With the rain still falling on our final morning in Friedrichshafen, we said 'Auf Wiedersehen (pet)' to the Wolks and set off with Winni, who had very kindly offered to take us all the way to Salzburg. He had intended to take us via the scenic route high in the mountains, but with conditions as they were it wouldn't have been worth it. He missed the turning anyway due to telling us another story... We stopped for a quick 'Imbiss' in Innsbruck, before ploughing on to Salzburg.
The relentless rain didn't seem conducive to sightseeing, so we hunkered down in Die Weisse Brauhaus, where we met Sam's friend David, a mature student living in Salzburg
. The drenching conditions were not to deter David, who was eager to show us as much of Salzburg city centre as possible in the short time we had. Highlights of this magical mystery tour were unsurprisingly the ones indoors - the superb Cafe Sacher with its delicious 'Sachertorte' and fine decor, and the monastic Augustiner Braustubl where beer was served in a ceramic 'Mass' and old market stalls served up rustic regional specialties. Despite the miserable conditions and short time, we could sense that this was a city well worth returning to in better weather.
David had big plans for our journey to Munich, which he wanted to make as scenic as possible. First stop off the bus was the Salt Mine Berchtesgaden, an interactive tour which began with a small mine train hurtling into the mountain, using miners' wooden slides to continue the descent, taking a boat trip across an underground lake and a funicular to lift us back up out of the depths. Slightly gimmicky but fun. We were quite pleased with our gift shop purchase of authentic salt, 1kg for 1 Euro
.
Next stop was Koenigssee, a beautiful natural lake surrounded by steeply rising flanks of mountains up to 2700m. We had a cracking lunch here in a traditional lakeside tavern, which included freshly-caught fish. The Koenigssee is noted for its clear water and is advertised as the cleanest lake in Germany. For this reason, only electric-powered passenger boats are permitted. We hopped on one of these and made our way to St Bartholomew's, a pilgrimage church located on a peninsula in the lake. An entertaining moment of this boat ride was stopping to allow the captain to play a flugelhorn to demonstrate the echo created by the sheer rock walls surrounding the lake. The low clouds enshrouding the mountains created a uniquely eerie atmosphere.
We had enjoyed this scenic route to Munich but it was far from direct. Our onward journey was not helped by train cancellations but we eventually reached our destination at around 11pm, where we finished the day with the most traditional of German dishes, a late night Turkish kebab.
A Salzburg soaking...
Monday, September 19, 2016
Salzburg, Austrian Alps, Austria
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2025-02-06