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Published: October 20th 2009
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The Untersberg
It really is bigger than it looks. Today was my last day visiting Europe for this trip. I will head straight to the Munich airport tomorrow morning. So, with that being said, I made the absolute most of today. My first great, super, amazing, wonderful, awesome trip was to take a bus to the Unterberg Mountain. There is a cable car that runs to the top of the mountain and what a trip it was. It had snowed up on the mountains, so there was a good amount of snow on top, enough that paths had to be shoveled. It made for climbing up and around a challenge, but I am so full of grace and dexterity that I only fell (slightly) once. The views from up top was amazing amazing amazing. It was an incredibly clear day with blue skies. I don't think there could have been better visibility than there was today. On the very top, there is a cross. I have pictures of it when it is just a metal cross, but today it was a white snow cross. I could see the Salzburg airport, the fortress which looks so large from Salzburg, but so tiny from the Unterberg. It was such a magical experience.
Getting Closer
The loading station is visible in this picture. I am so grateful that I had enough time to do this.
After taking my photos and enjoying being up top, I headed back down on the cable car to catch the bus in order to make my 1:00 tour to the Eisriesenwelt, Ice Cave. It was about an hour bus ride from Salzburg. It was nice that there were only 10 of us on the tour, so we were on a small shuttle style bus rather than the huge tour bus of yesterday. They drove up up to a parking lot around 915 meters up (3002 feet). From there we hiked up about 20 minutes to a cable car station. The cable car only took about 3 minutes to go up. It moved. From the cable car upper station, it was about another 20 minute upward hike. The snow had covered the path, making it slippery in places. Since it was such a nice clear day, the sun was melting the snow and icicles creating small waterfalls where many icicles had grown together. Every once in a while a clump of snow would go tumbling down the mountain. Now, keep in mind that these are the Alps. These
Looking Casual
Trying to look casual as if this were an everyday thing. are some serious mountains and look as impressive as one would imagine.
The cave tour was about an hour. We went up 700 steps and came down 700 steps. It was cool inside, but not too windy today since the inside and outside temperatures were almost equal. They are stopping tours for the winter next week, so I was lucky to see this. We paired into 2's and were given a gas lantern with an exposed flame. No lights inside. The tour guide would light flare like things so we could see him better as he talked. It was truly amazing inside. I can't even begin to describe the walls, lakes and towers of ice inside this huge cave. The tour covered 1 km out of the 41 or 42 km cave system. I was just so overwhelmed at being there. One can only imagine how many pictures I took of the Alps, although we were seriously not allowed to take any inside the caves.
Once through with the tour, we hiked down to the cable car area and stopped for apple strudel and hot chocolate. It was a quick 3 minutes down, 20 minute hike and hour
From the Loading Station
Looking down before heading out to the snow. back to Salzburg. In case you didn't catch it, today was one of the best days of the trip. I absloutely love it here in Salzburg,.
But, so ends this trip. 9 airplanes, 4 trains, 5 hotels, 5 countries, 4 car and drivers, 6 taxis to and from airport/train stations, 16 days, and 1 very very happy Brendan. Oh, and probably 1500 pictures. I didn't but many souvenirs this trip. After lugging all the luggage on the last trip, I decided to let the experiences and photos be the souvenirs. All I can say is that this was one heck of a trip. On the horizon, Portugal and Spain. Not sure when or how, but they are on my mind. I hope you have enjoyed the blog and photos. Until next time, Ciao!!!
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Cheri
non-member comment
Beautiful
Hi Brendan- those pictures of the Mountains are breath taking! My goodness, it's like something you see on tv and just think, you are seeing it all in person. I envy you! You also look great and fit right in the Mountains! Have fun! Cheri