Austria & Surroundings. Part 2. Oct, 2019

Our autumn journey continues. Ahead of us are a beautiful waterfall, historic castles, mountains with a fascinating history, a German lake with delicious fish, the beauty of the Czech Republic, and a gold medal for my favorite photographer. You can find the first part of our journey here 

Day 5. Waterfalls and a Castle

And once again, we hit the road. Our next hotel was going to be near Salzburg, and along the way we stopped to see the beautiful Golling Waterfall. It’s less famous than the spectacular Krimml Waterfalls, but that’s actually one of its advantages — there weren’t many tourists, and we could quietly enjoy the beauty of this place

And now our journey took us to Fortress Hohenwerfen. The fortress castle has stood on the hill for more than 10 centuries. We wandered through the castle’s halls and hidden corners and visited the exhibition rooms dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci 

Then we watched a falconry show. We saw eagles, kites, falcons, and other birds of prey flying freely 

I’ve already mentioned how early everything closes in Austria. Well, on this day, we had quite an adventure. My husband, as usual, got so carried away with taking photographs that he completely lost track of time. We went through one of the castle gates, and when we came back to head toward the funicular that would take us down from the castle to the parking lot, the gates had already been locked with a bolt... And there we were, in the forest, on a hill, outside the walls of an ancient castle. Luckily, it wasn’t dark yet, and we were wearing comfortable shoes. So we made our way down the hill through the dense forest.))))

By evening, we arrived at hotel Gasthof Fürstenbrunn. The hotel is conveniently located right next to a bus stop, just a 15-minute ride from the center of Salzburg. The room was quite interesting, with the shower and sink right in the room 

The owner, a Serbian man, spoke Russian, and the restaurant served delicious food, beautifully presented as well. And here, our daughter saw keys like these for the first time in her life))) She absolutely loved locking and unlocking the room. 

Day 6. The Eagle’s Nest and Lake Königssee in Southern Bavaria

We have a busy day ahead of us. We’re heading into the mountains — or rather, to one famous mountain with the Kehlsteinhaus, also known as the Eagle’s Nest, at its summit. In 1936, at an altitude of 1,834 meters, three thousand workers built the house as a place for entertaining diplomats and for Adolf Hitler’s summer retreats. As I understand it, part of the mountain is in Austria, while the other part is already in Germany. We park the car and transfer to a tour bus, which takes us almost to the foot of the mountain. We walk through a tunnel, ride up in a golden elevator, and suddenly we’re at the top of the mountain. The views from up here are absolutely breathtaking

And then we headed to Lake Königssee in southern Bavaria. It is known as the Royal Lake and is considered the cleanest lake in Germany. We took a ride on a silent electric boat to fully enjoy the beauty of this place 

And like most of the other tourists, we also enjoyed some smoked trout, caught right here in the lake and then smoked by Benedictine monks 

Day 7. Salzburg, Austria

After spending so much time surrounded by nature, we decided to change things up and head to Salzburg the next day. I’ll say right away that we really liked Salzburg. It’s such a warm and cozy city. We enter the Mirabell Palace & Garden. The palace is famous for the story of a beautiful but tragic love affair. The Catholic Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, despite his position, entered into a relationship with a woman and built this palace in her honor. They lived together in the palace and even had 15 children! Which was quite a lot even by medieval standards. Later, the archbishop was imprisoned in a prison tower for his sins, where he spent the rest of his days.

We especially loved the Dwarf Park 

And the palace gardens themselves are beautiful as well

We cross the pedestrian bridge covered with love locks and find ourselves on Getreidegasse — Salzburg’s main historic street. The street is famous for its distinctive signs. The buildings on this ancient street are several centuries old. They have been rebuilt and restored many times, while the signs have remained unchanged. They once decorated the shops of craftsmen and merchants, and today they adorn souvenir shops and modern stores 

And here is the main pilgrimage site for tourists — Mozart’s Birthplace. The great Wolfgang Mozart was born here in 1756 and lived here for the first seventeen years of his life. Nearby are numerous souvenir shops and pastry shops selling Mozart chocolates 

On Alter Markt Square, we stop at the famous Fürst pastry shop, where you can taste the special, handmade Mozart chocolates. The wrapping of these chocolates is distinctive — blue and silver 

Our next stop is the Barometer. This meteorological column was put into operation by the Salzburg Meteorological Service way back in 1888. Over the years, the instruments have never been repaired, yet they can still boast accurate readings even today. We continue wandering through the squares and narrow streets of old Salzburg, make our way to Mozartplatz, and see the monument to Mozart 

You can also take a horse-drawn carriage ride here 

And now we’re standing in front of Salzburg Cathedral 

After visiting the cathedral, we step out onto Kapitelplatz, one of the largest squares in the city. It was a weekend, and there was a large market taking place in the square. We grab a quick snack — a piece of dark bread topped with melted cheese 

From here, you can see Hohensalzburg Fortress. Within its fortified walls lies a small town of its own, complete with museums and even a theater. It’s time for coffee and cake 

We also stopped by various little shops. One of them particularly caught our attention — a Christmas ornament shop 

And these are real festive eggs, beautifully decorated, each one so different and unique 

Day 8. Český Krumlov

We’re heading to the fairytale-like Czech town of Český Krumlov. The reason we decided to come here is that the town is only about an hour’s drive from the Austrian city of Linz, where my husband had been invited because he had received a gold medal at the largest and most prestigious photography competition in the world. Distances like this don’t stop us, and we really wanted to see Český Krumlov.

The town is situated on the Vltava, the main river of the Czech Republic. The town itself lies on one bank, with the Hluboká nad Vltavou Castle on the other. It was built back in the 13th century. We rented a room at Ubytování Zámecké Schody, practically at the foot of the castle.

Interestingly, the entire old town is paved with cobblestones, and parking is only allowed outside the town. So tourists drag their suitcases, noisily bumping them over the stone streets :) The town is beautiful both early in the morning and during the day

and at night

We admired the town from above and wandered around the castle grounds 

We popped into all these charming little shops 

We loved the huge gingerbread cookies. Iris was absolutely delighted by the marionettes. First, we bought her one, but then it turned out that one marionette was lonely, so another one joined her as a friend 

We also visited the Marionette Museum. Around 300 puppets live there, and in the evenings, you can watch a puppet theater performance. We absolutely loved it! 

A classic tourist attraction — a visit to the Museum of Torture. Our child’s bravery disappeared after about five minutes... 

The food in Český Krumlov was delicious 

Day 9

And now it’s time to return to Austria, to the city of Linz, where the awards ceremony for the best photographers of 2019 was taking place. There were 125,000 entries submitted to the competition by photographers from 120 countries around the world. My husband was invited to the ceremony as one of the winners. It was wonderful to see his work displayed in the galleries and to attend such a beautiful awards ceremony 

Day 10

The next day was my birthday, and it was also time for us to head back to Vienna, because our vacation was ending the following morning and we were flying home to Toronto. We decided to skip breakfast at the hotel. After so many days, we had had enough of it, even though the breakfasts everywhere had been quite good: eggs, porridge, cheese, cold cuts, various buns and croissants, jams, and, of course, juice, tea, and coffee. We celebrated my birthday with delicious pancakes in the morning

We set off toward Vienna Airport. We didn’t have any special plans for the day, but decided to simply stop along the way if we saw something interesting. And something interesting didn’t take long to appear :)

High up on a hill, we spotted a castle. We turned around and drove straight toward it. It turned out to be Wildberg Castle. As it turned out, the castle is privately owned, but we were lucky: the owner happened to be tidying up the courtyard and kindly invited us to take some photos and have a look around the castle. Today, the castle is in need of restoration, but, as the owner explained, after some renovations it could once again host celebrations and special events.

The owner told us a few more interesting things, but since we don’t understand German at all, we could only guess that the castle had once played an important defensive role and that, after one of the victories, some German king had been imprisoned there... Or perhaps everything was not quite as we understood it. But that’s what makes an ancient castle so fascinating — it has secrets to keep...

We continue our journey toward Vienna Airport and spot signs for Melk. I remember that it was one of the many places on our original list, but eventually got crossed off. Well, it’s simply impossible to see everything in one trip. But now we have an hour, so we can make a detour into the Danube town of Melk and take a look at its local gem — the famous abbey 

The abbey is a magnificent complex of Baroque buildings. We didn’t have time to go inside, but I know it’s beautiful. There’s a Marble Hall with an altar made of pure gold, a library with a large collection of ancient manuscripts, a terrace with a beautiful view over the Danube, and a stunning church, which we did manage to take a quick look inside 

By evening, we arrived at our hotel, Life Hotel Vienna Airport. It was a great new hotel — inexpensive, spacious, clean, and just a 10-minute drive from the airport. The next morning, we flew back to Toronto, where a beautiful and still-warm autumn was waiting for us...

And we would remember this wonderful trip for a long time to come