To start off this section, I’d like to say that I’ll leave some of the storytelling details from our adventure out for the sake of all the stories that I’m sure my Mom and Dad will want to tell. Consider this a short summary, with only some photos from that trip.
Our trip started in Vienna for a few days, but I've left out most of those photos since I'm sure my Mom and Dad will have more to tell about that than I will. Anyway, after our quick (maybe too quick!) whirlwind tour of Vienna, we left for Salzburg, a city I had purposefully saved for this trip.
Salzburg
Salzburg was a lovely city, with a wonderful old town and castle. While it was certainly crowded with tourists, it didn’t feel completely overwhelmed. There were some streets that were extremely touristy and a bit claustrophobic, but for the most part, one street away was a quiet courtyard or beautiful city view. The city straddles both sides of the Salzach River. Miraculously, much of its old town survived WW2 intact (well, except for the dome of the main cathedral) and remains in its original medieval form. The city castle is definitely worth a visit, even if it is very touristy. After visiting the city castle, we walked down to the Richter Höhe. It's a viewpoint close to the touristy castle but with only a few other people (maybe two or three) taking the view in. Of course, we went to many of the famous Sound of Music sights (I mean, who wouldn’t?). Funny enough, Sound of Music was a total commercial flop in Austria and Germany, something I’ve never understood. Many Austrians dislike when people bring it up because they think it's too cliché. Personally, I think it portrays Austria well and shows an independent spirit through Captain von Trapp. If anything, it’s inaccurate in that the Anschluss had more support than the film alludes to, but that’s probably a good thing.
After our day in Salzburg, we picked up the rental car the next morning and started our road trip through the Salzkammergut Lake District. The Salzkammergut is a spectacular collection of lakes near Salzburg, highlighted by picturesque churches and villages tucked up against their shores. On our road trip, we visited the towns of Fuschl am See, Sankt Wolfgang, and stopped by the Hallstattersee to take a photo of Hallstatt (we ended up not going for the simple reason it was too much of a pain to get to). Instead, we detoured to the town of Gosau and the Gosausee nature area. Lake Gosau (Gosausee) is an incredible high alpine lake about 20-30 minutes from the more well-known Hallstatt. We hiked to the upper lake, where we finally finished our hike at a hut on the far side of the lake that sold beer and small food (these are very common in mountains in Europe- especially in the Alps). Fortunately for us, we caught the owner just as she was closing up shop and bought three Radler (a mix between Beer and Lemonade- like a Summer Shandy) to enjoy the view of the bowl-like upper lake. Oh- and listen to the loud mooing of cows echoing across the rocks.
Maria Alm and the Steineren Meer
After an absolutely terrifying drive through the mountains in an utter downpour (thank you SO much, Dad, for driving). We arrived at our town for the week, the small village of Maria Alm at the base of the Steineren Meer (the Sea of Stone). The Steineren Meer is the border between Austria and Germany, with the German town of Berchtesgaden directly on the other side of the mountains. On the first day in Maria Alm, we got acquainted with the area and went on a hike from the town center to an Alm Hotel (this one was a beautiful luxury hotel called the Juferalm Hotel). To get up to the top of the nearby mountain, a gondola left directly from Maria Alm up to the top of the mountain. Maria Alm is part of the Hochköning ski resort area. The Hochköning area operates in the same way as the area where I skied at the beginning of my time abroad in Saalbach. The towns surrounding Maria Alm banded together to create the Hochköning ski company as a quasi-government entity that runs all the lifts in the area. As an aside, the area where I went skiing nearly six months ago was only a few miles from Maria Alm, and you could actually see part of the mountain on a clear day.
Berchtesgaden
The following day we traveled to the area around Berchtesgaden, in the very southeastern tip of Germany. Berchtesgaden had always been on my travel list for a long time, ever since I had heard my German teacher speak so highly of it and the nearby Königsee and Berchtesgaden National Park. A trip to Königsee involves a long 30+ minute boat ride across the lake on boats that seem to inch across it at a snail's pace. It’s a beautiful setting for a nice relaxing boat ride, although the tour company really does pack people in. Most people depart at the first stop of Sankt Bartholomä and don’t do much from there other than see the area and walk around shortly. We decided to do a short (ish) hike to what are now the remains of the Eiskapelle glacier at the base of Watzmann mountain. Sadly most of the glacier has melted away, and only a little remains. All along the length of the trail, there were memorials to fallen climbers whose time had come along the Eastern face of the Watzmann, one of the most difficult mountains to climb in Germany. After hiking to the base of the Watzmann, we traveled back to Berchtesgaden to check out the town. Despite being only a few miles over the border, it definitely felt a bit more like Germany. The Bavarian/Austrian accent was far less noticeable, and High German was more widely spoken (maybe that’s because there were so many German tourists there). The town also feels just a bit dirtier than Austrian towns on the other side of the mountains, although it still is a beautiful area and definitely worth a visit (no doubt in my mind there). I do wish we could've spent more time in a small town that we stopped at to get coffee and take some photos along the way to Berchtesgaden- Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden. It was the perfect little Alpine village with a beautiful church in the center and a bubbling creek streaming down from the mountains.
We decided to skip the Eagles Nest (Hitler's mountain-top retreat) because it seemed like it would sap a lot of time and not really be worth it. It was interesting to observe that much of the international tourism for Berchtesgaden centers around the Eagles Nest, and the remaining Nazi constructions in the valley. Berchtesgaden was Hitler's favorite place in his new Third Reich, and he encouraged all major party members to build houses there. Almost all of these homes were demolished by American troops after their capture of Berchtesgaden towards the end of the war (Thanks 82nd Airborne! – for all those Band of Brothers fans out there). Berchtesgaden was also heavily bombed beforehand by American and British bombers. Sadly, the main documentation museum (of the Nazi regime) was closed while we were there, which is a bummer since I really wanted to go. Anyway, our time in Berchtesgaden was short but wonderful. I’d love to go back there sometime and do more exploring.
Grossglockner High Alpine Road
Our last full day in the mountains was an awesome drive up the Grossglockner High Alpine Road. It’s an extremely windy tourist road (which means you have to pay to use it) that travels up into the highest mountains of the Austrian Alps near the Grossglockner. We had planned for Friday to be the day for the road since the weather looked good and clear. Let’s just say it was an absolutely spectacular day. I think some of the photos will probably speak for themselves. The road is super popular with motorcyclists (who were a bit of a nuisance) and bike riders. It’s one of the crowning achievements of cyclists in Austria, and the climb looked absolutely brutal.
A spur on the road leads out towards the Kaiser Franz Joseph Höhe- a massive outpost at the base of glaciers near the Grossglockner. It’s a crowded end destination, but once again not difficult to escape the crowds by simply walking away from the gift shop and restaurants. It was here, near the Kaiser Franz Joseph Höhe and the nearby Edelweiss Höhe, where I hoped to find the mysterious flower I had yet to see. Despite having hiked in the mountains multiple times now (remember the trip to Admont and Liezen a few weeks before) I had yet to see the flower. Once again, though, I had no luck spotting Edelweiss anywhere along the road.
The end of the road is the stunningly beautiful town of Heiligenblut (literally translated as Holy Blood). The town gained its name after a vial of the “real blood of Jesus” was gifted to the local King in the area by the leader of the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople. Mind you, this was over 1000 years after the death of Jesus. But I digress, relics really do relic in ambiguity.
Finally, we ended the day in the town of Zell am See. This is actually the very same town I wrote about in my 2nd post over six months ago. It was definitely a different experience in the summer, as it was packed with tourists. It’s still a pretty town, but I preferred it in the winter.
Our final day together was a nice, relaxing one. We ate a breakfast of sweet rolls and coffee, went for a hike, and then drove the rental car back to Salzburg. With a heartfelt goodbye, I said Aufwiedersehen to Mom and Dad and looked for my train to Innsbruck, my next destination.
Innsbruck
Innsbruck had been a destination on my list ever since I learned that a friend on the Illini Cycling Club was studying there for his master's. This same friend visited me in Vienna at the end of May and invited me to Innsbruck whenever I had the chance. Sadly I didn’t have tons of time in the city, only about 1.5 days, but honestly, that felt like enough time. Innsbruck is a beautiful city, but there really isn’t much to do in the city itself. It’s pretty darn small (at around 150,000 people- which for reference, is about that of Urbana-Champaign) and doesn’t have too many historical sites. The main attraction is obviously the nature surrounding it.
I met up with my friend Joey on the 8th of July after taking the train from Salzburg to Innsbruck and arriving in the evening. We walked around, had dinner, and then went back to stay at his place. The next morning we woke up to one of the hottest days of the year in Innsbruck, with temperatures reaching about 90 degrees. For Innsbruck, this was extremely hot, about as hot as it gets. It was partially for that reason that Joey suggested we hike up in the mountains, where the temperature would be a lot cooler. So we took one of Innsbruck’s tram lines up into the mountains to go for a hike. Innsbruck has a phenomenal tram system that whisks travelers into the mountains and offers epic views. After leaving the transit disaster of Salzburg, Innsbruck seemed to be much more organized and better planned. We departed the tram station at the town of Mutters and then took a cable car halfway up the mountain to the Mutterer Alm. We then hiked from the Mutterer Alm to the top of the nearby Nockspitze, which offered commanding views over Innsbruck and the Inn Valley. It was at the back section of the peak where I finally caught a glimpse of the legendary flower. There it was, after searching for what felt like weeks. I had finally stumbled across the small, white flower on a mountainside thousands of feet above Innsbruck. Edelweiss at last.
After the hike, Joey and I walked a bit around the old town of Innsbruck before going back to hang out with his roommates. The following day I said goodbye to Joey early in the morning and boarded my train to the Italian city of Bozen (Bolzano) on the other side of the Brenner Pass. From there, I would take a regional train to meet up with Samuel, a friend of mine from Vienna. That concluded my time in the mountains and my search for Edelweiss.
Thanks Nick for being the best travel guide and interpreter we could ever have wished for to explore Austria! Your ability to speak the language and navigate us around to sites, towns, hikes, photo opps, and most of all the bakeries was off the charts! We loved Vienna, Salzburg and the Alps - what an amazing country! It was a trip of a lifetime for Mom and I and seeing the pics and recapping it here brought a huge smile to my face. Can't wait to see you back stateside soon! Love you!
ReplyDeleteThanks Dad! It was an incredible trip and I'm so glad to have toured around Austria with you and Mom. Unforgettable scenery
DeleteThank you Nick for the memories. It was a trip of a lifetime. Your mastery of the German language really helped us see and experience places that we would never have been able to do otherwise. xoxo
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely stunning pictures, as always. Love hearing about your adventures and so happy you could experience some of it with your mom and dad. I would love to see edelweiss in person - so happy you finally found it!
ReplyDeleteThanks Aunt Dori! Austria really is a spectacular country and I'm so glad I chose it as the place to study abroad
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