Hall (May 10-11)
As we drive towards Switzerland, we elected to leave Hallstatt and take the ‘scenic’ route towards Hall for an overnight stay. On our way through the very picturesque countryside, we stopped for lunch at Mittersill and the owner/waiter provided us with custom beer coolers. We then set out for hills and after stopping briefly at the Zum Krimmler Waterfall - where we paid 4 Euro for parking and then another 4 Euro to enter the national park to view the first of 3 falls (to hike up to the next 2 falls would have been a steep, long climb and taken over 2 hours - and I declared today a Boot-camp rest day).
The second part of our drive included a steep climb/descent and multiple hairpin turns on a narrow road with few guard rails, shared along with many cyclists and screaming motorcycles passing between the two lanes. I was glad Scott was driving, however being a passenger on those curves looking straight down was a bit unnerving. We figure we hit one of those multi-Austrian mountain ski resorts as we encountered chair lift after chair lift in the Gerlos Pass. The drive was kind of like the luge run but on 4 wheels J . We didn’t stop for too many pictures as we both were just concentrating on staying on the road.
By mid afternoon we arrived at our next destination - Hall, and checked into our accommodations for the night and discovered we had the world’s smallest balcony (30” wide by 2” deep) with a great view of the mountains. We then headed across the river into the medieval old town for a walk around, a stop in another church (Scott has lost count) called the St. Nicholas Parish Church where my picture of the pipe organ and funky saints turned out pretty good.
The next morning we got up early - after listening to the trains that passed through every 10-15 minutes all night - and went in search of someone to help us figure out what was wrong with our PC. Our hotel sent us to a store, who sent us to the tourist information, who sent us to an internet café, who then directed us to the University. After a bit of broken English, we were somehow escorted up to the faculty offices and met with some very nice system engineers that could not believe 2 tourists were standing outside their office. One guy brushed us off, but the second guy took a look at our PC and fortunately we had no virus, but some TC/IP address setting was incorrect. I am sure those guys are still talking about those stupid tourists… but our PC is now working again.
We then drove through Liechtenstein to Switzerland to arrive at Chur for a couple of nights. Tomorrow we are talking the Bernina Express train trip for a scenic view of the Alps. Hope the weather holds out.
Hallstatt (May 8- 10)
Second day of the Swiss Alps boot camp, our objective was to practice going down the mountains. So after packing our gear back into the car rental, we headed out from Salzburg towards the lake for the weekend. To practice going down the mountain as fast as you can, screaming as you gain speed, we practiced at the luge rides near Wolfgangsee. The first run down was tentative, the second faster, and the third trip as fast as we could go (at least for me - no brakes J ). Highly recommend that if you are ever in the area take the opportunity to try this!
By early afternoon we arrived at our lake destination - Hallstatt. This small lakefront community was everything that the tour book had promoted - and for us it was like having a mini-holiday within our holiday. We had glorious sun, spectacular views, and calm waters to gaze at over drinks. During supper along the lake front we were literally joined by a Japanese biker tour group, so I guess you can say we also ate at a biker bar!
On Saturday (day 3 of our boot camp), we hiked one of the numerous hiking trails - taking the scenic Echerntal Theme Trail. The trails were well marked (which was good as there were many options available), and we hiked up to the Waldbachstrub waterfalls and then continued on the path until we reached a perfect viewpoint of Hallstatt and the valley below.
After lunch, we rented one of the electric boats to cruise around the lake (3 speeds - stop, real slow and slow), and managed to capture more great shots of this scenic lake and town.
Salzburg (May 5 - 7)
After picking up our car rental in Munich, we made it out of the city with minimal problems - our biggest challenge was shutting off the automatic “German-speaking” GPS system in the Audi. I managed to get the language changed to English and eventually turned off about ¾ of an hour into our trip (and after many repeated requests to make u-turns to go back to the previously programmed destination J ).
We had heard about Lake Chemise from a couple we met in Dresden and decided to make a small side trip to visit this third of “Mad” King Ludwig’s castles - called Herrenchiemsee (a replica of the Versailles Palace in France) built on an island on this lake. After touring the few rooms that were finished (he ran out of money and died before it was completed), it was not hard to see why many considered him ‘mad’. This had to be far the most ornately decorated palace viewed to date - with a bathtub bigger than most people’s backyard swimming pool!
We arrived safely in Salzburg and easily found the location of our apartment once we had parked the car. We rented an apartment in the Old Town, which is very old (originally built in 1347) and the 4 flights of very old, rough and narrow stairways to the apartment were the longest we had to march up so far. The apartment door was also hilarious, as Scott almost had to crouch to enter it. However, the location is once again perfect.
Wednesday brought steady showers for most of the day. We had a ‘pleasant’ wake up call with the start up of renovations next door at 7:00 AM, so we headed out early (after a complimentary breakfast from our host at the best pastry shop in Europe - who warned us about the renovations). Our pictures don’t show it, but we wore as many layers as possible to keep warm and dry - fortunately the rain did eventually let up by late afternoon.
We rented an audio tour to guide us around Salzburg as holding the umbrellas, tour book, maps and camera all at once just wasn’t working. However, one word of advice - don’t cheap out and rent only one audio guide with two headsets - as we found it impossible to stick together amidst the sea of umbrellas and tour groups - and felt most times like kids tied together! We did enjoy our walk around town and shot many pictures of the Mozart’s Birthplace, toured the Mirabell Palace gardens and laughed at the one of the few scenes that the Sound of Music actually was filmed (see me dancing in the rain on the stairs - oops wrong song), the St. Peter’s Cemetery, and the Salzburg Cathedral.
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We wrapped up the day walking around Getreidegasse street, window shopping and admiring the various wrought iron signs, before attending a piano concert at the Mirabell Palace.
We awoke bright and early to the calming sounds of chain saws and pounding, before setting off on our first day of the “Swiss Alps” boot camp. Viewing incredibly clear skies and mountains, I started the day with a run (this place is perfect for runners), and then after breakfast we toured the Hohensalzburg fortress, hiked around the Monchsberg Mountain, climbed back down the stairs into town, and then crossed the river to hike up the Kapuzinerberg Mountain and up / down many stairs before stopping for our 5 o’clock cocktails on the rooftop restaurant. Along the way we also captured some pretty spectacular city view shots and the off course the locals and tourists playing chess.
Since we hadn’t climbed enough stairs today, we slipped out tonight to capture the full moon and the lights of Salzburg. We will miss this place….
