Oh When The Saints...

The Sound of Music - Austrian Alps

From Munchen we headed to Austria on the train. We were organized and knew we had to be up for an early breakfast to get our train. The benefit of this is we would arrive in St Johann in Tirol before midday. The train turned out to be delayed, but not too bad so our connection was still fine. We are now carrying so much stuff that we nearly didn’t get off the train quick enough, with it almost leaving while we still struggled out the doors with our tent and bed rolls, as well as everything else!
In town we had to find accommodation as we had not pre booked. It is a small place, so no big hostels or hotels, just small private pensions. The information centre was closed, but still helpful, outside was a board listing all the pensions in town and a phone to use to call them free of charge. We didn’t look too hard, in fact we chose the first and only one we called, Pension Edelweisshof. While a little bit more pricey than what we had hoped to pay it was worth it. For an extra 4euro per night it included a 3 course dinner. We had hoped to spend the afternoon doing a short walk somewhere, however the weather had turned and it poured rain for most of the night. Instead we relaxed in the pension, went for a walk around town with an umbrella and thought about heading to the local swimming pool, although never made it. Our dinner was great, homemade pumpkin soup with pumpkin oil on it, chicken pasta and fruit salad.
We were up early for breakfast and then headed back to the tourist information for a guided hike. This started at 9am and was for 3-4 hours. The weather was still not great but cleared slightly as the day went on. From town we walked through a valley and then up into the hills to a waterfall. The whole area is ski fields in winter so it was interesting to see it in summer. On the way back the guide even pointed out a white bear, although Christine wasn’t overly impressed!

After the tour Christine spent some time shopping in town and ended up buying another pair of jeans. With that out of the way we were in the clear to continue being tourists. We took a cable car from town up to the Bergstation Harschbichl (1700m).

From here we had two choices, walk up to the Kitzbuheler Horn (2000m) or walk down, stopping at Stanglalm for Apfel Strudel. You guessed it, it was way too cloudy to go any higher! The guide this morning had recommended two places for their strudel, one being the best in town and the other being the best in the area. The walk was all down, through ski runs and forest, with some nice views of the town and valley below. The strudel was amazing, warm, spicy with brandy sauce, well worth sacrificing a hike up a cold mountain. After strudel we waddled back down along the paths into town.
It was almost 5pm, so we had an hour and a half to kill until dinner. We headed for the local Brauerei (brewery). As far as the brewery went we were a bit unimpressed, it really was just a bar and restaurant. As far as a bar and restaurant goes, we were well impressed! Its on the 5th floor of the building, making it one of the highest places in town (except for the church) and had views in every direction. The beer was good also, very good. There were about 8 on tap, but no sampler plates, so we just had to drink big beers. We had the Dunkel (dark), Augustinus (very good, similar style to Samuel Adams) as well as dark and light Weissbier. On the way home we stopped to pick up some travelers and then sat down to enjoy our dinner which tonight was a salad with deep fried mushrooms, ham steaks and veggies and cake for dessert. Still not done for the day we grabbed our biers and headed into town, where the local band was playing their weekly performance in the main square. It had about 30 instruments and a few singers and amongst more traditional music they played ‘Oh When The Saints Go Marching In’ and a few Joe Cocker numbers.
After an entertaining night we let ourselves sleep in a bit longer the next morning, had our breakfast and headed to the train station. There was no rush today as we didn’t have far to go, Zell am See, still in the alps. Zell am See is on a lake, so we caught the bus from town to the campground where we set up our tent.
The weather was ok, but not great. We walked into town along the lake which took about half an hour. After a coffee break, we headed to the supermarket for our bbq dinner. We then did what we missed out on in St Johann, and went to the swimming pool. It seems in Austria that when you check in at a hotel/campsite they give you a visitors card that gets you free entry to the local pool. This turned out to be quite fun, despite the pool being very busy. There were diving boards so we watched as many people unsuccessfully attempted to dive, and a water slide that timed how long it took top to bottom. Christine managed to be about a second quicker, with a best time of just over 10 seconds.
The campground has a bbq, so we bought a bag of coals and had chicken and veggies on the grill for dinner. We didn’t even need to light it, although we had to wait while someone else did! Luckily, after our dinner, it started to rain and didn’t stop until about lunchtime. It did give us a chance to sleep in and eat breakfast in the tent.
Once the rain had stopped we walked along the lake back into town. From the back of town we took a cable car up to the top of a mountain called Schmittenhohe (2000m). The peak had nice views over the mountains and ski runs and also looked back over the town and lake below. It was cloudy, but we still had a nice view. After a coffee and strudel at the top, for energy, we embarked on our walk back to town. It was a nice walk, all downhill, with bit of a sculpture trail, there were many carved animals along the way. We were in no rush, so the 4hr walk ended up taking a bit longer. Our biggest ‘delay’ was an amazing stop in the back of the town. We were walking along the road and came up to 3 guys (one an older guy with huge beard and wearing traditional lederhosen) sitting out the front of their house having a beer. One of them recognized us from the mountain, he had just been out on his mountain bike. They offered us a beer, which we gladly accepted after our long walk. They took us into their ‘converted garage’ to get this, and we felt that the older guy (Fritz, who didn’t speak English) was keen to show us something. We soon found out what it was, what looked like the garage and tool shed, had actually been converted into a homemade brewery and lumberjack museum. We found out from the younger guy (Fritz’s son, who spoke English), that Fritz and Fritz’s father had both been lumberjacks. Fritz had collected various old saw’s which hung on the walls, one was even a primitive 2000 year old blade. The other collection was beer steins, which hung all around the room and on the roof. There were hundreds of steins from all around the world, we could have sat in there for hours just looking at them all. The next room was like a small tool shed, which had his bar and brewery, which was quite large by home brew standards. After our first beer, which was from one of the bigger local brewery’s, Fritz opened one of his home brew’s, and it was a really nice beer, not even tasting like home brew, if you know what I mean. It was a bit cloudy, very smooth, delicious! The front of the house is covered in grape vines and hops plants which he grows and uses in his brews. Next he showed us the backyard, which was amazing just for the view over the town and lake. But that was not all of course, the yard had a massive wood fire oven (not lit unfortunately), which he family use for grill and roasting meats, cooking pizza and homemade bread. Fritz was very happy with how excited we were by his oven, since we want to have one in our yard one day. There was an Edelweiss flower growing in a pot, which we didn’t realize at the time, but is the Austrian national flower and very rare as it only grows in high altitude. The yard also had an old lumberjack’s tent set up. This looked a bit like a tee-pee in shape and the interior had a straw bed and more tools and equipment inside it. On the way back through the first room Fritz showed us a trophy cabinet with all the awards he has won for his beard, which was very impressive! He had trophy’s from the Austrian, German, European and World beard contests as well as the Beard Olympics. There were also photos of Fritz wearing his lederhosen in different countries, including riding a camel in Egypt. After our beers we got going again, although I’m sure that they would have poured another one if they had half a chance. This was one of the most amazing little experiences we have had on our travels! After our long day we headed back to the campsite, cooked another bbq, which we had to light tonight. It was pretty dark and late by the time we actually got to eat. The next morning we woke to find that there was barely a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining. We had some nice views of the lake as well as the Kitzsteinhorn (3029m), which is the largest mountain in the Salzburg region, and our destination for the day.
From the campground we were able to take the bus all the way to Kaprun, the town where the cable car to the top departs from. It was actually a series of three cable cars to get to the summit. It was a bit surreal, but as we were going up, we were joined by people with skis. The top of the summit is a glacier which can be skied on all year round. While the ski run wasn’t very long and was very icy, it was still interesting to see. At the top there was a cinema with a short video of the summit and some of the wildlife in the area, mainly a hawk. There was a few viewing platforms as well as a long tunnel through the mountain which had some museum exhibits. There was a short toboggan run on the snow as well, although we weren’t dressed for the snow. We took the first cable car back down and then went for a short walk across the mountain to a lake. We had hoped the lake might be a bright emerald colour, but it wasn’t, rather a dark green in fact. After a few more photos we took fought the crowds of muslims to get on a gondola back down. Its amazing how pushy and rude these people are! We were in line and whole families (with 6-10 kids) would push past to get to the front of the line. It is the one thing we didn’t expect, but Zell am See is full of Muslim tourists. This made us even happier to be slightly out of the town in the friendly campground!
That said we did hang around Zell am See for a coffee and strudel as well as bit of a look at the town, which is nice, small but a bit touristy. Then we headed back to camp for yet another wonderful bbq. The next morning we were up pretty early, packed up our tent and headed to the train station headed to Salzburg, via Werfen.
Much of our journey through the alps was in the general direction of Werfen, as this is where the Ice Caves are. Unfortunately when we visited the caves as a day trip from Salzburg two weeks ago, Christine was ill and didn’t come along. So today we returned so that she could do a cave tour. We had thought that Damien would have to wait with the bags at the station, however the lovely girl working I the station let us store our packs for the afternoon. This meant that while Christine was up in the mountains climbing in ice caves, Damien had some leisure time, walking along the river sitting beside the river, climbing up to a nearby castle and visiting the town of Werfen for coffee and strudel.
The caves are amazing and Christine did enjoyed the tour. It was a much clearer day than when Mel and Damien visited so the mountains and valleys looked quite different. After her tour we continued on the train to Salzburg. The hostel we were staying at had heaps of school camps staying there this week, so they upgraded our stay from a dorm to a private hotel room in their other building.
Being a nice evening in Salzburg we headed straight out for a look around the old town. We walked around the back of the big palace on the hill, the Salzburg Dom and Mozart Square. The old town is really lovely with small cobbled streets, big open squares and heaps of statues and sculptures. After our walk around we had dinner in one of the squares, enjoying a schnitzel and mixed grill before returning to the hostel. We were back at the hostel a bit after 9pm, with business to attend to. We watched a movie called The Sound of Music. Now Christine had seen this and Damien recognized parts of it, but it’s a story about singing and goes for 3hrs! It was actually quite cool to watch it as it was filmed in Salzburg and we were able to recognize a lot of the scenes from our walk around town this evening. But the main reason we were watching the movie tonight, is that tomorrow we have a guided Sound of Music tour… The next morning we were up early for our big buffet breakfast before being collected from the hostel for our tour. After a few more pick ups in the old town we were all together and heading out of town. The tour was good but not great, but some of the scenery was lovely and we both enjoyed it. Our guide was Austrian and very friendly, and gave Damien a free beer since it was his birthday (tomorrow anyway). The first bit was a bit of a drive, with a few views of the castle from some distance and the railway station where they departed Austria in real life. The guide was good at differentiating the differences between the movie and the true story. For instance the real story they fled on a train, the oldest 2 kids were boys and the nanny was only for the youngest daughter who was sick. Also the nanny was 25 years younger than the father. But generally speaking the story in real life was pretty close to the film. The stops included the tree lined lane from the start of the film where the nanny is singing and dancing on her way to meet the family, the pavilion where they dance in the garden, the house used in the film (not the actual house), the lane where the kids climbed in the trees and the church they got married in. The pavilion was funny, the inside in the movie is actually a studio, and much larger than the actual pavilion. Also this is now locked, as some old tourist was dancing in there, fell and broke her hip, ruining it for everyone! The house in the film is different colours at the front and the back, the reason for this is that they actually used two different houses for filming. The tour did involve some nice driving through the alps and past some nice blue lakes, which was possibly the nicest part of the whole tour.
Back in town we had a look at the Mirabell Gardens, which of course was also used in the film, before catching the bus out to Hellbrunn Palace and gardens. Christine opted for a nap in the gardens while Damien visited the palace and ‘trick’ fountains. These were really cool, especially on a nice and sunny day! The palace had was still furnished and had many old paintings. The gardens were where the Prince Archbishop would entertain his guests. It is basically a beautiful manicured garden with outdoor seating, grotto’s and sculptures. However when you sit at the table, with a flick of the switch fountains shoot out of the table, walls and even the seat, drenching the guests. This continued throughout the tour of the gardens, with fountains springing from the most surprising parts including the paths, stairs and statues. Everything in the garden is gravity fed, no pumps, including the mechanical theater which had hundreds of moving wooden figurines. Still not done for the day we headed back to town and had some nice views crossing the river and climbing the hill on the other side of town. The aim of doing this was to find the Augustiner Braustubl, a brew house and beer garden. While we didn’t go the most direct way, we did get there eventually. The beer was really good, and easy to chose what to drink, there was only one beer. It was brewed by monks with fresh Austrian spring water, mmm… The garden was busy on a warm evening and the beer hall empty, but very traditional looking. As the night progressed we drank big steins, got talking to some locals and Christine even made friends with an Airedale Terrier. In the morning we weren’t feeling the best but had to check out early. It was pouring rain, so we rested on the hostel couches for a few hours while waiting for the rain to subside. Its Damien’s birthday, so we got to chat to a few people on skype. Then it was off to the train station headed for Vienna.

Munich Surf Videos

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Munchen and Southside Festival 2011!!!

Its hard not to smile when you are in Munchen! Almost instantly it has become one of our favourite cities. We were in a nice hostel (called Wombats), with free beer on arrival. Walking through the streets you see a combination of drunk tourists, girls wearing the traditional (now touristy) drindle and old German men in lederhosen. The city itself is a nice small size, completely rebuilt after the war and looks stunning.
After dropping our bags at the hostel we headed out to dinner, opting for a plain option with Christine still being conservative with what she ate, we had some average Chinese. After dinner we headed to the one and only, Hofbrauhaus. This is the most famous of the beer halls, and the place where Hitler first found his political voice. We enjoyed some steins and the oompah bands music until the beer hall closed around midnight. We were up early the next morning for a big day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle. To save a few euros each we took public transport rather than a tour bus, which was a long journey. When we arrived we walked up to the castle for a guided tour of the interior. The castle was built by King Ludwig II on a rock in the mountains. It looks like a castle from a fairytale, and is supposedly the castle that Walt Disney based his castle on. It is surrounded by a gorge, waterfall and three lakes. The tour was crowded and rushed however the inside was amazing. Only 16 of the 100 something rooms were completed, it is completely decadent with mosaic floors paintings on the walls and roof, brass statues, gold leaf lining, massive chandeliers’, even a man made cave and winter garden with views. It was never completed asLudwig was declared insane and removed from the throne, and subsequently ‘drowned’, bit of a cover up, as the bullet holes in his back were never investigated. After the journey back to Munchen we ventured down the road to the Augustiner Keller and ate dinner in the beer garden. Traditional German food and beer in an outdoor beer garden on a warm evening, does it get any better than this! Thursday was T-day, (Tent day), as we had been putting this off every day since we met Mel, and tonight we were camping! The lovely staff at the hostel gave us a list of stores that might have a tent for us. This turned out to be a pretty easy task and we were able to combine the shopping with a bit of a scenic city walk which included seeing the Marienplatz which is the gothic style town hall with the world famous Glockenspiel which plays music for 15 minutes, has moving figurines and a cuckoo at the end. We found a tent, had some lunch, the girls on an impulse bought traditional dirndl dresses and then explored the market stalls near the main square. As much as we wanted to stay in Munchen, by 4 pm we really had to get moving. We had to head to the festival campsite, we thought this would take 4 hours, however at this time of day it was more indirect and with delays for connecting trains the journey ended up taking about 7 hours. After taking 4 trains and a shuttle bus we arrived at the campsite, found some space to set up our tent and went for it. After a few ‘practices’ we managed to get it up, had a drink to celebrate and then hit the sack. The sun was out the next morning and our tent got hot quickly. After bread rolls and scrambled eggs for breakfast we had a walk around the campsite and tried to buy some gum boots from the store (sold out), as bad weather was forecast. There were more deliveries later in the afternoon so we did manage to get some on the way to the music. The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the warm sun, the first bands didn’t start until 4pm. The girls bought festival t-shirts but Damien missed out, the first store didn’t have his size and then the girls didn’t want to wait while we checked the other stalls, bummer!
The first bad we wanted to see was Flogging Molly, an Irish band that combine rock with traditional Irish music. Despite being on at about 6pm there was a big crowd and they really impressed. Bloody Irish, bought the weather with them, almost as soon as they started the rain began and didn’t stop for the rest of the night. Already cold and wet Damien seeked the shelter of the white stage (a big tent), which happened to have a circus performing, random but interesting. The girls headed in the opposite direction into the rain. Damien eventually found someone handing out poncho’s, so grabbed a handful and set off in search of the girls, but the big crowds and everyone looked the same, wet and wearing ponchos meant we never caught up. The rest of the evening saw bands such as The Hives, The Wombats and Arctic Monkeys who I was looking forward to seeing. The highlight of the night, and the festival was definitely the Foo Fighters who closed the first night. They played an amazing 2 hour set that covered everything from some of their very first songs (Monkey Wrench, My Hero, Stacked Actors and Everlong) through to the material on their new album. Being there early I had a good spot in the middle of the stage but behind a barrier so probably 20m back. The rain didn’t stop, in fact it got worse, torrential! But the band kept playing and the crowd kept partying and sounded amazing when everyone was singing along to some of the more popular songs. I’ve seen the Foo Fighters a few times now, and they always seem to blow you away, but I guess that is what makes them one of the best bands in the world! The walk back to the tent was fun, slushy mud everywhere and the weather had flipped a lot of the tents and campsites. A little worried about our cheap tent, but when we got back everything was fine. We had an enforced sleep in the next morning, as it was still raining and we had nowhere else to go. Also we didn’t want to head out and get wet too early. Other than to get coffee and visit the Toi Toi, we stayed in the tent until about 4pm. This didn’t worry us too much, everyone is pretty tired and there weren’t any bands we wanted to see playing during the day. Even once we did head to the stages we just watched a few small bands and had some dinner. Two of the stages are in big tents so we were able to stay dry while watching these. As the night went on we saw Elbow, The Kills, GlasVegas and Jimmy Eat World. The highlight was definitely Portishead who were really good and sounded amazing. The evening finished with Arcade Fire who had about 9 people on stage and all rotated instruments (violins, keyboards etc.) and the Chemical Brothers. The final day of the festival also had a really good line up, too good in fact, as several bands we wanted to see were on at the same times. We were up early to see Cloud Control at 11am, an Aussie band we think. Unfortunately, we went to the wrong stage and missed all but their last song. We saw The Vaccines and Sick Puppies and got some lunch before returning to the tent. Part of the ticket price included a 5 euro rubbish deposit, so to collect this we filled up a garbage bag of rubbish and took it to the collection point. This was very easy, as the wind was gale force and it looked like another storm was coming, so many people were giving up and heading home. One of the bags we filled with a tent that someone had left behind! Damien tied down our tent with some more ropes as it was flapping around in the wind. We set up a lounge room outside our tent with things other people had left behind, we now have carpet and four chairs! We enjoyed a few drinks in our lounge before heading back to the stages. We saw Two Door Cinema Club who are from Netherlands they are fairly new band but we enjoyed their music, everyone at the festival has been really good! We then headed into the ‘D barrier’, which means you can get right to the front, a few meters from the stage. The last two bands of the festival were My Chemical Romance and another of our favorites’, Incubus! We have seen Incubus before but had seats at the back of the stands, so to be 2 meters from the stage was incredible. This was also a really good set with them only playing a few new songs and quite a lot of older stuff. Sadly this was the last band and tonight we had missed Gogol Bordello (German), Kasabian, Kaiser Chiefs, Parkway Drive, Sick of it all and Sum 41. That’s the nature of a festival I suppose, you can’t see everyone! Monday morning and the festival was over. It’s now been 5 days since we showered (Thursday morning), and we have been in the rain and mud having a great time! We packed up our tent, said good bye to our lounge room and headed to the shuttle bus, which we had to wait about an hour in line for. Sadly we had to say goodbye to Mel at the train station as she was heading to Stuttgart for her flight to London. Thanks for travelling with us Mel and especially thanks for organizing everything! We were returning to Munchen which we hoped would be quicker than last time, at least it was only 2 trains this time. However due to delays and missed connections it was still 8pm before we got to Munchen. Wanting something different to eat we went to a Thai restaurant that the hostel recommended and it was brilliant, hot red curry and a Vietnamese beef salad, one of the best Asian feeds we have had since China.
The next two days we spent back in Munchen. Part of this time was spent cleaning (ourselves and our possessions) and part of this time was spent thinking about what we were going to do for the next 10 days. The first day we did the New Europe walking tour with Kurt our excellent guide. He had his son along with him with his foot in a cast as he has just broken his foot. Unlike some scripted tours this was a lot of his own research and focused a lot on the history of events and specifically the people involved. Being a walking tour we obviously saw all the sites, but the commentary was far more interesting than just hearing the name of a building or how old it is. We have done a handful of these tours in different cities and most of them have been brilliant (Paris excluded). After the tour the group had lunch in a restaurant and a couple of beers, Christine also arranged to meet a few people at the Hofbrauhaus later that night. We went for a bit more of a walk in the city and then through the big park in the city. This had a really cool wave in the river where surfers could basically surf on the spot, after watching this for a while we continued through the park to the Chinese Tower bier garten, for a beer. We planned on walking back to the Hofbrauhaus, but went the wrong way, so ended up catching the train and arriving a bit late. We still had a couple of hours before it closed. We had a great night drinking in the beer hall with a few Brazilians’, Americans, Germans and the token Aussie (can’t get away from them!). Our next day in Munchen, we again had a slow start to organize ourselves a bit, and then headed to the main square to join the New Europe Dachau tour. Having given a big rap the day before, naturally something would go wrong, the guide was ‘sick’ so the tour wouldn’t run today! Luckily we found a similar tour that left slightly later. This trip was only an hour from Munchen and having a guide was very helpful. Dachau is a concentration camp that was open for 12 years from 1933. It was a labour camp, predominantly used as a prison for political opponents. It was the first concentration camp, opened only 2 months after the Nazi’s took power and was used as the model for many of the other camps later set up. Having a guide was excellent as he knew where to take us and was able to explain what the different buildings were and how it used to look. The site has a museum and video, guard towers, a recreated barrack (bunk room), crematorium and gas chamber (although never used). It’s a bit sad, but it was quite an interesting afternoon. Back in town we sorted out a few more things, including where our next destination might be, had a few beers at the hostel happy hour and then headed out for dinner, in the heavy rain. We headed to the Augustiner Braustuben (brewery). We had hoped to come here with Mel the other night but ended up in the Augustiner beer garden instead. This place is a short walk out of town, was full of locals, and some tourists and had cheap meals. Our waitress was friendly, which most of the staff haven’t been in the beer halls. She helped us order on the German menu, and also gave us the English menu. Damien had the mixed pan, roast pork, pork knuckle and roasted duck with potato and cabbage. Christine had a pork fillet with a creamy sauce and potato pasta that is a Bavarian specialty. The place was packed but we managed a couple of seats next to some Germans. We also spotted Kurt the tour guide from yesterday, so after we had some apfel strudel we joined them for a beer. A fitting way to end our Munchen experience, in a beer hall with a semi-local (originally from America) and a kiwi couple drinking dunkle bier (dark beer).

The Contiki Lifestyle!

We were up early on our last morning in Bled. Our next few days are going to be a whirlwind adventure taking us from Slovenia through Austria to our music festival in Germany. After a quick breakfast we packed our bags and headed down the street to a café for two important things. Firstly we all needed coffee, and secondly we still hadn’t tried the local pastry which was delicious. It is like a vanilla slice except on top of the custard is a layer of whipped cream. Feeling full, and slightly sick we jumped on a bus to Ljubljana. We had a few hours to kill here before our train to Salzburg in Austria, so Damien had a coffee and sat with the bags while the girls went for a look around town. It is a nice little city on a canal, unfortunately it started raining so our exploration of the city was short lived. After a healthy feed at McDonalds and some wifi time we headed to our platform, only just making it in time. The platform was further away than we realized, and the train left a few minutes early, but luckily we did, just, make it on time. The train ride to Salzburg was about 4hrs and not cheap as we hadn’t pre-booked any tickets. It was through some lovely countryside, mountains and alpine villages.
We arrived at our hostel in Salzburg about 8pm, dropped our bags and headed out for a short walk around the old town and to find some dinner. The hostel had made a recommendation for an Austrian restaurant which we thought we would try. Despite being on the right street, we found it hard to find, and once we did find it, it was closed. We did not realize, but this weekend is a long weekend in Austria, so many of the shops and restaurants were closed. We ended up finding an Italian restaurant nearby, which served both Austrian and Italian meals. Feeling slightly guilty we ordered pizza and pasta, not schnitzel on our first night in Austria! After dinner we headed home for a drink, we had found an unopened beer in the bar fridge, and guessed it must have been left by the last guest, how kind of them! Christine also bought a bottle of Honey Brandy the other day so we had a taste of this.
Unfortunately our decision to eat Italian in Austria came back to haunt Christine, bad travel karma! She spent the early hours of the morning in the bathroom and didn’t get much sleep. Thankfully the hostel was very understanding and didn’t charge us for a few extra hours for a late check out.
While Christine rested, Damien and Mel enjoyed a buffet breakfast at the hostel. This was amazing, scrambled eggs, cheese, ham, salami, fresh bread rolls, cereals, fruit, coffee and juice. We even managed to make a ham and cheese roll each for our lunch and took some raisin bread back to the room for Christine. After gorging ourselves we waddled out of the hostel, through Salzburg to the train station. Our plan for the day was to visit Eis Risen Welt, the world’s largest ice caves. This involved a train to a small village called Werfen, a short bus ride from the station and a gondola ride up a big mountain. There was also a bit of a walk up the mountain and a queue at the top to wait for the guided tour. The caves were amazing, there are no lights inside, I guess the heat would melt the ice (no photos either). Instead the tour leader carries magnesium wire which he ignites and gives off heaps of light. Some of the group were also given little lanterns to carry, Damien was excited when he was handed one of these! As we entered the cave there were strong gusts of wind apparently 50km/h, but in summer these can by up to 100km/h. These are caused by the cool air in the cave trying to get out to the warmer environment outside the cave. Inside the cave there were big rock caverns with ice flowing through them, some caverns would have been 60m long. The first half of the tour was climbing up the ice, on boardwalks and 700 stairs. This passed various stalactite and stalagmite formations that have naturally formed sculptures, apparently representing elephants and polar bears. The guide told us that the ice in some parts is 25m thick, and has been in the cave for about 2000 years. The caves were dark, but when lit up by the guide it looked amazing, whitish blue colours. On the way down we climbed through an ice tunnel which would have been about 1.5m high and 30m long. At a temperature of 0c, it was a really cool experience! After the tour we ate our hostel provided rolls for lunch and headed back down the mountain and to Salzburg. We rushed as much as we could, partially to get back to see how Christine was, and also because we still have to travel to Innsbruck tonight. On our way we headed through the old town and hoped to find something simple to take with us for dinner, however being a holiday everything seemed to be closed. Christine was tired, but ok thankfully. She had had a rest, watched a movie and surfed the net for a while. We grabbed our bags and headed back to the train station. We had an hour to kill when we arrived so optimistically Damien and Mel set off in search of food, that wasn’t McDonalds. After a few blocks it looked grim, until on our way back to the station we found a Turkish Bakery. When we walked in there was nothing on the shelves, ‘everything finished’, however they did tell us if we waited 5 minutes there would be some sesame rolls. We bought a few of these and jumped on the train, the rolls were delicious, fresh from the oven. It was bit of a late evening as the train didn’t arrive in Innsbruck until about 10pm. Our friend Mel is a supercharged traveler and in typical fashion she was up and out early today to do as much as she could in Innsbruck. Christine and I on the other hand opted for a bit more of a chilled morning, sleep in and slow breakfast. After check out we had a look around the old town of Innsbruck which was very nice but also full of tourists. The famous Goldenes Dachl is a roof made for the king with gold tiles. The Dom St Jakob was another beautiful old church and we saw a couple of music venues around town. The town is on a river which is water runoff from the surrounding mountains. We then walked along some nice pedestrian streets full of cafes and shops on our way to Bergiselstadion. This is an Olympic ski jump on a hill beside the town, which also has views of the town. We then had to rush back to the hotel grab our bags and catch a train to Munchen.