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 th
e 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, scra
mbled 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 th
e 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. 
e 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, scra
mbled 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 th
e 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. 
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