Salzburg & Day Trips

The wonderful experience of visiting Salzburg started while approaching the airport for landing. The views from the low altitude give the glimpse of what to explore in the next 4 days at the second Austria trip! The Airport is a small one, but well connected with good public transport and as the city is small, mostly it is punctual. Bus#2 runs regularly to the city centre. The first task to do is to buy the Salzburg Card. It comes in several options but the best buy is for 48h. Normally, in my EU city explores, I don’t buy a city card. But Salzburg is a different case. They (cleverly, I would say) keep the entry price for every must-see-sites quite expensive and thereby the tourist will eventually buy the city card to make it cheaper; of-course as card covers several other options (for free or reduced price), it shows out to be cheaper and effective. But, if you see the card cost alone, it is expensive (36Eur for 48h per person) but the city management cleverly advertise it as an effective way, huh…by the way, the price is higher in peak season (May to Oct) where more tourist visit! The Salzburg card gives free access to most of the public transport. There is no card swiping needed in buses, showing the card to the driver is enough (belief is vital in German speaking countriesJ). A detailed planning is important to effectively use the 48h of the card to see and go around Salzburg.

We landed by noon and after lunch plus regular hotel check-in processes we started our trip taking the bus#25 direct to Untersberg. It’s a 35 mins travel from Hbf through the Salzburg city center. Once the bus is out of city limits, the Austrian Alps beauty can be admired and the travel doesn’t look long enough to reach Untersberg. The bus stop is just opposite to the Untersberg Mountain cable car. The cable car cost is free with the Salzburg card! Within 10 minutes from the lower terminus at 456m, we reached an altitude of 1,776m i.e. 1.3kms upward travel in meager 10mins. In between, the gondola was stopped for the opposite one to pass by and for a minute we were hanging in mid-air and due to the wind, the gondola was literally swinging… an experience never to be missed. On a wonderful clear day, the views will be amazing but we weren’t that lucky. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our time and returned after an hour. The last trip from top is at 17h and shouldn’t be missed at any chance ;-)

While returning from Untersberg, we scanned the Salzburg card pamphlet and found the Salzach Schifffahrt (Salzach River Boat Cruises), as the weather was not cooperative for us (rainy). We caught the last ferry drive at 18h; just have to collect the ticket by swiping the Salzburg card. The captain was jovial and entertaining, he spoke good German and English and detailed few history on the old city (as we understand both, we could compare his narration). The explanation of the river depth and the boat were good and cruising in the shallow water opposing the strong current was a nice experience.

The 40mins cruise ends up with a waltz around, four quick circling on both directions, which was a bit fun! A display showing New Delhi at 7422kms, reminded us the distance we are away from our India! This cruise tour is not a must to do at Salzburg, but when the weather is not good + you own a Salzburg card + 1h to spare go for it! Salzburg is a city where they close most of the attractions by 18h, so a better planning is needed. After our ship tour, the weather got better a bit and we roamed around the old town catching up eat outs for a nice dinner.

We planned our next day entirely for Salzburg site seeing. As the weather was forecasting rain for the forenoon, we visited the Haus der Natur, with the Salzburg card, it’s free. The aquarium was big and informative.

We especially enjoyed the care they take to breed rare fishes and the new-born baby fishes. The section that were informative for us were: Christian Doppler Exhibition, Space Hall, journey through the human body. It’s a nice place to spend a day when you go with kids (to teach/show them). With several other attractions in Salzburg, I won’t say it’s a must. If you have the Salzburg card and ~1-2h time to spare, please visit in for a good informative experience.

Just round the corner, there exist a toy museum (with the Salzburg card, it’s free), we just peeked into it but was not that attractive for us. Came out, weather was improving and took the Monchsberg Lift (with the Salzburg card, it’s free) for the spectacular panoramic views of the fortress, old town & new town. Although we did not go, a museum and restaurant are there as well to explore.

We walked towards the Kapitel platz to go to Fortress Hohensalzburg. As the name says (hohen means high) it is a beautiful high point for wonderful panoramic views of Salzburg and the Alps. Before taking the cable car, at the Kapitel platz watch out for the giant golden ball, it is to replicate the Mozartkugel (Mozart ball is a small, round confection made of marzipan, nougat and dark chocolate). Mozart is everywhere in Salzburg, the city takes much pride of him! A funicular behind the Dom took us up to the castle. Salzburg card covers the funicular and the castle entry.

There are two ways to explore the castle – A & B. We took the A option for the exteriors walking and enjoyed the four view points of the beautiful medieval castle. At one view point, we saw a field below to find only one house in the middle, the executioner's residence. I recollected that once it was believed to live anywhere near the executioner was bad luck!

We enjoyed the time up the castle, especially the inner courtyard and surroundings. Luckily the Sun peeped out just in time for us to enjoy the beautiful panorama of Salzburg and Alps.

We had a quick look into the marionette museum where we saw puppets showcasing events of Salzburg’s regional history, such as the peasant uprising, shipping in the days of the archbishops and mozart’s extensive travels. There was a devils door which when opened created a scare and was really funny to play with it.

Came down with the funicular and tasted a home made vanilla dumpling at the Kapitel platz. It was really tasty and the seller shared the info that its a a family run business for four generations. We remembered our Indian way of family run business and customer approach. Wherever you go, the local market in the world doesn't change much whatever be the globalization! Strolled towards the old town and caught the bus #25 towards Hellbrunn palace. It is on the same route to Untersbergbahn, but we couldn’t combine yesterday as the last water trick show was at 1730h. Nevertheless, it is not a long travel to worry about!

With the Salzburg card, the entry to Schloss Hellbrunn & Wasserspiele (Hellbrunn Palace & Trick Fountains) is free. It is one of the must to do while visiting Salzburg. The water tricks bring so much fun and I am sure the childhood inside every adult is brought out. We got the English speaking tour with a waiting time of 45mins. It’s a good idea to pick the tour ticket and use the same to go around the palace while waiting for the tour. The palace is not that big, with the audio guide one can tour it in less than 30mins. The park is also nice to relax a bit before the water trick tour starts.

The tour guide explained that the fountains and water jets are almost exactly the way they were intended 400 years ago. It is a 40 mins tour whereby we walk across wells, fountains, ponds, five artificial grottos, sculptures and statues. It is a Baroque Disneyland, created for the sole purpose of entertaining the immensely rich Prince Archbishop of Salzburg and his guests. There are hidden jets of water around every corner and for sure everyone in the tour group will become wet or drenched as the water jets comes out suddenly from the invisible  nozzles. Tip: watch out for the small copper coloured nozzle and try to stay away from itJ. The most interesting for us (out of many) were the

Roman Theatre: a marble table with seats that are part of a hidden fountain. When the Prince Archbishop hosted a dinner in Hellbrunn Palace, nobody was supposed to get up from his or her seat as long as the Prince was still seated - which explains why his chair is the only one not targeted by the fountain

Bird Call Grotto: ten different bird calls are heard from several niches in the wall coating, all created by water flow!

Mechanical Theater: 18th century life style is shown by means of water-driven puppets. A total of 141 mobile and 52 immobile little figures demonstrate all manner of professions and trades of that period, again all driven by water mechanism, amazing!!

After the fun filled 40 mins tour, we were left out at the park. After strolling around we returned to Salzburg by catching the #25. There is a zoo nearby (again covered in Salzburg card) but we were not interested and also didn’t have time to spend. As said earlier, most of the attractions were closed by 18h and hence roamed around the open old town, residenzeplatz, getreidegasse (most exclusive shopping lane in Salzburg, while window-shopping, don’t forget to notice and admire the old style signs of profession outside each store).

Time for dinner and per TripAdvisor recommendations stepped into L'Osteria (Dreifaltigkeitsgasse 10). It was typical Italian restaurant and as we haven’t reserved, we couldn’t find a nice seat. As the weather was good, we picked delicious pasta and walked just across the road to the river side to have a wonderful scenic dinner. I have never seen such super large Pizza (XXXL size) and to try that booked a table for next day! After our river side dinner, walked-in to enjoy the desert Sachertorte at Café Sacher. As we enjoyed its rich taste at Vienna few years back, it was a nostalgic feeling to taste it once again treating the fantastic day at Salzburg.

On the next day, the plan was to cross the border, back to Germany from Austria to visit Salzbergwerk Berchtesgaden (salt mine) and Königsee (Kings Lake). Salzburg is just 14 km away from German border and due to the EU regulations you don’t even notice that you crossed a country border. We took the Bus 840 from Salzburg Hbf (the bus stop is a bit outside, so watch out and verify beforehand) to Berchtesgaden. The Salzburg card is unfortunately not valid for 840 as it goes outside Salzburg jurisdiction. But after bit of browsing, I decoded that buying a Tageskarte (All Day Pass) for 11Eur per person (the trip to Berchtesgaden covers 5 zones from Salzburg: 2400, 2405, 16, 20, 22) is economical as it also cover the local bus to Königsee from Berchtesgaden hbf. It was a clever decision and I would recommend to check at http://www.svv-info.at/en/tickets-and-fares/casual-riders/regional-fares for all the info and plan appropriately. The Bus 840 timings are not regular and hence a good planning is necessary to define the time to spend at salt mine and Königsee. Otherwise, there is a train to return from Berchtesgaden but the Tageskarte won’t be valid. So better plan properly for this day trip from Salzburg!

We got down at Berchtesgaden Salzbergwerk (4 stops before the Berchtesgaden hbf). It’s a short walk to Salt mine entrance and again it was a good plan to go first in the morning that helped us not to wait for a long time in queue (when we returned after the tour, we saw a waiting time of 2h). The entry ticket gets a 20% discount with Salzburg card and thereby we used it for the one last time as our 48h validity got expired by noon!

While visiting Salzburg, a tour of one of the salt mines is a must. Salzburg gets its name from the abundant mountain salt (salz means salt in German) export done for several centuries. Salt was considered precious and termed as middle age’s white gold (salt  was the only means to keep meat fresh at that time due to no electric refrigeration techniques) and it helped to raise the economic power of Salzburg and surrounding region. The famous salt mines are at Berchtesgaden, Hallein and Hallstatt, a trip to one of the three is very informative and also memorable. The specialty of the tour is to wear a miner’s jump-suit/coverall (as in photo) to get the full effect. It was exciting to enter the underground mine where they maintain the temperature constantly at 12°C. The tour route is well organised which starts with a beautiful underground tunnel train drive for 650m with instructions not to poke legs/hands out to prevent injury! After a 5mins ride, the tour guide explained the history about a salt cathedral built more than 250 years ago and a laser show shows how it would have been to be completely filled with water up to the ceiling. And then comes the best part: a 34m wooden slide, it is exactly the same as how the miners will slide in their daily work life! It was fun and thrill and we enjoyed it. Then the tour shows a short informative movie to learn more about the mountain salt along with the standing model illustrating current mine stage and how salt is extracted. Taking samples by drilling ascertains the minimum rock salt content. After confirming required content, the salt is extracted using so-called "wet mining". The freshwater is fed into the mountain, which dissolves the salt from the composite rock in a period of time and produces brine (salt water with 26.5% salt) which is pumped out to industry to produce mountain salt. The informative film informs that several million years ago ocean water was trapped between the hill formations and turned into a big salt basin within the mountain rocks. They estimate a 1.5 km salt reserve with proven deposit depth of 500m below the valley floor and presumed deposit depth of 1km below the valley floor.
The salt content in the mountain is approximately 50%. Mountain salt is rich in its nutritional profile as it contains a high number of essential minerals. While tour walking (all underground) tasting the salt from the tunnel rocks (that are of different colors) confirmed the high salt content!

After a short walk, we reached the multimedia room, to read and understand a lot about salt and its importance. Then another wooden slide about 40 m down to a beautiful mirror lake. The lake shows the model of how an artificial hollow space is developed to store fresh water in the mountain which gets converted to brine later. The ceiling reflection on the water surface resembles as a mirror and a short drive on it with a wooden shaft in pitch underground darkness was memorable.

The 1h tour ends with a direct elevator moving 23m up to the land surface. The tour is memorable for us as we learnt a lot about mountain salt. The German engineering is mind-blowing to know: In 1817, the first Berchtesgaden brine ran in the wooden pipes to Bad Reichenhall (20kms away) and from 1905, a 14 ton pump (made ​​entirely of bronze) running without any disruption till today!

After the wonderful tour, walked back and caught #840 to Berchtesgaden hbf. The bus#841 to Königsee is also not that frequent and hence plan to catch it accurately, otherwise there is nothing much to do at the small at Berchtesgaden town centre. After a 10mins bus travel, we reached the Königssee. It is a tourist hub drawing more than half a million visitors every year and hence we saw scores of souvenir shops. The lake was not visible initially and after a 10 mins walk, a sudden turn to the right, we saw the lush-green-transparent-cleanest lake of Germany!

It resembles a fjord set in the Bavarian Alps. The lake Königssee is 8km long, 1.25km wide and lies 602m above MSL. There is a dedicated sightseeing boat service. The boat goes to Salet with in between stop at St. Bartholomä. As I planned, got the return tickets to Salet and got down at St. Bartholomä. Since 1909, all the boats are powered by batteries; this preserves the cleanliness and silence of the lake!! Keep in mind that ONLY the trip from Königssee to Salet (via St. Bartholomä) and back lasts about 2h. The boat travels in appreciative speed, but the distance makes one way travel approx. 1h. We enjoyed the lush green water ferry and before reaching St. Bartholomä the boat stopped at a silent location which is surrounded by sheer rock walls. The captain then played a trumpet to demonstrate the echo which is heard to reverberate up to seven times. The trumpeter played along with the returning sounds so it sounded like as many as seven players, really an amazing experience.

St. Bartholomä was so beautiful with a charming church tower, steep ice covered mountain and green clean water! We strolled around the banks of the lake and relaxed by appreciating the nature’s beauty. After a wonderful time, we caught the next ferry to Salet.

There were numerous waterfalls, which brings all the water from the melting ice from the top and the views were really amazing. From Salet, we made a 15 min walk in the dedicated path to Lake Obersee for a deep tranquile view of a 470m high Roethbach waterfall at the background! In 1978, this area was declared as national park and hence plants and animals are protected in their natural environment.

Took back the ferry from Salet to Königsee at 1710 (note that the last ferry is @1740, no idea why so early) with so many tourists trying to enter at St. Bartholomä and they were stopped to enter due to overcrowding. It was good to plan a direct trip from Salet to Konigssee to avoid the last return rush. After doing some shopping at Königsee comfortably caught the #841 and the last bus #840 at 1815 (@ Brechtesgaden hbf) to Salzburg. Actually, I wanted to cut short sometime at Königsee and wished to go to St. Sebastian Church (at Ramsau, seems photographers love to click riverside church), but couldnt do it due to the mesmerising beauty of Kings See. There is always a next time though!!

Brechtestgaden alone may need 3-4 days to properly explore and enjoy. Not to pack all in one day, we skipped the other places of tourist interest (Nazi Dokumentation Center, Eagle's Nest, Sommerrdelbahn Slide (wish to do it one day), Jennerbahn Mountain. At Salzburg our restaurant reservation was ready and enjoyed a beautiful Italian dinner to finish a lush-green-mountain-salty day!
The penultimate day is another special day of driving a rental car in the Salzkammergut (means estate of the salt chamber) region. With its numerous lakes and mountains, the Salzkammergut offers the best relaxed vacation spots and beautiful scenic drive routes. I booked a rental car at SIXT (at the Airport). A very helpful and friendly front desk accepted my request for an upgrade and I was delighted for the chance to drive a Mercedes-Benz SLK-Class -  sportlich (sport), leicht (light) und kurz (short).

Enjoyed the drive in Austria autobahn and no big difference than German ones! This link will be of immense help, if you plan a day trip from Salzburg to Hallstatt by car/public transport: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g190441-c194495/Salzburg:Austria:How.To.Get.To.Hallstatt.From.Salzburg.html though the whole journey shouldn't take more than 1.5h, we took several breaks enjoying the wonderful views of the Alps and lakes and finally arrived at Hallstatt after 3h.

A visit to Hallstatt would be mesmerizing on a good, clear day. Also, Hallstatt is prettiest in the morning, after midday some of the mountains are in shade and indistinct. It is a very small place so if it's raining we will run out of things to see and do quite quickly. Our day’s weather was not rainy/low clouds (unfortunately not with a sunny blue sky), but we had several interim bursts of sunshine to enjoy with. Hallstatt is a car free small village which is another big Asian tourist hub at Austria. Out of the 10 tourists we saw, 7 were from Asia and it showed how the village is advertised by the Asian (Chinese mainly) tour operators! As I planned, I parked the car at the south side parking and went to the small island to get the complete view of Hallstatt.

Other than the village, ice cave, 5 fingers, salt mine are worth a visit. To cover them, it needs a full day at Hallstatt and as we decided to enjoy more nature views, we skipped them for another trip with bright blue sky! A walk in the village shows the richness and ancientness of the place. I read that the salt trade made this an important village dating back to 800 - 400 BC.

Had a short break enjoying the local dishes at the village prettiest main square. The ferry terminal (that brings in tourist using the public transport from the other shore by a ferry) is nearby and had a quick visit to the bone house. The bone house is collection of elaborately decorated skulls with the deceased's name, profession, date of death inscribed on them. As there is so little place for cemeteries that every ten years bones used to be exhumed and removed into an ossuary, to make room for new burials. The waterfalls in the middle of the village and its sound added charm to the moment. After such wonderful time, took the car and planned the GPS to Gosau!

It was 20 mins drive from Hallstatt but absolutely fantastic driving experience. Several zigzag mountain climbs with a speed limit of 80 and 100kmph. Enjoyed driving the SLK in perfect mountain road. Before reaching the southern end of Gosau, we paused on a greenish valley, never seen such a picturesque valley and paused (was not planed at all, that was the benefit of car to break the trip anytime) to enjoy the views.

The Vorderer Gosausee is a a lake with a scenic view of the Dachstein (second highest mountain in the Northern Limestone Alps). The reflection from the ice caped glacier on the lake was spellbound. Also, the early summer green growth reflection added the glamour and I wanted more time to spend, enjoying the nature. There were very few tourists and it added more value to the moment.
Enjoyed a lovely evening coffee at Gasthof-gosausee with a painting like view from the window. The weather was not pitch perfect for us but to visualize how it will be on a sunny blue sky day, enjoy the panorama view at the site https://www.panorama3d.at/gasthof-gosausee/panorama
Got a chance to test my German skills with an old local man at the restaurant. Managed to maintain the communication, though there were several Bavaria phrases. He shared his experiences of visiting the glacier and the tough temperature conditions. We discussed about Mt.Everest too and was exciting to know from the local on Austrian mountain expedition.
Thanks to the coffee at the restaurant which kept me alert for the return zigzag drive back. As planned we then reached St.Wolfgang. Its a small town that faces west and enjoys the afternoon sunshine. Even though it was not sunny, but bright, we enjoyed the glorious views and had real fun in watching the entire village in front.

Then we drove to Mondsee to watch another beautiful lake in Austria. Mondsee is one of Austria's last privately owned lakes till Aug 2008! We then drove back to Salzburg after a wonderful one day road trip in the famous Salzkammergut region. It would have been more fun, if the weather would have been more sunny and cooperative. Nevertheless, no real regrets, there are few moments in life that cant be planned to perfection, and enjoying those unexpected moments makes life more interesting!

On our last day at Salzburg, we had few hours to spend before departing to Airport. As the weather forecast was excellent (finally), I planned it for the colorful Mirabell gardens. The entry to the gardens is free and its a horticultural masterpiece and popular backdrop for photographers. With the Sun shining, enjoyed some colorful moments at the garden. Its better to go early in the day to avoid the tour groups. Once they invade from Asia (a group has min 30 people), the whole opportunity to enjoy the colorful arrangements with castle in alignment gets muted!

After spending 3 hours, returned to hotel and picked our luggage to catch the bus #2 back to Airport. The weather was so good, bright blue sky and we could even see the cable car wire hanging to the Untersberg and the cross at the top of the hill from the Airport entry. It probably was an invitation from nature to visit Salzburg with the blue sky weather and enjoy it again!
If you plan for a Salzburg trip, Sound of Music (SOM) tour will be the first one to pop up. Being a non-Hollywood follower, I was not that fascinated on it, but was curious to know what the film SOM actually portrayed to bring in so many tourist. Watched the trailer in YouTube, and Tamil movie Shanti Nilayam came to mind, who copied whom is another blog story ;-) point is: if you haven't heard about SOM, don't go for it! Proper planing per your wish and likes is key to visit Salzburg and surroundings, otherwise you will end up seeing a small Austrian alpine town without appreciating its real beauty. Thanks for reading till the end and dont forget to add your comments. Enjoy every moment of life, take care!