The 4 hour train trip to Salzburg passes through some beautiful
mountains and pretty villages. Tip of the day: Just because road names are very
very similar does not mean they are the same – make sure your hostel is
actually on the map you’ve cadged from the information centre! After wandering
the streets of Salzburg
I managed to get directions from a helpful concierge at a lovely hotel where I
wished I was staying, and finally arrived at Meininger Salzburg, a hotel/hostel
that is big, new and modern, but with a very soulless “hotel” atmosphere.
Keeping in the caving theme I caught the 8am train to
Werfen, where I caught a shuttlebus up the steep mountain to catch the cable
car to visit the famous ICE
CAVES. A 20 minute walk
from the cable car took me to the mouth of the cave, where I watched thick
clouds rolling in to cover the previously sunny mountain top over the space of
about 30 seconds. You can see how easy it would be to get into trouble hiking
the goat paths they call tracks here! The ice caves were AMAZING and, with only
7 of us in the group, we were really able to enjoy the spooky cathedral-like
atmosphere in the caves. Luckily I’d been warned to wrap up warmly, as the
outer 1km of the 40km cave system is consistently below freezing point,
regardless of the time of year. The exchange of cold and warm air as the door
is opened creates a rushing wind that can reach up to 90kph! We entered the
cave and marveled at the massive ice formations as we climbed 700 steps to top
of the icefall. I thought the old lady in our group was about to have a heart
attack and wondered how they get people out in an emergency…slide them down the
ice?
I decided to brave the narrow paths & scree slopes of
the mountain and walk down instead of catching the cable car. I nearly changed
my mind on the way up when looking down at the steep, unbarriered drops; but
once on the path it wasn’t so bad (you just really really don’t want to slip),
and it felt pretty cool standing on the scree slop looking out at the view as
the cable car passed overhead. Back in town I had time to visit Helsingor
Castle where I attended the falconry show, where I even got to watch a fight
between to massive eagles over a piece of chicken. Pretty sure it wasn’t part
of the show.
The following day was wet and miserable and all I wanted to do
was stay in bed. But you can waste a day on holiday so I braved the hideous
weather and headed out to explore the city. My first stop was “Mozart’s
Geburtshaus” (or birthplace) where he spent the first 25 or so years of his
life. It was interesting to read about his life: composing from the age of five and court musician at seventeen; and see some of his instruments and music scripts. After
hiding from the rain for a couple of hours I wandered back through the narrow
pedestrian streets lines with shops and a surprisingly busy fruit & veg
market where I bought a chocolate prezel. I then visited the Dom (cathedral)
and St Peter’s catacombs; a small tunneled cavern tucked away against a hill.
By the time I’d visited the free Salzburg
Museum the sun managed to
fight its way through the clouds and it had turned into a lovely afternoon. I
stopped in a café in the square for a coffee, ordering “eine latte bitte” but
was instead brought a large beer…apparently my accent made it sound like “eine
radler beire”…really? Eventually I got my coffee and then walked up to the
castle, Festung Hohensalzburg where I did a little audiotour and checked out
the “puppeting museum” (a little creepy to tell the truth). Tip of the day:
Don’t advertise a “Torture
Museum” when the castle
never actually had one and the current one only consists of a room containing
shackles.
