Salzburg and the Ice caves

up nice and early as someone left the curtains open and the room was full of sunlight

headed off and wandered to the station and booked our tickets for zurich, i'm doing the night train so i get to see something of zurich and shell and alice decieded to follow in the morning.

bought shell some hayfever and back pain killers from this illegal looking little shop, through a half opened window, complete with bars.. in this little back street,... we didn't half feel that it wasn't quite right!

headed back along through mirabel platz where we stopped at the tour office and cancelled some previusly booked tours and headed along through the old town, before heading back to the hostel. where we found the tour campany people already waiting for us... it wasn't at 1330 it was at 1230! that they were picking us up

grabbed some warm clothes and beanies and gloves and ran back downstairs and jumped in the mini van.

took abou 1hour to get to the caves located south east from salzburg itself in werfern.

they're called Eisriesenwelt Hohle (Giant ice caves)

from the car park we had a brisk 30min walk up the side of a hill to the cable car, which was really steep... but had great views..

then after the cable car there was another steep 30min walk up to the entrance of the cave. ( i almost died! haha)

had to pay an extra 15 euro to go up to the caves, which no one was told about, and no one was very happy about either

waited around at the top and the tour of the caves started at 3pm

got all rugged up with warm jackets, beanies, and gloves, feeling ridicullously silly as it was 40 odd degrees outside!

headed down to the entrance, and people were given lanterns to hold, somehow the three of us missed out completely and no one else around us got one either... mmm

then the door to the caves was opened and this rush of freezing air came bearing down on us, putting out most of the freshly lit lanterns out.

it was rather cold inside! but after everyone in our group had entered the cave the closed the door and we began our incline up into the caves themselves.

had a few rest stops so that everyone could catch up and admire the views of all the amazing ice formations. and as we went up they got better and better. there were 1400 stairs in total.

just a few, really!

and when we'd stop the guide would burn magnesium (gives off a large amount of light while it's burning.)

which really lit up the cave, and gave the best views... got a few nice photos...

alice was so cold about half way through, and couldn't feel her feet...

the way down was a little freaky, going down hundreds of steep steps in almost complete darkness... as still there was no one remotley close to us that had lanterns...

someone dropped their camera half way down, and you just hear it slidding all the way down in the darkness.

after that everyone was that little bit more careful as we made our way slowly back to the entrance.

the warmth of the sun hit us as we stepped out of the cave... mmmmm

and everyone stood like basking lizards while we regained feeling in our limbs!

haded down the winding mountain trail.... going down was a lovely change then to walking up it, way easier to admire the view too.

had a drink at the cafe before boarding the cable car back down the mountain.

boarded the bus and had a sleepy ride back, before being rudely awoken in the middle of nowhere and told to get off the bus...

we were like.... what?

It was ok though as it was closeish to our hostel, she hadn't just got sick of us and kicked us off.
we must have been sleeping when she told us that they were going to do that.

head back to the hostel to change out of our warm clothes and headed into the old town in search of the famous Nonnberg Abbey (Stift Nonnberg) made famous of course as being the place we first encounter Maria in the movie the sound of music. armed with a map from the hostel it looked relatively simple to get to, however where there was meant to be a path in a certain spot... but do you think we could find it.... nope.

but then suddenly just as we'd given up it apperared! well stairs appeared, and as they seemed to be heading in the right direction we climbed up them with the antisipation growing with every step!

and we found it!

Alice and I were certain it was the right one but shell wasn't quite as sure, but we did the whole reinactment of the children banging on the gate calling for maria!

it was hilarious and we did get a few odd looks!

but hey when in salzburg!

walked along the side of the hill, and decided against heading up to the fortress, and kept walking along the section we were on.

came across a graveyard that looked like the one from the movie too!
and debated amongst ourselves as to whether or not it was the same one..

headed down some different stairs and continued following the base of the mountain.
ALice had been reading her Lonely planet guide and it suggested visiting Augustiner Braustubl. this year round oktoberfest beer hall and gardens, where they serve beer brewed by the local monks.

it's also Austrias largest beer hall. so we plodded along and along on the winding coblestone walkways. found the street it was meant to be on and walked along, and just found a hotel.
and we were like mmmmmmmmm

decided to venture in to see if it was in there, and wandered through these empty corridors and stairs, before finding and almost empty beerhall...

mmmm still wondering if we were in the right place we had a look around, before finding the stairs leading down to the biergarten, and we found everyone!

it was teaming with people all out for a sunday afternoon drink, managed to find an empty table and sat down to soak up the atmosphere.

we each got 1/2 steins of the monks brew (tasted pretty good), got to scoop it out of the barrel ourselves too, which was kind of cool!

before grabbing some wedges to munch on.

about 15mins later the thunder rolled in followed closely but a torrential downpour which saw everyone grab there belongings and head inside.

just in time too as once we were inside it began to hail!

inside there were tiny shops around the actual hall, all selling austrian foods, deiced to be brave and tried a traditional austrian dish, which ended up being these sausage things in pasta on a huge bed of saurkraut. interesting...

ended up getting a pizza to share too which was yummy too...

Poor Alice got the brunt of many of the males attention!

the guy sitting behind us came up to her and actually poked her in the side, before going about his intended business, and the one on the other side spent the entire time just staring at her! hahaha

it was amusing

finished off our beers and headed back out into the cold in search of ovften wamer apfel studel (it was 10pm by now...)

decided that we'd head back to the other beer hall we'd past on the way as we knew they had it on their menu.

there was a lovely sunset with a lightning display in the distance as we walked along the river...
wandered back through the old town and had noticed a random austrian man following us... ( i might add we were singing sound of music songs at the top of our lungs!)

for him to stop and then start talking to us giving us all this information for things to do etc... i think he must have thought we were really drunk as i suppose you don't normally hear sober people singing loudly in the streets!

but we are mad!
but we weren't that drunk buddy!

lost him and headed up into a darkend alley ( we weren't asking for trouble were we...)

and headed into the other beer hall. we were about to sit down when the waiter comes up to us and says drinks only... we were like "strudel?"
and he's like "no... kitchen...closed"

however after taking possession of our map he proceeded to mark down a few places that might still be serving desserts! which was relly nice of him. however after realising that they were right back in the other direction that we'd already come from we admitted defeat and headed back to the hostel.

but came across another pub on the way with a nice biergarten and headed inside to see what was going on in there, and they had all this strudel on the bench...

their kitchen had closed however, but we batted our eyelids and said "strudel" and what do you know we got our ovften warmer apfel strudel in Austria!
YUM!
(even though i picked most of the bigger chunks of apple out! :O)

headed back to the hostel full and happy, and headed in to bed.

had to laugh at about 4am this random guy (he was about 15) walks into our room and goes to hop into bed, and almost wet himself when he realised there was somone already sleeping in there...

and i of course say... "i think you're in the wrong room mate!"
he was out of there like a shot!
hahahaha

there a bonus to being a light sleeper, and near the door!