Day 13: Salzburg and Innsbruck, Austria

Thursday, August 19 2010

My alarm clock rang at 6.45. We got ready and went for breakfast. It was 3€ for all you can eat. I was still sick so in addition to coffee, buns, cereal and juice, I got some tea and put a Finrexin in it. 

Our room had like a corridor with doors to the toilet, bathroom and the room with all the bunk beds. When we came back from breakfast, we just went in the room quickly with the beds and the lockers. The smell was disgusting!!! Ugh the room smelled so bad!!! We quickly took our stuff out of the lockers and dropped it all in the corridor. And that looked like this. 

And the end result was this. We had to take the sheets off the beds too. We packed, returned our room key and left our luggage to the common corridor lockers. We had to ask the front desk for directions to the Untersberg.

The bus stop was in front of the Mirabell castle. We took bus 25, and it cost 2.10€ to go to the Untersbergbahn, where the cable car went to the top, the Geiereck peak. The mountain's elevation is 1972 meters (6 470 feet, Google converter), but the Geiereck peak is at 1300 meters (4 265 ft, Google converter).

It takes about 10 minutes to go up with the cable car. It costs 20€ to go up and down. It would've been 11€ or so one way, but the climb down would've taken 3 hours, and we simply didn't have the energy or time to do that. And I'm sure we would have gotten lost!!! 

I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves. This was my favorite thing about this trip and I would go back a hundred times.  You can click on all the pictures and see them in full size.

The numbers here are not the same as listed in Wikipedia, oh well... 

Going up

.

We wandered around the mountain for a long while. It was really cold and windy. In the beginning it was really foggy up there too. The weather was clearing up when we were returning to the cable car station. There was a restaurant there and we ate and had beers.

We went down with the cable car eventually, took a bus back to town, I fell asleep, and we had to find a grocery store before our train to Innsbruck. Of course, we couldn't find the closest one to the hostel, we went really far and had to hurry back to pick up our luggage and find our way to the train station. 

Our train to Innsbruck left 16.02. This time it was very easy to find a compartment (for 6 people). I'm sure we went directly to the right end of the train where these places weren't reserved. We shared it with an English couple. We nearly missed our stop since we didn't really hear the announcements. There was something wrong with the speaker in the compartment.

In Innsbruck we found a tourist information and got a map from there and asked for directions to our camping site, Natterersee Camping. BEST CAMPING PLACE ON EARTH!!! Pictures will be in another post. The map would've been 1 euro, but the old man selling the maps was kind and gave it to us, and gave us bus schedules too. We could take the first bus 4143 to Natters, and then change to a 4168 to the Camping place. One way ticket was 2.30€. The bus goes from town to Natters more often, but from Natters to the camping site every two hours.

Brain's side-note: we also asked the old man at the tourist info if it would be possible for us to buy some sort of a travel card to save money on bus tickets. He didn't know, and sent us to the nearby kiosk. We went there and they didn't know either, and sent us to the post office. The young boy working at the post office said that he's not from Innsbruck and so doesn't know anything about tourist cards (I thought that was a very strange excuse). He sent us somewhere else, but at that point we just gave up and went to the bus stop.

We arrived at the camping place and were in awe of the place! It's so fancy looking! It cost 62€ for the two of us and a tent for two nights. The bathrooms and showers were brand new. They had sinks to wash clothes in, and dish washing sinks. The kids playground was amazing and the artificial lake too! So awesome! 

Brain's side-note: after we checked in, one of the employees took us to our spot on a small car thingy (kinda like a golf cart). He was very weird, maybe Italian, kept talking funny, and I didn't really understand half of what he was saying. He seemed to be friends with everybody at the camping site and was very very talkative. Oh, and we ate our first real Austrian apple strudels at the restaurant there :)

The campsite quieted down around 11 pm and that's when we went to sleep as well. It wasn't cold this time really. 

-Pinky

Day 12: Vienna and Salzburg

Wednesday, August 18 2010

Our morning routine had to be changed. Our alarms rang 6:45, and we had planned on leaving with the 9.12 bus, but we didn't make it. We went with the 9.22 bus. Packing the tent wasn't complicated, it was just annoying. The inner tent was difficult to fold neatly. Also that had been directly on the ground, and the ground was wet, you get the picture. And we had to get rid of all the spiders, crickets and ants off of it too. 

Our train to Salzburg left 10.20 from Wien Westbahnhof. We there early enough and I went to get some tea and since I was still feeling like I was going to get sick, I added a bag of Finrexin, a cold medicine to my tea. Brain thought that the combination is disgusting.

The train was really packed this time too, and luckily we were there early enough to get good seats. The trainride wasn't very eventful. 

Salzburg Hauptbahnhof was under construction and it didn't look like it was going to be done anytime soon. It took a while for us to find an info place where we could get a map of the city.

Originally we were supposed to stay at a camping place, but we got an email from there while in Berlin, that they're fully booked and we can't go there. I had also gotten sick in Vienna, so we decided we'd stay in a hostel. We started walking to the wrong direction first, luckily not that badly, but still too much. I was tired and sick and getting cranky. I apparently was very cranky while we were walking to the hostel. I noticed it myself, but I didn't think others would, and Brain did. I thought I managed to hide it so well!

Our hostel was YoHo International Youth Hostel in Salzburg. We hadn't reserved anything and just went there. The 6-bed mixed dorm cost 22€/night/person. Including us there was an Asian girl and boy and two guys who we never saw awake. They weren't in the room when we got there, they must've been in town somewhere cause they got there around 2-3 am. And we left before they woke up the next day. Our dorm room had a bathroom and a toilet, and they were separate too!

YoHo hostel pictures (all clickable)

 We left our luggage in the room lockers, and left for town. We walked onwards on Paracelsusstrasse and turned onto Franz-Josef Strasse. There was a little cafe there, we got coffee with toasts. I got an Italian toast (mozzarella, tomatoes, olive oil and lettuce of some sort) and a caffe latte. Brain got a Greek toast and a caramel macchiato.  MasterCard wasn't accepted. Dun dun dun

Since it was already afternoon, we wanted to climb up to the Hohensalzburg fortress. We walked around Schloss Mirabell. I wasn't very impressed with it, after all, I've seen Sanssouci and Schloss Schönbrunn. This was in the very middle of the city, and it wasn't as grande as one would assume a Schloss to be. (Although there were sculptures of unicorns, which I thought were cool! -Brain)

  Schloss Mirabell (clickable)

We crossed the river and walked through the old town towards the Hohensalzburg fortress, but didn't spend too much time in the old town. We did buy a couple postcards, one for our friend's fiance who was fighting in Afghanistan at the time. The address was strange, it had no country on it. We assumed it was going to England first, so we just got stamps to England..

Hohensalzburg Fortress

Views of the fortress and around it

A funicular up to the Hohensalzburg fortress would've cost over 10 euros, so we decided to walk up the hill. It didn't take too long, and it wasn't very difficult, although it was a very steep hill. At one point we noticed we had taken the shorter way, which meant a whole lot of stairs. Once we were up high, there was a gate and entrance through that cost 7,40€ and that included the entrance to the courtyard, the museum in the castle, and some audio guide. We didn't want that, we just wanted to get to the courtyard, so we didn't pay the 7,40€. We turned around and started walking on the Mönchberg, which is the mountain/ridge the fortress is located on. 

To get back to the old town we had to climb down a whole lot of stairs, and some were quite scary too! We saw St.Peter's Abbey. It was very different from Vienna's St. Peter's. The Dom was near too and we had a look inside. It was very pretty. The center isle was probably as long as the one in Tuomiokirkko in Tampere, but this was wider and higher.

Brain's side-note: I don't think I'd ever seen a real-live nun before the visit to Salzburg, or after it, for that matter. But in Salzburg we saw several: one was riding a bike, and there was one on the bus as well. 

Mozart's birth house on Getreidegasse

We walked to Getreidegasse, which is one of the main streets in the old town. We saw the yellow Mozart's birth house. We ate at an Italian restaurant. Our waitress had the craziest hair, I tell you! Small pizza was 5-6€ and bit 8-9€. We thought we ordered the small pizzas, but I guess we weren't clear enough. The check had some funny numbers on it. Pizzas and drinks together were supposed to be less than 20€, but the total cost was 23€ or so. After dinner we bought Mozarts kugeln, they weren't that good. It had been raining a little the whole day so we walked back to our hostel and hung around there.

More pictures of Salzburg taken on the Mönchberg. You can click on all the pictures to see them in full size.

Stairs we had to climb down to get to the Old Town from the Mönchberg.

The Salzach river was a weird green color. Like all the rivers in Austria...

-Pinky

DAY 11: Vienna

Tuesday, August 17th 2010

We woke up fairly early and took our time getting ready. It was very cold in the tent during the night, and the morning was quite cold as well. Not very nice. We got breakfast from the nearby supermarket and didn't realize to read the fine print, so ended up having to pay about 7€ each. Furthermore, our credit cards were not accepted once again. We didn't bother changing our purchases for something cheaper though, just paid with cash and went back to the camping site to eat.

After breakfast and all that, we went to the amusement park that houses Vienna's Giant Ferris Wheel. We didn't go on the wheel itself though, because it was expensive. Instead, we rode the smaller Ferris wheel and then an insane ride - Prater Turm. It was 117 meters high and very scary. I was afraid that my glasses would fall off the entire time, because it was so windy up there (up until last week, Prater Turm was the scariest and coolest attraction that I'd been on). That amusement park was nice, and there was no entrance fee to the park itself, so we just strolled around for free :)

The view of the Giant Ferris Wheel (and the rest of the amusement park) from the smaller Ferris Wheel

Prater Turm. Yikes.

On our way out, we passed a restaurant that seemed affordable, but since we were low on cash, we walked out of the amusement park and started looking for an ATM. Found a bank, took out money and went all the way back to the amusement park. And of course then we noticed an ATM on the amusement park grounds. Oh well, too bad. At the restaurant we both ordered Wiener Schnitzel and when the waiter asked if we wanted salad, answered affirmatively. The menu sounded like the salad was included. The portions were quite giant, but very good. Especially the salad. I'm proud of us both for finishing all that meat though. The waiter brought the check, and it was more than we'd expected, but I guess he just added the service fee. Or then the salads weren't included in the price, but again we weren't bothered to find out.

Wiener Schnitzel and salad. If we hadn't said "yes" to salad, it would've just been two pieces of meat!

We left the amusement park and had to buy new Vienna cards because our old ones had expired. Then we took the U-Bahn to the St Marx cemetery. An S-Bahn would've taken us much closer, but we would've had to wait for half an hour for one of those. We didn't spend much time at the cemetery because it was starting to rain. We did manage to find Mozart's grave though. It wasn't too fancy, just a small statue there.

Pinky felt like she was coming down with a cold and wanted a cocktail or a hot beverage. We couldn't find a cocktail bar, but settled for Starbucks. I got an Ice caramel latte macchiato (I think I'd developed a small addiction to those, lol).

The final sight we wanted to see in Vienna was Schloss Schönbrunn. I must say my expectations weren't all that high. I thought it would be just another palace. The palace itself looked like it was made out of cardboard - not real. We walked around to the other side of it and I think my jaw actually dropped. The garden was absolutely gorgeous, and there was a hill directly behind the palace with some sort of a viewing station (the Gloriette, according to Wikipedia). And an awesome-looking fountain. Naturally, we had to climb up the hill, which wasn't bad at all because there were no stairs to climb. The view from up there was unforgettable. The whole city, or at least a very large part of it, was visible and it was all very picturesque. From what I'd seen that was my favorite place in Vienna. Here are some pictures, all of which are clickable, btw.

The view of the garden behind Schloss Schönbrunn

The Gloriette and the Neptune fountain

View of the city from the top of the hill

The garden was quite nice too

Schloss Schönbrunn main entrance

The zoo and the labyrinth were already closed, because it was past 19.00, so we didn't get to see them. I suppose that is just something I'll have to see on my next trip to Vienna then!

It got late and quite dark, so we headed back to the camping site. We thought it would be a good idea to make our own rum 'n' coke's to help Pinky beat her cold. So we did just that - there was nothing else to do at the camping site in the evening anyways :P

-Brain

DAY 10: Vienna

Monday, August 16th 2010

We woke up very early (at 6:35, to be exact) and got ready to leave. We wanted to catch the 9:10 train to Vienna and it was already at the station when we got there. It's a good thing we were fairly early, because we were able to get seats. Quite a lot of people had to stand. The 2.5 hour train ride went by quickly without anything out of the ordinary.

We got off at the Wien Meidling station and got ourselves maps of the city. Crappiest maps so far. Very annoying to use - metro map on one side and city map on the other side. My map tore almost completely by the end of our stay. We found more or less where the Wien Camping Süd is located on the map, and couldn't quite tell if it was too far to walk. But first things first - we went to McDonald's and got ourselves some light and healthy lunch (cheesecake and ice caramel latte macchiato for me :P) After that we were off. We found the right street and quickly realized that the Camping Site was way too far to walk to, so we took a bus, which stopped right across the street from it.

My lunch :)

We took care of the payment and other formalities, and set up our tent:

Ta-daaa! All set.

We bought 24-h Vienna cards, which would allow us to travel unlimited for 24 hours, and headed for the Old Town. Stephansdom was pretty cool, although a large part of it was covered up due to construction work. We went inside, and the Cathedral wasn't all that special - same old Gothic style Cathedral :P

Street view

We then started looking for a place to eat and finally settled on a Cafe-Restaurant Frauenhuber. Turns out it's the oldest cafe in Vienna, and Mozart's last public appearance as a pianist took place there in 1791. It wasn't even all that expensive, and the food was good. And the waiter was very polite and gentlemanly. After dinner we walked to the Hofburg Imperial Palace, and walked around that whole area. It took us quite a while, and there was a lot to see. We saw the Rathaus, the Parliament Building, the Museum of Natural History, Museum of Art History... There were a lot of beautiful buildings. The University of Vienna was awesome, I felt a bit jealous. The negative side was that most of the Old Town smelled like horse poo, because there were horse carriages going around constantly. 

Hofburg Palace and The statue of Prince Eugene of Savoy (same dude as in front of the Buda Castle!)

Museum of Art History

After we'd finished exploring the Hofburg Palace grounds, we walked to St Peter's Church. It looked quite plain on the outside, so I didn't expect much. I was stunned when we walked in though. Stephansdom was boring in comparison. And people were actually there to pray - the whole place was silent. 

 St Peter's Church from the outside and from the inside

By the time we left, it was getting late, so we decided to start looking for a grocery store, to get breakfast. Turns out most stores close around 7 pm, ant we didn't find a single store that would be open 24/7. There was a large supermarket right by our camping site though, so we decided to go there first thing in the morning. At 20:30 we got to the bus stop and took a bus to the camping site. It was already quite dark. The reception at the camping site was already closed when we got there. There wasn't really anything we could do, especially since we only had a crappy flashlight with us and it was dark, so we just went to sleep. It was 21:30. I tried remembering the last time I would've gone to sleep that early and couldn't :D

-Brain