Birchtesgaden and Werfen

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Although staying in Salzburg, the Austrian city which, | love, would only be used as a base camp to go exploring around the Alpine area. Having been here a few times before we had heard of the other excursions which can be done whilst staying in Salzburg (and i'm not talking about The Sound Of Music Tour'). We choose two such excursions that we organised from the hostel (YoHo) that would take us to Birchtesgaden on the 1st and Werfen on the 2nd located in Germany and Austria respectively.

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Birchtesgaden - Hitlers Eagles Nest

"...If you don't like heights, be warned and if you do like heights, i'm warning you again!..."

in the end we opted out of an organised tour and decided to make our own way to Birchtesgaden with 2 guys from Chicago that we met in the Irish bar in Salzburg the night before. Conversation was few and far between but we got on alright. Think my jokes about Chicago hadn't gone down as well as planned.

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To make our way to the Eagles Nest we had to train it across the boarder into Germany and then catch a bus from a car park outside the train station where others had congregated and were looking as puzzled as us. We were all unsure what to do now and i'm sure one confident person stood by a bas stop had acted as a magnet for all the not so sure tourists (us included).

As it transpired we were all in the right place and a bus eventually turned up to take us to the foot of the mountain where the Eagles Nest was situated. Here we paid our entrance fee and boarded another bus which took us up to the summit. If you don't like heights, be warned and if you do like heights, i'm warning you again! Its a white knuckle ride up the winding mountain roads and through narrow carved through the rock by very determined Nazis desperate to impress Hitler on his birthday who funnily enough suffered from vertigo. As you can imagine, Mr Adolf Hitler wasn't too impressed with this outlandish gift and hardly ever used his mountain getaway. He did however plan the invasion of Russia from up there and conveniently named the offensive 'Operation Barbarossa', after the hills outstretched in front of him.

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The views are worth the effort but don't expect much from the building. A miracle it wasn't destroyed fair enough but all there was aloud up there was a restaurant. Good food and beer mind you and the altitude gives it that extra kick!

Werfen - The Ice caves

The other excursion had a geological slant to it and was a trip to the largest ice caves in Europe. You know when you're in for a good time when you have to undertake a small hike to get there. The bus took us from hostel to mountain base and after being dropped off we made our way with a burly Australian guide up the well kept paths. The winded for a mile or two up steep roads until we finished our walk on wooded gangways and paths cut into the rock side itself which actually blended in quite well and didn't leave an obvious mark in the mountain.

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The entrance was a cave! What was I expecting? I dunno really. I was expecting handrails. Some form of building or hut and a stand of some sort. I was now relived that this wasn't to be. It appeared that we were indeed going into untouched caves full of ice, that I was expecting.

There were no lights in the caves and half of us were given a paraffin lamp and were quite nostalgic. The other one of the pair had to go without but remain close to someone with a lamp. The guide who was an odd young Austrian chap and he had a large coil of magnesium strip which he would have to relight every now and again and constantly thumb it through as it burnt down.

Our tour lasted a few hours and what little human evidence there was came in the form of the steps and handle that led us into the bowels of the cave system. The main cave was massive and gradually steepened as we went on. A wall of ice, glacial like flowed down the cave to where we started the tour like a huge ice waterfall and we stopped every so often to hear about their formation. It was more appreciated when the magnesium strip which was so bright lit up the immediate area of the cave and showed these wonderful blue ice formations.

Salzburg was a great vantage point for these trips and there is still one more id like to do and thats the tour to what gave Salzburg its name...the Salt Mines. Next time i'm in the area and no doubt I will be because i always make an excuse to come to Salzburg, I will visit the Salt mines. But for now Rhys and I must press on into Austria as Bad Gastein awaits our arrival...