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Published: April 3rd 2012
Scenic Salzburg
Looking out across the Salzach River towards Monschberg hillAfter saying goodbye to Kathi in Graz (monday 18th August) I hopped on a train bound for Salzburg about three hours away to the west. Thankfully the conductor alerted me to the fact that although part of the train was headed there, the half that I was sitting in was actually bound for Linz to the north! Having rectified the situation at the next station, I arrived in Salzburg in the evening; and after taking a leisurely walk through the centre of town, I had soon come to the conclusion that Salzburg would have to be one of the most attractive cities that I have seen so far!
Divided in half by the fast-flowing Salzach River and flanked by the Monschberg and Kapuzinerburg hills on either side, the compact city is easy enough to get around on foot in just one day; with plenty of attractions to catch the eye. In addition to a host of churches and monuments, there is a modest palace with gardens near the centre of town (Schloss Mirabell), and the crowning glory - Festung Hohensalzburg (Salzburg Fortress) - which sits high atop the Monschberg Hill dominating views of the city.
After spending most of
Colourful vista
Schloss Mirabell, with the Festung Hohensalzburg in the background tuesday morning climbing both hills for the magnificent panoramas that extend all the way to the jagged peaks of the Alps, and then wandering through the old town and around the gardens of Schloss Mirabell, I then took a short bus ride out to another palace just outside the city centre (Schloss Hellbrünn), where I joined a guided tour of the Palace's 'trick fountains' - fountains that lie dormant until being set off manually by the tour guides, in order to soak unsuspecting tourists!
Clearly the guide for our group was a master of the art - in a group of about sixty people, I was the only one who didn't get wet! (Possibly because I couldn't understand a word he was saying, since it was an Italian and Spanish tour!) The palace itself was quite small, with just ten rooms; none of which were bedrooms since the building had been built by an arch-bishop (servant of god - my arse!) as a day retreat only, over two hundred years ago. After exploring the palace grounds, it was time to head back to the hostel for the evening, to plan my next few days in the nearby Salzkammergut Lakes.
Still waters
The Wolfgangsee at dusk Wednesday brought a change for the worse in the weather - which was most unfortunate considering I was headed to one of the most popular outdoor recreation areas in Austria! Nevertheless, my first glimpse of the Salzkammergut Lakes - after taking a bus just thirty kilometres east from Salzburg to the small lakeside town of St.Gilgen - was most impressive; with the surrounding mountains encircled by low-lying clouds for the duration of the day. Admittedly though, the ferry ride that I took to St.Wolfgang on the other side of the Wolfgangsee (lake) and back again - which was about all I really did for the whole day - would have been much nicer in sunlight.
And thankfully that's exactly what I woke up to on thursday for another early morning bus ride, this time from St.Gilgen to Bad Ischl - just a further twenty-five kilometres to the east. Having checked into my hostel straight away and gathered as much information as possible from the local tourist information office, I then caught a train north to the town of Ebensee on the shores of the Traunsee, from where I took a ferry to Gmunden, at the opposite end of
Waterfront setting
Aerial view of Gmunden from the Grünberg cable car the lake.
Once there I took a cable car to the top of the Grünberg - which offered a fantastic view of Gmunden stretched around the northern end of the Traunsee; before heading back down the mountain and taking another boat across to the other side of the lake, where a pair of castles (Schloss Ört) are connected by a wooden causeway on the edge of the lake. After stopping for a slice of rum-flavoured cake and a whisky-and-chocolate-flavoured ice cream, a final bus took me back to Bad Ischl for the night.
Friday I spent an hour or so strolling around the grounds of the Kaiservilla in Bad Ischl before jumping on a train to Obertraun - about twenty kilometres to the north - where I then had to walk for half-an-hour to reach the nearby Seilbahn cable car station. From there I took a cable car 750 metres up the Krippenstein mountain to the Dachstein Reiseneishöhle (Giant Ice Caves), where I did a guided tour (in German of course!) of the caves, which extend up to sixty kilometres inside the mountain and are beautifully lit up in some parts by the tour guide.
Next I
Natural ice sculpture
Strange formation in the Dachstein Reiseneishöhle took another cable car 750 metres further up to the summit of the mountain, where a row of lookout platforms known as the 'five fingers' extend out over a four hundred-metre-high cliff - offering an awesome view of the surrounding mountains and over the towns of Obertraun and Hallstatt on either side of the Hallstatter See, some one thousand, five hundred metres below!
Fifteen minutes and two cable cars later I was back at the base of the mountain, rushing to make the final boat of the day across the lake from Obertraun to Hallstatt, a town which is wedged in so tightly between the lake beside it and the mountain above it - where salt has been mined for thousands of years - that an annual religious procession through the town takes place mostly on small boats on the lake!
Once there I checked into the guesthouse I had booked, and found that I had a fourteen-bed dormitory all to myself - and for only twelve euros! So after splashing out another fifteen euros on a delicious meal of Veal Cordon Bleu and a nice, cold beer from the guesthouse, I went for a walk up to
Picture perfect
View of the Hallstatter See from Obertraun the waterfall that drops down the mountain high above the town; enjoying not only the view of the small town with the lake behind it, but also the sound of a brass band putting on a concert for the people of the town in the main square!
Saturday promised to be a long day - and that's exactly how it turned out! Up at half-past-seven, I was on a ferry back across the lake to Hallstatt train station by eight o'clock, before taking a train to Bad Aussee, and then switching to a bus to Stainach-Irdning. From there I could have taken a four-hour train ride straight to Innsbruck - but of course that would have been too easy! So instead I got off halfway at a town called Zell am See, then caught a local train that would only take me as far as Mittersill, before having to once again switch to a bus for the rest of the trip to Krimml; where the highest waterfall in Europe is located.
After walking to the base of the lower falls (with a height of about sixty metres), it took half-an-hour to reach the middle falls (about forty metres
in height) - at which point I decided I would only have enough time to make it to the base of the upper falls (about seventy metres in height) rather than going all the way to the top. That was until I saw the platform at the very top hovering above the crest of the falls, at which point turning back simply wasn't an option! So on I marched for another twenty minutes before finally making it to the top for the unforgettable view of... well... clouds, to be perfectly honest! In fact the clouds were so thick I couldn't even see the bottom of the upper falls from the top; while walking up it was hard to tell if I was getting wet from the rain, the cloud, or the spray from the waterfall!
So after snapping a couple of photographs of myself from the top - since I couldn't see anything else - I headed back down to the town of Krimml, only to find I had to wait for a whole hour for the next bus back to Mittersill. And although there was a train waiting for us at the station, by the time it got
Crashing cascade
Krimmler Wasserfälle's lower falls back to Zell am See the next inter-city train to Innsbruck had just left - meaning I had to wait around for another two hours for the next one, and phone my hostel in Innsbruck to let them know I wouldn't be arriving until eleven o'clock at night! And all of that just to climb to the top of the Krimmler Wasserfälle - an ascent of about four hundred metres in all - where all I could see were clouds...!
Naturally after such a long day, sunday brought a much-needed sleep-in; and when I did wake up I was greeted by a most unexpected clear, blue sky. But though it may have been a beautiful day for a walk, there was definitely no need to take two hours to make it from the hostel into the centre of Innsbruck - a walk that had only taken me half-an-hour the night before - after I headed in completely the wrong direction... repeatedly! Eventually though I did make it to the old town where the most well-known landmark is the Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof), which was built from 2657 gilded copper tiles for Emperor Maximilian I.
Later I caught the
Zoo with a view
View of Innsbruck from the Alpenzoo Seilbahn (sort of a cross between a train and a cable car) across the River Inn and up the hillside to the Alpenzoo for a look at some of the native animals that live in the Alps - such as brown bears, wolves, ibex, lynx, and the undisputed star of the show: an otter who would swim around on his back resting his hands on his belly while checking out everyone in the crowd!
And so, having finally found a decent internet cafe (where I've now spent the last five hours) to upload my latest photos and update you all on my progress, it's time to head back to the hostel for what should be my final night in Austria... provided the new mastercard that I have first had sent over from Australia, and then forwarded on from Kathi in Graz, makes it to me sometime tomorrow!
Unfortunately though, now that I am down to my last fifteen hundred dollars, I have no choice but to make this the final week of my travels; before starting the agonizing search for work in a country where I don't even speak the native language! (Though whether that will be in
Urban scene with an alpine setting
Monument in Innsbruck's main square Germany or Norway I have yet to decide). So after spending the coming week in Switzerland - which I've intentionally saved until last - the next time you hear from me will possibly be the last for a while. Here's to a great final week in Switzerland...
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