Accidental Mountaineers- Salzburg, Day Three

On our third and final day in Salzburg we decided to venture a little bit out of the city to take a cable car ride up the mountain Untersberg (Luckily Liz let us take the cable car instead of trying to make us hike again) and then to visit the Salzburg Zoo on our way back to the train station.

When we got to the base of Untersberg I was terrified. We had read in our pamphlet that we could take a cable car up this mountain but unfortunately there were no photos of this “cable car” or mountain. I was imagining something like the cable car that we didn’t take up the Soellereck. That cable car had seats for everyone and it was only about 20 feet off of the nice grassy mountain. This cable car went vertically up a very, very, very steep 6,000 foot high mountain. It also had no seats and the operators just crammed everyone waiting in line (about 25 of us) in the one car because it only ran every 30 minutes.

Part way up the mountain but we still had the giant cliff ahead of us to go over.

Even though the ride was terrifying the view was really beautiful.

In retrospect I was I had taken more pictures but I don’t think they would have turned out because my hands were shaking the whole ride up. Liz did shoot a very entertaining video of the ride to the top of the mountain that may eventually end up being posted here once I figure out how to edit out all of the inappropriate language.

The other thing that we had imagined wrong was that this cable car was just going to take us up and then bring us back down without ever stopping but no, it dropped us off in our flip flops & Jack Rogers at the top of this giant mountain on a gravel hiking path were everyone else around us had firewood and tents packed in their backpacks.

 Just your average mountain hiking footware…

Hanging out at the top of the mountain!

After taking a few pictures we got in line to take the next cable car back down and for whatever reason the ride down really wasn’t that bad and clearly we both lived to tell about the whole experience.

Once we were firmly on solid, flat land we hopped back on the bus & headed for the zoo. We almost missed our stop but luckily we were able to jump off in time and then spent and hour wandering around the zoo looking at all of the animals.

Liz got really excited that they had Rhinos because they’re her favorite animal.

After exploring the zoo for over an hour we hopped on a bus to catch our train home. Despite accidently ending up on the top of a mountain all in all Liz & I had a fantastic time in Salzburg. It’s such a beautiful, historical city that has so much to offer! We wish that we had had more time to spend exploring the city but who know, maybe one day we really will move there!

Sound of Music Tour & Salzburg, Day Two

We woke up Monday morning so excited for the Sound of Music Tour we quickly got ready, headed downstairs, grabbed breakfast and waited for the tour to pick us up.

When we got on the bus there was enough room for both Liz & I to have window seats, which was great. We had a fantastic tour guide who was from Seattle and absolutely loved the Sound of Music.  She took us on a four hour tour all through Salzburg and it’s countryside to show us where everything was filmed. She also played the movie soundtrack on the bus the entire time and highly encouraged everyone to sing along. Liz didn’t but I did and our tour guide was very impressed that I knew all of the words to all of the songs…

At the lake and palace that was used for the VonTrapp’s backyard.  The actual house was in a totally different part of Salzburg

In front of the gazebo! Unfortunately the city keeps it locked now because so many people have fallen and hurt themselves while dancing around it so I wasn’t able to go inside and play Liesl.

The Abby where Maria lived!

The VonTrapp House! It’s used as dorms now for a conservatory so we weren’t able to stop and take pictures.

Liz & I in the village just outside of Salzburg where the wedding church is!

       

    

The wedding church! Unlike in the movie it is not actually connected to the Abby, it’s really about a 30 minute drive outside of Salzburg.

Inside the church, near the alter. 

In the movie the made the church seem as big as Westminster Abby but actually it was really small, but still really beautiful.

Even though I had my little German hat for the tour I was a little sad that I didn’t have a dirndl to wear.  A dirndl is a traditional German dress that people still wear today, especially where we’re staying in the countryside. I’ve wanted to get one ever since we’ve gotten here but I’d held off since they can be a little expensive. I asked our tour guide if she knew of a good place where I could buy one because she seemed like the kind of lady who would know a good, inexpensive place to buy one and she was. She gave us directions to this small shop in Salzburg (that happened to be across the street from one of the Sound of Music locations so Liz & I were planning to go there anyways) that sold them for much cheaper than all of the other stores Liz & I had been looking in.

At the Horse Bath which happened to be in front of the dirndl shop.

We headed there after the tour and after trying a few on a found a beautiful blue one that was on sale that shortly became mine! I was so excited that I wore it out of the store!!

Me in my new dirndl!

After that we headed to the oldest part of the city to visit St. Peter’s Cathedral, which was beautiful. Once we got there we realized that we were right by the lift that would take us up to the old Hohensalzburg Fortress.

The beautiful dome in St. Peter’s

One of the pictures we took of the fortress while on the Sound of Music tour.

Ever since we go to Salzburg Liz & I had wanted to go up and explore the fortress so we were really excited to finally go up there. It was really cool once we got up and we had great views of the city. We walked all through the fortress and even found some cannons to play with.

Liz decided to ditch the Sound of Music themed day and pretend she was in Pirates of the Caribbean.

While walking through the fortress we kept seeing these really tall towers that we really wanted to climb and luckily for us there happened to be a tour of the fortress that included climbing the tallest tower!!

Our view of the city from on top of the tower.

Liz at the top of the world!

After that we grabbed dinner and then headed over to Café Mozart to try Mozart Cake. Liz had read about it online and apparently it’s one of the things that you have to eat when you visit Salzburg (which happens to be the birthplace of Mozart, we visited his house earlier in the day). However it turned out that this cake had some weird green filling in it and Liz had had the filling in a candy she had the day before and hadn’t like it  so in the end we opted to just have chocolate cake but it was delicious chocolate cake!

On our way to Café Mozart we came across the fountain Maria sang “I have Confidence” in front of so naturally we had to stop for a picture.

 At Café Mozart waiting for our chocolate cake which was a delicious end to a really fun and busy day! 

Salzburg, Day One

Two Sundays ago Liz & I headed to Salzburg for three days. Our boss knew that we wanted to go so she was nice enough to give us Sunday off that week and then last Monday & Tuesday off so that we would have three days to spend there because it takes about five hours by train to get there.

We left early Sunday morning, caught a train from here to Munich, and then we took a second train from Munich to Salzburg and got there around 2.

Before we had left for Salzburg Liz did a bunch of research on the city & what we should do while we were there. Clearly we were going to go on the Sound of Music Tour. It was my favorite movie growing up and that tour was the reason that I wanted to go to Salzburg. But since we had three days there we figured that it would be good to have other things to do too (Liz didn’t like my idea of taking the tour multiple times).

While doing her research she came across this thing called the Salzburg Card, which got us on all of the public transportation and into basically every museum and attraction in Salzburg.

On the train with our Salzburg Card!

Once we got to Salzburg we headed to our hostel to check in & drop off our bags. It was so easy to get to and we were pleasantly surprised when we got there because the whole place was basically brand new so it was really nice. After we checked in we locked up our bags and headed out with our Salzburg Cards and our lists of things to do and we went exploring!

We took the bus to Mirabellplatz (Mirabell Plaza), which is right in front of Mirabell Palace and Gardens. I was really excited to visit the Gardens because that’s where a lot of the Sound of Music was filmed!! The gardens were so pretty and naturally I made Liz take picture of me in front of everything that was in the Sound of Music.

 Liz with a unicorn on the “Do-Re-Mi” steps.

At one of the fountains Maria and the children ran around while singing “Do-Re’Me”.

In the tunnel that Maria and the children went through during “Do-Re-Mi”.

After we had fully explored the gardens we headed over the river to the old part of Salzburg. One of the attractions included on our card was a river cruise of Salzburg. When we crossed over the river we ended up being right by where the cruises left from so Liz & I decided to go on it. It was so pretty on the river and it was a really nice way to be introduced to the city!

Waiting for our cruise to start!

After that we grabbed dinner and just wandered around. It was past 7 by that point so all of the museums and historical sites were closed but we had a great time just wandering around. We ended up walking home along the river and by this point we had already fallen in love with Salzburg and were figuring out how to alter our life plans to fit in moving there. Across the river from us were these really big, grand, old houses so while walking back to our hostel we went through and picked out which ones we’re going to live in when we move there.

See that big pink house? That’s the one I picked out to live in.

By the time we got back to the hostel we were tired from our early morning and all of our walking so we went to bed early, especially since we were going on the Sound of Music Tour first thing the next morning so we needed to be well rested! 

Hike to Kleinwalsertal

I know it’s been a while since my last post, Liz & I have been very busy but I’m putting a couple of new posts up that should hopefully fill you in with what we’ve been up to. We have written three more post that will hopefully go up in the next day or two but the internet is being slow so please be patient! 

Two weeks ago we had Thursday off and we weren’t really sure what we wanted to do since it was only one day. One of the chefs suggested that we go for a hike over the Alps to the small Austrian town of Kleinwalsertal. His actual suggestion was to hike to the base of the Alp, take the cable car up part way and then hike the rest of the way into Kleinwalsertal and then take a bus home.

Liz decided that was silly and it would be best for us to hike all the way there, up and over the Alp and then hike all the way home…So we woke up bright and early  Thursday, packed a bunch of snacks and started out on what we thought was going to be about a 15 mile hike.

 In my hiking outfit  with enough supplies packed for us to live off for a 

few days if we had gotten lost.

Also I should mention that we didn’t have a map with us, or even real directions. We only had hand written directions from the chef saying to walk to Obermaiselstein, then to Tiefenbach, then to Kornau, the up Soellereck (the Alp) and then down into Kleinwalsertal. Remarkably we made it all the way to Austria & back with just those five lines and we never got lost once.

Just outside of Obermaiselstein, happy that we were heading the right way towards Tiefenbach.

Further along in our hike when were got confused because there were no signs telling us which way to go…

After hiking for about two hours we were almost to Kornau. Liz got a little worried we were walking the wrong way so she stopped and asked for directions (in perfect German) and the lady told us that we were going the right way and our turn was just up ahead.

Almost to Kornau!

It took us almost three hours to hike to the base of the mountain. We took a five-minute break, ate some of the snacks we brought and then continued on our hike. About three minutes later we were ready to turn around and head home. Neither of us was quite expecting the mountain to be so steep. It took an hour of hard, continuous hiking for us to reach the top.  We were exhausted when we got to the top but so happy, relieved and proud of ourselves for making it!

Taking a stretch break partway up the mountain.

This part might not look that steep but trust us it was.

We were so high that we were literally up in the clouds and it got so foggy it was hard to see more than five feet ahead of ourselves.

The sad part was that even though we had made it to the top of the mountain we still had to hike to Austria and then down into Kleinwalsertal. Once we started out though we realized it wasn’t that bad, since we were at the top of the mountain it was fairly flat and since we were so high up, about 6,000 feet, we had a beautiful view for miles around us.

At the Austrian border!

Four and a half hours after we started on our hike we finally made it to Klienwalsertal! After a victory high-five and a bathroom break we turned around and started the hike home.

The view of Klienwalsertal!

I made friends with some cows we met along the way.

Liz at the top of the Alp!

We were both really excited to walk down the mountain. We thought it would be a nice, easy walk but it wasn’t. It was almost harder walking down than walking up. Partway down though we realized it was easier if we ran so we started a light jog down the Alp.

Just going for a jog because she was worried we hadn’t had enough exercise for the day.

The hike back was fairly uneventful, it looked almost exactly like the hike there. When we started out on the hike it had been fairly cloudy but halfway through the day the sun came out and so everything just looked so much prettier on the way back!

Per usual mine & Liz’s greatest concern was dinner and so we were extremely happy when we made it back just time in to eat! The hike to Kleinwalsertal ended up being 25 miles and took us just over 9 hours to complete but we’re so happy that we hiked the whole thing. It was really, really painful at times but now we can officially say that we’ve hiked over an Alp into another country. Just call us the Von Trapps!  

The directions that got us all the way to Austria and back! 

Munich

Liz & I in the gardens at the Nymphenburg Palace

We had this past Thursday & Friday off from work so Liz & I decided to brave the trains and head to Munich for two days. We woke up Thursday morning & headed downstairs to grab some breakfast for our trip. When we got to the kitchen we were thrilled to find that Herr Martin (the South African chef) was in the kitchen. He helped us pack a large breakfast and also gave us snacks for later so we head out on our walk to the train station very happy. 

As we were walking away from the hotel we heard a car behind us and it was Katrin driving her daughter to school. She offered us a ride to the train station & we happily took her up on the offer. Once we got to the station she took us to the ticket machine and helped us buy our tickets. We had looked everything up online the night before & thought we knew what we were doing but Katrin surprised us by telling us about a special ticket that would take us to Munich & also let us use all of the buses, trains and trams in Munich. We only needed one ticket for the two of us and it ended up being less for that ticket than what one individual ticket would have been!!

When we got to Munich we checked into our hostel, grabbed a city map and headed out to find the Hofbrauhaus for lunch. I'd gone to the one in Pittsburgh this past winter but I was really excited to go to the original one! After two train stops and a bit of wandering we finally found it! 

 By the time we got there we were so hungry that we didn't get picture of our food, but it was absolutely delicious! After lunch we did have any plans so we just wandered around the city for a few hours. 

 We visited the clock tower at the center of Munich 

After that we headed over to St. Peter's church which was absolutely beautiful!

When we were done exploring the city center we hopped on the train and then a tram and headed over to Nymphenburg Palace. The palace was about to close so we didn't go inside but we did spend almost two hours walking through it's grounds. 

 Liz found some swans out front and pretended that she was the Swan Princess! 

 The palace, which Liz & I have decided to live in!

 In the back they have a really expansive botanical garden including a dozen or 

so green housed with plants from all over the world!

 I really liked the pink bonsai tree but they were all really pretty!

 After exploring the palace we took the tram & train back to the city center to grab a late

 dinner where Liz finally got the plain cheeseburger she'd been wanting since we got here. 

Our room in the hostel

After dinner we headed back to the hostel to get our room. We founded out that we had been overbooked so we were upgraded to a four person room which was a nice surprise! Even though it was only about 9:30 pm by the time we got back we were so exhausted that we went straight to bed and slept for about 11 hours.

The next morning we got up, grabbed breakfast and the hostel and then headed out to take a tour of Dachau which took up most of our second day but was totally worth it. After the tour we headed back to the main train station to grab our train home. 

We ended up having to transfer train in Kempten again which is where we got lost the last time and ended up in Lindau instead of Oberstdorf. We double checked which platform we need to be on to make sure that we didn't get lost again. When we got to our platform we saw this....

According to the sign on the platform the trains to both Lindau & Oberstdorf were leaving at the exact same time form the exact same platform. I quickly went back on my camera and watched the video from the last time Liz & I were in Kempten and sure enough there was the exact same sign on the platform that day. 

Realizing this made us both feel much better about our train navigation skills and we were then confident that we would get on the right train when it came. Once the train came and we realized how it worked I was throughly annoyed. Only one train comes to Kempten but halfway through it's trip to Lindau/ Oberstdorf it literally breaks in half with half going one way and half going the other way. On the way home from Kempten the first time Liz & I had literally done everything right except that we got on the wrong half of the right train...

We made sure to get on the right half this time and made it home without any problems! Our next two days off aren't in a row so we're probably going to stay close to the hotel and just do some short day trips. While talking to Herr Martin this morning he told us about a path that we can take to hike through the Alps over to Austria! If the weather is nice we're probably going to go on Thursday. No matter what we do everything here is so nice I'm sure we'll have fun!