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Published: October 20th 2008
Thursday 9th October
Austria - Salzberg
We drove early to Salzberg and decided to book ourselves into a caravan park and then have breakfast because everyone takes a long time to get up, have breakfast and get put!! So it takes a long time to finally arrive at a new spot. Well, it’s very hard to get out bed when it’s fresh outside and the kids have jumped into our bed, snuggled up between us and the doona is perfectly heated….. Some days the idea of getting up and getting out does not appeal at all.
Off we drove into to Salzberg’s cute little streets, we followed the GPS and it led us to
a suburb where we started seeing tourist signs for the caravan park. I’m a firm believer that if we have the signs we should always follow them instead of the GPS b/c the GPS doesn’t take into account the size of the roads and the signs do!!! Well I used to be a firm believer…now I’ll just the idiot that led Kurt up that path….
I was adamant that we followed the signs to this caravan park, so we saw a sign
Austria â“ Salzberg
this was used in the Sound of Music.saying CAMP 300 MTS, turned into a narrow country lane and Kurt said “no way!!” There was no way he was taking the motor home down that bike track as he called it.
So he made ME get out of the camper, walk around the corner and check it out!! Can you believe his lack of faith in my judgement?? I walked about 20 metres around the corner and saw that the road continued to curve around. So I faithfully told Kurt, that although I couldn’t see the end of the road, I felt confident that we were headed in the right direction. My reasoning was, that if a caravan park put up the signs, they would have to assume people with caravans and motor homes were going to follow them and so the roads would have to be appropriately sized.
So Kurt continued around the corner and we all remained silent because it was a really narrow road (truth be told…I was also starting to think it resembled a bike track!!) and we could all hear the overhanging tree branches scratching the top.
It wasn’t until I heard Kurt say”OH, JESUS CHRIST MARIA!!” that I looked up
Austria â“ Salzberg
this was used in the Sound of Music. and saw his reason for being pissed off. In the middle of this bike track there was a bollard!!! For those of you like me that have never heard the word “bollard”, it’s a steel pole that’s stuck in the middle of a road to stop frigging traffic!!!! Oh My God!!! I think that’s the closest Kurt been, to leaving the keys in the ignition and just walking away from me and the car!! He was really mad!!
Instead, he slowly started reversing this 8-9mt motor home back through a curved bike track while my Dad and I were shouting instructions. Kurt also had to avoid pedestrians and cyclist. Then when we reached the main road, we had to stop traffic for Kurt to reverse but had trouble because there was too much of an incline. (We’ve had problems with that everywhere. The back section of the motor home sticks out about 2 metres past the back tyres so when we’ve approached a steep drive way, we often fear hearing the crunching of metal!!)
That whole episode was a nightmare and I’m sure I’ve tarnished my credibility with Kurt. Whenever I navigate and give Kurt instructions, I can
Austria â“ Salzberg
this was used in the Sound of Music.... Pegesuss almost hear him weighing up the options of not following them….but then common sense prevails…we’re together for another 3 months and that could be a l-o-n-g time……
Finally we arrived at a camp, that turned out to be the most expensive to date about $100 a night. (That’s so expensive for camping) When I walked into the reception, Kurt walked in just after me and I thought an armed robber had walked in behind me, from the lady’s horrified and nervous expression. I know he hadn’t shaved in a few weeks but for God’s sake…he didn’t look that bad!! Seriously I couldn’t understand why she looked so nervously at Kurt. He thought maybe the badge on his jumper resembled the American Flag and maybe the lady had a dislike of Americans. Who knows!! It’s nice to know he can’t charms ALL the ladies over 50!!
We set ourselves up and caught a bus into Salzberg.
The first place we saw was Schloss Mirabell, a beautiful elegant garden that was used for the Sound of Music. There was a water fountain where Maria and the Vin Trapp
children sang “Do, Re, Me..” around the fountain. The actual
gardens themselves were spectacular. There was a section of garden with small flowering plants that had been arranged in the most intricate patterns and another section where the trees in autumn shades were all lined up and looked like something out of a screen saver (or for movie buffs, looked like the walking/talking scene from “Where Harry Met Sally”) It was just lovely.
Next we went to St Peterkirche an abbey dated 847 AD, where we went to see some catacombs. Most catacombs are usually underground but these were literally carved into the side of a mountain and used by people hiding from religious persecution. They were really interesting although according to my Dad they were tiny.
We then walked around the busy city centre, in and out of little street, covered with souvenir and designer shops.
Sometimes I struggle to navigate around streets when the words look so strange to me. I can’t even keep the street names (eg Kautzlgasse or Kaiserschutzenstr) in my head long enough to look down at the map and gauged our location! (I’m sure there’s a name for that condition, but no one here gives me any sympathy….)
We came
across a lovely square where two men were playing chess on a massive chess board. We sat and had some lunch while watching them. They were taking themselves far too seriously, walking around scratching their chins and clasping their hands behind their backs like old school professors…. I only play the most basic versions of chess, so I had no idea what they were doing, but Joshua seemed to understand some of it. (Katelyn, my Mum and I wondering around the stalls)
Later that night we ate dinner outside and a fellow Australian (Rosemary) heard our accent and came to say hello. She later came back with her husband (Rodney) and another couple from Australia. It was great chatting to these people because we all exchanged information and funny stories. But the owner came and told us to keep our voices down because we’d gotten too loud! Imagine that!
Friday 10th August
Salzberg - Werfen
The plan had been to drive from Salzberg to Vienna but I’d read about these ice caves called Eisriesenwelt Hohle and so we were able to deviate south to Werfen without too many hassles.
What caught my attention was
Austria â“ Salzberg
this park was used in the Sound of Music. the description “the world’s largest accessible ice caves are in the mountains near Salzberg.”
We headed down but I really didn’t go into too much detail on how we were going to access the caves….not until we arrived there!!
The road up the mountain had a rise of 18 degrees. I don’t know if that sounds steep to you guys but Katelyn couldn’t watch the road and held my hands very tightly.
When we arrived close to the car park, we made up some fresh rolls and ate them while we looked over a stunning castle called Hohenwerfen Fortress. It was perched up on top of a mountain and overlooked a little village. It was a great location for lunch.
I hadn’t told everyone, the exact way we were going to approach the caves…..but at that stage I had to. Once we approached the car park (which was at least 5 minutes hike away), we then had another 20 minutes hike to reach the cable cars. At the cable cars, there were two options, a 1 ½ minute cable car ride cost of $60 for 4 or another 20 minute hike. Then a final 20 minute
Austria â“ Salzberg
Catacombes in the cliff face...this was used in the Sound of Music. hike to reach the caves. We thought $60 FOR 1 ½ MINUTE RIDE !!!! Are they mad?!!
But by the time we reached the cable cars we would have easily paid double! The walk was a killer and the road so damn steep that it no wonder cars remained in the car park. (The ice cave tour guides had to walk that stretch of road every day!!)
Close to the caves, there was a steep narrow ledge that curved around the mountain side for people who wanted a 2-3 hours hike. The view was breathtaking and so Kurt walked up this ledge and wanted a photo taken. From where we stood it looked like the ledge was 25 cm wide with a sheer cliff drop. No soft hill or grass if he slipped. Nope! Just thousands of metres of jagged rock face. When he walked up this ledge we all tried to convince him not to go, but he didn’t listen. (No…I’m not able to tell you that Kurt fell and is now DEAD!!) But Katelyn became very distressed and started crying. Now Kurt claims she’s the only one who loves him!!!
When we reached these caves,
Austria â“ Salzberg
Catacombes in the cliff face which everyone warned me had to be amazing to justify the walk, we were all perspiring and sat before we joined a tour group. But when the tour group before us entered we were amazed to feel the freezing air from at least 10 metres away from the entrance of the cave. It was so damn cold and we just started thinking in horror that perhaps we hadn’t bought enough warm stuff. But how much can you bring? We had scarves, gloves, beanies and heavy jackets.
I was amazed to see two girls beautifully made up with full faces of makeup, but no gloves or beanies between them.Idiots!!!
When we went in the difference of temperature caused a great rush of air that was the coldest and most chilling wind I’d ever experience. I thought oh my god! What am I doing to by children? Thankfully it settled down to just freezing temperature once we walked on.
The natural ice formations were out of this world and truly didn’t look like they’d been produced by nature. They were huge and when the guide lit them up we all gasped and flashed our cameras. Another bit of information
Austria â“ Salzberg
Catacombes in the cliff face that I’d forgotten to tell everyone was the 1400 steps we had to climb once inside.
At one stage we were climbing very narrow and small set of stairs when I looked back and was amazed to see how high we were. We had all been given torches and I was able to see people many, many metres below me thanks to their torches. Did I say it was cold?? Oh My God!! It was so cold. For a brief second and I mean brief… I thought about the two girls without gloves, jackets, beanies or scarves and thought about giving them my scarf. But I’ve never pretended to be a saint and so as I wiped my runny nose and rubbed my hands together, I just hoped they weren’t suffering from frostbite or hypothermia. At least not badly!!
There were all sorts of natural shapes that had appeared and disappeared over the years, like a shape that you could see used to be an elephant but over the years had changed into something unrecognisable. There was also a section of handrail that had been iced over.
When we left the cave, the change of air temperature
Austria â“ Salzberg
Catacombes in the cliff face had a different affect. We felt as if we were being pushed out of the cave by the strength of the draught. It was freaky and people in front turned to witness the expression and gasps of “OH!” from the people behind. We sat in the sun like lizard and soaked up the warm rays. Katelyn’s and my hands were so cold and sore that Kurt had to rub them vigorously. The gloves we wore were really inadequate for those temperatures. (Later I spoke to the two girls and they said that although it was cold, b/c they were from London they were used to the very cold weather! My sincere sympathy was wasted!)
The walk down the mountain was so much more enjoyable…My Dad whose been to Europe twice before had said the ice caves had been the highlight of his holiday.
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