is also a garden with some funny fountains that make you wet, but I really didn’t have time for it. Just snapping some photos while people are gathering at the parking lot…
Next stop on our tour is St. Gilgen. There is only one reason St. Gilgen is a part of the Sound Of Music tour that I can see: it offers a gorgeous view of the town and Wolfgangsee (“See” is German for “lake”) right from the road and the parking lot. The town really dosn’t have anything to do with the Sound Of Music story or movie. A feeble reference from the Panorama Tour website mentioning “where panorama shots and scenes of the picnic were filmed” is, to the best of our knowledge, completely false. However, if I were to vote for the best spot of the Sound Of Music tour, my choice would be St. Gilgen 🙂.
The real reason we drove outside of Salzburg city limits, however, was to see the church were the movie wedding takes place, and that is in the town called Mondsee. A walk through the cute town ends at the pretty impressive albeit, in my humble opinion, not too special, church.
A light lunch in a nearby cafe and a walk back to the bus pretty much conclude the tour.
All that’s left is a a drive back to the city and a step into Mirabell Palace and Gardens, also a big part of the movie of course, but already quite familiar to us.
We got plans for tomorrow, so we need to get back to the old town now, despite the record temperatures.
Another good observation point is supposed to be from Museum der Moderne. One of the good things about it is there is a funicular (with AC, or maybe just cold air from the rock) going up there. The view is great but I also take a walk along the edge of the hill for alternative views.
This is the place I was at yesterday… really not high at all.
a view to the church roofs
There are trees here and a somewhat pleasant (as it can be in such heat) shade, but it’s time to get back to the streets. One more photo and we’re off to the funicular.
Salzburg was an important city during Middle Ages, an capital of Electorate in the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a prince-archbishop. The main source of it’s wealth was salt mining (Salzburg means “salt fortress”).
This horse pond (Pferdeschwemme) was build to provide drinking water to archbishop’s horses, although apparently the water comes to it via canals used since the Roman times.
Too bad they didn’t think to provide some shade as well 😂.
From here we attempt to explore Felsenreitschule, a famous theatre that was built in 17th century in a former stone quarry. Not only it is interesting, and was used in famous scenes of singing competition in Sound Of Music, but it is also basically built into the rock and the air coming out of the stone walkways is definitely cool. Alas, the venue seems thoroughly closed and we turn towards the center of the city.
Any time we walk in the sun, the experience is not pleasant, and we decide to go inside – to Mozarts Geburtshaus.
Predictably, the building does not have air-conditioning (Anne was hoping) and, frankly, it is less comprehensive than I thought it would be about Mozart’s biography.
But today our acquaintance with Mozart doesn’t end with the city and the museum, since we have something special planned for today – a chamber music concert in Mirabell Palace!
So we walk back to the hotel, change and have a dinner (for which we decide to try the restaurant on the 6th floor of the hotel). The restaurant offers a very nice view from the terrace, but today the view is 1) marred by resembling the inside of a boiling pot by temperature and 2) not as good as the one I saw yesterday from the monastery.
The dinner turned out to be quite good. Toma attempted to order a Salzburger Nockerl, a local delicacy, but we’re told that it takes about 25 min to prepare and, with the concert in queue, we decide to try it tomorrow.
We found Marble Hall in Mirabell Palace without difficulty (the hall is one of the few rooms with the old interior, as we found out).
The concert featured Ensemble 1833 performing the works of Mozart and Bach. It was quite pleasant despite a warm room.
Some night time photos of Mirabell Garden is a bit of a bonus….
Day 7
Salzburg
Today is our last day in Salzburg and Toma insists we still have a lot to see, including some spots in Mirabell Garden that we (or I, because of my separate venture on our first evening here) haven’t visited yet.
These spots were featured in the movie.
This time we walk along the river on our side and cross over Mozartsteg (same as Sound Of Music characters) and walk over the south-east side of the old city. “Steg” by the way seems to mean “foot bridge”, as opposed to a more typical “brücke”.
After having a breakfast in a cafe on a shady side of Residenzplatz (the heat wave continues and the sunny side does not attract us), we walk past Residenzbrunnen (which is translated as Residence fountain), the largest baroque fountain north of Alps. Yes, we are definitely near the old archbishop residence, and there is a museum there, but we won’t visit it.
Instead we go past the cathedral towards St. Peter Abbey. The abbey is located right near the edge of the hill (the hill is called Festungsberg by the way).
The site is very old – the abbey was established in 696 and the current church built in the 12th century. There are even some catacombs in the rock.
We walk around the beautiful cemetery. While it did not feature in Sound Of Music, the cemetery where von Trapps were hiding from the chase at the end of the film was modeled on it.
From here there is a short way to Festungsbahn (located on Festungsgasse), a cogwheel rail funicular to Festung Hohensalzburg. Yes, “Festung” means “fortress” (Hohensalzburg means “high Salzburg”). It’s great that we don’t have to climb the 500 meter high hill 😀.
Of course, it immediately offers a panoramic view.
A strong formula of mountains, river and old-fashioned buildings makes Salzburg a very photogenic place and we can’t stop making pictures.
The current fortress was initially built in 11th century by the archbishop Gebhard von Helfenstein during the Investiture controversy, in which he (of course) supported the pope. By the way, he built another fortress, Hohenwerfen, about 40km south of here, in the town of Werfen. Several prince-archbishops used Hohensalzburg as the primary residence, although most apparently preferred, well, Residenz.
Here is another tile stove, also quite picturesque. They’ve been popular around here apparently.
The fortress also houses a small military museum. It (the fortress, not the museum 😊) apparently has never been conquered (not that I can find many attempts of its siege on record 😏), although it did surrender without a fight to the French army during Napoleonic wars.
Throughout the museum the plaques in English make me laugh and cry at the same time. I mean, who did they make these texts for? If it is for English-speaking kids, I think it’s pretty sad how low opinion the Austrian have of them. Maybe it’s for 4-year-olds? Here is one of more complex examples
Since the fortress is at the top of the hill, different viewpoints provide outlooks at the mountains on different sides.
This beautiful view suggests it may rain soon…
It does soon after we get out of the museum, so we spend a bit of time in the museum shop.
Instead of taking a funicular down, we decide to visit Nonnberg Abbey, a nunnery established in 715. Of course we know it as the abbey where Maria von Trapp (then Maria Kutschera) was a resident in 1924, where the story that developed into Sound Of Music began. Anne and Toma are excited as our private Sound Of Music tour continues 😊.
We briefly visit the small abbey church. It’s nice to get away from the heat. This is the opposite of “California Dreaming” 😅.
The walk down offers a nice view of the roofs of Salzburg.
The way slightly down is mostly shady and not unpleasant. A cat is relaxing on the street.
Back on the city level, we approach Saint Peter Abbey from the other side and enter the church.
While we have now seen pretty much all we wanted in Salzburg, we have not eaten what we wanted, namely Salzburger Nockerl. A place nearby gets rave reviews for its rendition of it, but our inquiry is disappointing – apparently they only prepare it in the evening. It’s ok, Toma says, I know the place that makes it – the restaurant in our hotel. We already checked out, but we need to go in that direction for our car anyway. The way back lies through the old city again.
So we end up having another meal in Imlauer restaurant, this time a not-so-light desert. Salzburger Nockerl turned out to be a very tasty soufflé served with red current preserve. Apparently, the three dumplings represent the three hills surrounding the old Salzburg. For us they also represent the three pretty large portions, although Anne surrendered much of hers to us. Here it is served with a red current preserve 👍.
Sankt Gilgen
Our way now goes south-east and passes St. Gilgen, so of course we cannot not stop and take another glance from above. Beautiful!
Out next destination is actually a town of Hallstatt and its surroundings, but since hotels there seem to be made of gold (judging by prices), we reserved one a bit closer, in Bad Goisern, or more exactly, on a hill outside of Bad Goisern. I actually decided to pay more for a “view” room as it was still way cheaper than anything decent in Hallstatt or Salzburg. The view didn’t disappoint.
Since the days are so long nowadays, we still got time to get to Hallstatt and see a bit of it. Our Google navigated drive hits a snag (figuratively) as a street in Bad Goisern is closed and we find a detour via a small road going on a side of a hill. It’s amazing that we really didn’t have an internet outage to speak of since we started our trip, the coverage is amazing!
We park in one of the lots near a stream.
The town is jammed in a tiny space between the foothills and the lake, and that makes a very picturesque settings. Of course, even here we see the obligatory yellow construction crane 😅.
A castle is perched on the other side of the lake.
The road to Hallstatt goes through a tunnel and there is a parking lot and an opening in the middle. We missed it on the way there but stop now and take a look.
Bad Goisern
Today dinner is a bit late, but it’s nice to sit outside if you’re a bit above the sea level and when the sun is down and the heat subsided some… At first we are the only customers in the hotel’s restaurant. All the employees we encountered so far were Eastern European (I would’ve recognized Russian, Belorussian, Ukrainian or Polish but I didn’t recognized their language), so I thought a venison goulash might be good here. I was right, it was amazing 👍, somebody in that kitchen really knew how it’s done. Other dishes were very good too.
It’s already dark but I still continue to make pictures of the hills outside our balcony.
Day 8
And of course I also continue doing that in the morning because, after all, the light changed and so did the view… just a little…
The forecast we saw before the trip was actually wrong… We thought the hottest day of out vacation was the Sunday in Salzburg. Nope, today’s forecast is 94F 😧. Fortunately, today we’ll get a little bit higher up in the sky, hopefully the heat there will be more tolerable. However, our afternoon plan to hike the Sound Of Music trail to the picnic spot in the movie does not look promising…
Dachstein Krippenstein
It was my idea to visit this area and the main reason is because I saw some beautiful pictures. Although they were labeled as Hallstatt, they were from Mount Krippenstein, a mountain in a skiing and touristy area of Dachstein mountains, and that’s where we’re going today, equipped with brand new hiking shoes and my excellent photo backpack that I didn’t have a chance to use since the Utah/Arizona trip.
We arrive early-ish to avoid big lines and crowds, and soon enough we’re at the ticket window, trying to understand what it is we want. Of course we want to get to an observation point called “5fingers” but they also offer visits to some caves… What’s the temperature in the cave? -1C… Hmmm… We did take some windbreakers with us, since we’re going up to about 2km above sea level, but the girls are wearing shorts! Let’s do it, Toma says, we’ll be fine.
The cave ticket’s are timed, since the only way in are guided tours, and apparently there is a 15 min walk to the ice cave entrance (that’s the tour we decided to take). These 15 min turned out to be an uphill walk that ended up more like 20 min, but we made it.
The first thing that impressed us on the walk is flowers. Flowers, flowers, flowers – everywhere along the trail, usually small, of all kinds of colors, with bees and butterflies flying around.
The ice cave met our expectations – a cave with frozen lakes and formations of ice created by water seeping through the rock and freezing in a constant slightly below freezing temperature. There are walkways and lights (assumingly powered by some batteries that the tour guide turns on and off). There is virtually no air movement inside the cave (the entrance and exit have doors) so, while it is cold, it’s tolerable with our jackets and hats on. I think my backpack helps a bit too…
When we exit the cave and the door opens, that’s when we feel the wrath of cold wind blowing at us sharply from the icy (literally) cave! We step away from the hole hurriedly to keep warm.
There is an impressive view of the lake from here.
we direct ourselves to the cable car to the top, admiring alpine flowers along the way.
This is our first ride on a cable car, at least the first one that long. We are rewarded not only by nice views from a window but also a sight of a mountain goat.
The top of Mount Krippenstein is about 2100m above the see level and it opens the view to some of the snowy peaks of Dachstein mountain chain.
Turns out, 5fingers is not near the funicular station, but about a 25min walk away. Anne seems to consider any suggestion of a hike as cheating, like we invited her to a steakhouse and suggested fish. In her mind it is a European vacation and we’re supposed to “walk”, not “hike”, so we discuss the subtle definition points a bit while walking (yes, not hiking).
This is a very picturesque walk indeed, with grass, flowers and occasional little glacier on one side, and mountains and peeks of the valley on the other.
Frankly, the best view here I think is not from the 5fingers platforms, but from the trail a bit before them. There are a couple of paragliders in the air. I hope they can control where this thing goes…
Finally at the 5fingers (there are 5 little observation platforms protruding from the mountain), it is hard to stop taking pictures of the breathtaking views.
From here we can see Hallstatt on the left side of the lake.
There are many talkative black birds around. A plaque identifies them as Alpine chough.
Another glance and we’re turning back.
The restaurant on the top seems very busy and we get down to the ice cave level and have a lunch. A goulash here is alright, but decidedly not as good as it was in our hotel.
It is already afternoon and down at the scorching parking lot we decide it’s time to move on. We stop at Hallstätter See for a farewell look. The water in these alpine lakes is amazingly clear…
While we were in Austria, Tamara discovered some troubling info. Turns out there is a special sticker required on the cars that drive on Austria highways. We knew about similar sticker required in Switzerland (called “vignette”), and the cars in Switzerland come with it, but they don’t come with the Austrian vignette. Toma said she saw a line of cars at the border with Germany that were probably buying it. Somebody on the internet said you’re ok if you only drive from the border to Salzburg, which is what we did, and we did not take a highway after. So… maybe we’re still ok, but now we need to drive to Germany from Hallstatt. Fortunately we have a bit of extra time and choose the directions via local roads, stopping in a supermarket to replenish our fruit and snack supplies.
Driving north along Salzach river, we are going through a town so cute we have to stop and take some pictures. We have observed the houses with ornaments on the walls in Switzerland and Munich (parts of Munich Residenz in fact have areas painted as a pattern of the old blocks as a part of restoration), but here it’s done very elaborately. Considering the houses are also painted in different color, this makes for a very cheerful street in
Golling an der Salzach
Upon crossing the border, we can finally take a highway, which is free in Germany, in addition to doing away with a speed limit. In reality though there are many spots on the autobahn that did in fact have a speed limit, and I have to give Google Maps its due, it picked up on that pretty well. Also, any construction work (not an infrequent occurrence) drops speed limit to 80 km/h 😒.
At any rate, by the time we arrive to Füssen, the town where we’re staying tonight, and check in to the hotel, it’s past 9PM and many restaurants are already closed. We make use of our food supplies for dinner. Füssen, by the way, also seems to be an attractive town, at least based as little as we observed driving through.
Day 9
Schwangau
Once we decided on our route, I tried to reserve tours to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. While I had no problem with Hohenschwangau (we have tickets for 11:30AM), the only tickets I was able to reserve for Neuschwanstein are for 5PM. The web site states that the tickets are non-refundable, non-negotiable, non-transferrable etc. It is what it is, and we’re prepared to pass the time wandering around the castles, though today’s weather is supposed to be rainy, but we’ll see. The alternative would’ve been to arrive to the place early and try to get tickets for a better slot, but we decided not to risk the “first come/first served in tourist season” option. But now that we’re here at about 10:30AM, why not try to rearrange things? Turned out the folks here are really not as stern as the web site is trying to make them seem, and after a brief wait we are able to exchange out tickets to a much better 1:40PM time slot. Maybe we were helped by the pretty grim weather forecast, but we’ll take it!
We arrive to Hohenschwangau ahead of time and spend some time exploring.
The wind is really strong, making all the fountains splash zones.
There is a pretty good view of Neuschwanstein from here.
There is still time to kill and the ladies use it for phone games. Their phones don’t have the internet 😛.
Hohenschwangau was built by Maximilian II in the mid 19th century and was used as the official summer place of the Bavarian king’s family. It even has an elevator, installed in the early 20th century for Luitpold of Bavaria, who was in his 80s and wheelchaired. The tour is quite interesting (no photography allowed). The tour guide basically directs the group and, when we enter a room, gives some descriptions and comments in English and turns on the audio devices each of us has. Pretty clever, as people can actually get the audio guides in different languages.
We have sufficient time to walk to Neuschwanstein. Taking another look at Hohenschwangau Castle
The walk, however, is steadily uphill. Also, since we are going in this direction anyway, why don’t we take a detour and visit Marienbrücke, the famous observation point? Hint: that was not the best idea 😕. Getting to the bridge is better from the direction of Neuschwanstein Castle. Although I see the trail on Google Maps, in reality it is not well marked and the terrain is, basically a forest hike going sharply uphill with crossing a stream along the way. Me and Toma are armed (or should I say footed?) with our new waterproof hiking shoes, but Anne isn’t and she’s not too happy about the situation.
Finally reaching the bridge, this is how it looks 😯
The wooden bridge goes over a very deep ravine. I hope it holds up 😉. It’s a good thing there is a person standing there, regulating the traffic a bit… Of course the view is worth the detour, that’s why all these people are here…
The path from Marienbrücke to Neuschwanstein is easy and pretty short, and we have a bit of time to spare before our tour.
The rain starts and stops. It’s a good time to get in for a tour.
The Neuschwanstein tour (also no photography permitted) is the same idea as the one in Hohenschwangau, but as attentive and patient as our Hohenschwangau tour guide was, as self-absorbed and indifferent is the one here. Not only they’re rushing people through the castle (I guess to fit in more tours), but the guide could’ve given at least a signal that she was turning on the audio, or at least looked in our direction once 😅. Also, the audio guide said Louis XIV was Saint Louis 😆. I don’t know, of all the 16 French Louises the 14th one may not have been the very worst choice for a saint, but he was definitely one of the worst 😇… So the quality of the tour dampened our impression of the castle, which is quite beautiful on the inside as well as on the outside. There is also a postcard worthy view from a balcony.
Another rain starts when we exit the castle, and for that reason (plus urgent request from Anne) we pick a horse carriage as the mode of transportation from the castle to the village.
Down on the streets the rain is pouring and we stumble into a restaurant and have a linner. I’m glad to see a tile stove in a middle of the restaurant. It’s been definitely a popular thing around here 😁.
Since we were able to visit Neuschwanstein castle early, we can make a detour to Altdorf. This drive is the second longest on out trip (after Zürich – Dachau). It is marred with periodic rains, some of them quite strong, to the point of violent downpour with almost no visibility 😬. We didn’t enjoy the surroundings as much as we usually do on this drive.
A bit of a shock came with a realization, thanks to Google Maps, that we actually need to cross a bit of Austria on the way, so we exited the highway and found a way via local roads that was actually only 10 min slower. While going through this 10 km or so of Austria, we cross the Rhine River (there was a sign on the bridge) flowing into Lake Constance. We didn’t even know Rhine begins around here!
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