Salzburg

Magnificent: Salzburg by night, looking up at the Hohensalzburg fortress from the river Salzach
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Like Vienna, Salzburg was also in the grip of UEFA fever when we arrived. The main squares around the Salzburg Cathedral were full of beer tents and big screens, in readiness for the evening matches. We wandered through the old town which was bustling with tourists and football fans, then headed up to the main attraction of the city: Festung Hohensalzburg or Salzburg Fortress. This was one of the most impressive castles we had seen so far, perched on a steep rock buttress overlooking the town, some of its outer walls were over 30 metres high. It was quite a hike to get up into the castle itself, though there is also a Festungbahn (railway car similar to that of Wellington in New Zealand) which we took advantage of on the way down. The views over the city and the gorgeous Austrian mountains were spectacular from the top of the castle. The guided tour around the castle interior was crowded but worth doing to understand the long history of the place. We got caught in yet another thunderstorm on the way back to the hostel, which had cleared enough by evening to keep the football fans happy.

Salzburg as seen from the fortress, the Dom cathedral in the foreground
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The next day we hopped on one of the local tour buses and headed into the mountains to see the Eagle’s Nest. This was Hitler’s mountain-top retreat completed in 1938. The access road, tunnel, lift and building were all completed by hand in 13 months in time for Hitler’s 50th birthday, though apprently he only actually visited a dozen times and never stayed overnight. The concrete road alone is an engineering marvel, only specially modified buses can take you up there. You had to be pretty brave to look over the edge during the ride. Unfortunately the weather didn’t come to the party once we got to the top and the only views we had were of the inside of a cloud. Afterwards, and oh so typically, the cloud lifted and we could see the Eagles Nest from the bottom of the valley when we got back down.

This was the highlight of Austria for us and is a definite must-see

Enjoying the early summer displays in the Mirabellgarten
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That evening we walked down to the Augustiner Brewery and spent a few pleasant hours in our first authentic biergarten (beer garden). The beer was served in ceramic steins and we even partook in some biergarten food, namely pork ribs and half a roast chicken. Good training for Oktoberfest later this year.

We had much better weather the following day when we took a train down to Werfen to see the famous Eisreisenwelt Holhe or Giant Ice Caves. Werfen is a picture postcard town nestled in the bottom of a spectacular mountain valley, overlooked by a thousand year old fortress. A short bus, walk and gondola up the mountain side took us to the entrance to the caves, which is literally a gaping hole in the side of a dizzying sheer rock face. We were both glad for the thermals and hoodies we had brought along, the temperature inside the mountain was a constant zero degrees.

A disappointing day to see the views from the Eagle's Nest
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The complete cave system stretches on for 40km, but the guided tour of the ice caves along specially built wooden platforms covered about a kilometre and took about 90 mins. The ice-cave system is largest one in the world which is open to the public. Our group was given handheld oil-lamps and the guide used magnesium coils to light up the cave, there is no electrical lighting system. The frozen stalagtites, stalagmites, glaciers and waterfalls were just amazing. This day trip was the highlight of Austria for us and is a definite must-see.