Austria & Munich

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From Lake Bled we headed north back into Austria, but into the west this time. We were treated to some very picturesque and dramatic scenery as we passed by two alpine ranges. Here we were to spend the night in a quaint little village which would be a popular destination for skiers in winter, but as it was the middle of summer the town was quite quiet and our dining options were quite limited but we managed to get a table in the local family restaurant to enjoy some of the local schnitzel speciality.

Sunday morning dawned and it was cold and grey which was quite disappointing as we were planning on doing the drive through the Hohe Tauern National Park and over the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse, however we were told by the locals that the weather would soon clear up and it would be a bright and sunny afternoon. Luckily they were right and we enjoyed an amazing drive through the mountain range and up to Franz Josef's Hohe which is the lookout point for the Pasterze Glacier. After a close look at the glacier we headed back down the mountain and stopped at a scenic lookout for some lunch. We continued through the mountain pass and wound our way down to Salzburg where we stopped for the night.

Salzburg is mainly famous for two things: The Sound of Music and it is the birthplace of Mozart. We declined the option of doing a sound of music tour and instead spent our time wandering the old town, the gardens of the palace Schloss Mirabell, the castle Festung Hohensalzburg which is situated high on a hill above the town, and gives superb views of the city and surrounding countryside.

From Salzburg we headed through into Germany and for a few days in Munich. Dinner our first night was in a traditional German restaurant/beer garden which has been brewing its own beer since 1328, as it was raining quite heavily we couldn't take advantage of the beer garden but the restaurant was one of the biggest we have ever seen with three large dining halls and waiters carrying around 5 one litre jugs of beer in one hand and balancing a tray of around 6 dinner plates in the other, we only saw one near miss when a diner got in the way of a waiter.

Our hostel offered a guided walking tour of the city so we took advantage of this and spent the day being shown around the sites of Munich, including a stop at the glockenspiel to watch the 12pm performance by the clock. At the conclusion of the tour we ended up near to a beer garden in the middle of the English Gardens so we took advantage of this and enjoyed a pint and a stein in the sunshine.

The following day we travelled around 30mins out of the centre of Munich to Dachau which was the first concentration camp built by the nazis. It is in a strange location as you would have expected it to be in the middle of nowhere but it is located very near to a residential and business area. We spent a sombre couple of hours watching a video and touring the site.

From Dachau we headed to Augsburg which is a city on the "Romantic Road" route through Western Bavaria, it was a pretty small town and we spent the afternoon here before heading back to Munich.

We hit the road early from Munich the following day and made the drive out to Fussen which is a small town near the Austria-Germany border which is famous for being the home to two castles that were designed by King Ludwig. One of the castles, Neuschwanstein, is said to be the inspiration for the design of the Disney Castle. It was a hard 45min trek up the hill to the castle but well worth the effort as you got some amazing views over the valley.

Innsbruck, home of the winter olympics in 1964 & 1976 was the next stop. It had a charming old town which includes the Goldenes Dachi (Golden Roof) which was built in the 16th century as a display of wealth and has 2,657 gilded copper tiles.

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